Sunday 12.53 pm
Have arrived in Serbia ok, but we had to pay 100 euros for car insurance! On the road to Bulgaria, weather sunny. Starter motor dodgy but worked ok today..

Saturday  11.38 pm
Have driven across Slovenia and now into Croatia. Lots of rain. Just stopped for the night in a cheap motel near Zagreb. 

Saturday  05.26 pm
At Austrian border now buying a motorway vignette. Germany very hot and sunny, Austria torrential rain!

Saturday  01.00 pm
Having lunch in Karlsruhe. Car going well. Tested cruise control on autobahn and works well at 100 mph. Have now done 650 miles and making good progress!

Saturday 30.05.09     02.28.am
Have stopped for the night just outside luxembourg. Arrived at 3am local time.

We are now all set and ready to leave on Friday 29th.  Meanwhile, here’s some news on how the rest of the convoy who left on the weekend have been getting on:

Azerbaijan football pilgrims reach Budapest

May 26 2009 WalesOnline

FIVE cars from a fleet of nine being driven by a group of football fans on a charity crusade across Europe have arrived in Hungary’s capital, Budapest.

The group of fans heading for Baku, Azerbaijan, is now being led by Marc Colclough, of Conwy, North Wales, after original organiser Neil Dymock’s vehicle broke down in Dover on Saturday morning.

The group, now being followed by two separate groups of Welsh fans aiming to reach the Azeri capital in time for Wales’ World up qualifier on Saturday, June 6, arrived in Budapest last night after driving through France, Germany, Austria and Slovakia, since leaving Wales on Friday.

The ageing VX Cavalier, VX Astra, Toyota Corolla, Isuzu 4×4 & a Rover, have completed the first part of their “Baku or Bust” charity pilgrimage, without problem.

So far, more that £10,000 has been raised for the Gol charity and the group will be delivering presents for orphans across Eastern Europe on their way to the Caspian Sea.

On his latest Twitter feed, Mr Colclough said: “I’ve just got back from downtown Budapest, where I was riding 120kh/h through narrow streets. Worth every penny of 15 Euros.

Finally, yesterday Neil managed to obtain the visas for us from the Azerbaijan Embassy in London.  However, as he was heading off to Dover last night I had to meet him to collect our two passports before he left the country! This is how I found myself driving from Watford at about 10pm to meet him outside a pub in Slough for him to hand me two passports in a dark car park. (This is not how I usually spend my Friday nights..) 

Neil mentioned that on leaving the Azeri Embassy he had popped into a nearby Mcdonalds for a coffee, and to check that each of the 27 passports he had collected had been correctly stamped.  He spread the passports out on the table to count them and was promptly spotted by a passing policeman who demanded to know which government agency Neil was working for, and that if he couldnt tell him then the Fraud Squad were going to be called pretty sharpish!  Luckily after weeks of dealing with Soviet bureacracy, Neil was able to remain diplomatic and talk himself out of trouble without getting any passports confiscated..

Neil and his 2 co-pilots had successfully found the Slough rendezvous point in their London Taxi, which was all ready for its voyage to the Caucasus, and I wished them well as they trundled off down the M25 for the ferry.  Sadly, the Taxi (with 234,000 miles on the clock) must have got cold feet, as I have received an email this morning to say it has expired at Dover, and is now on its way to the nearest scrappy!  (I assume the 3 passengers have now squeezed into some of the other bakuorbust fleet).

Fingers crossed our car will at least make the ferry when we head off in a week’s time!!

This looks promising…

Wales hoping of securing visas for Azeri World Cup clash

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Things are really hotting up now, although we have been assured that our visas will be ready by Friday.  Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the Wales team get theirs sorted in time!

Visa row threatens Wales’ Azerbaijan World Cup qualifier

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We’re in the news! Although not necessarily for the right reasons… However we are fairly sure that this situation will be resolved before we leave, and if not then it will just add to the fun

Wales fans hit by visa problems

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