For a while now, Conquest Wildman has been involved in providing much needed aid to certain charities by supplying reconditioned computer equipment, mostly donated by customers, to places as far away as Ghana. Recently, Rob Hammond, the driving force behind Conquest Wildman’s charity initiatives, embarked on an epic journey to Bosnia to deliver a cargo of computers and other aid as part of the Balkan Aid Relief Foundation. Driving an ex military Land Rover 101 Ambulance in convoy with a number of other vehicles, to make sure the aid goes directly where it needs to, the following is a diary of the trip from Rob as they went along their 2400 mile journey...

Day One
Well we’re finally in France. It seems to have taken a long time to get here but so far we’ve had a puncture on one of the trailers, a water leak on another vehicle and a hold up on the sea France ferry due to a collapsed ramp at Calais, leading to all the ramps being closed for investigation!

It’s 01:45 here now and we’ve travelled about 10 miles inland and stopped in a roadside layby/car park to stop for the night. Plan is we’re off at 6am tomorrow morning.

Surprisingly enough despite being freezing cold outside it is quite warm and comfortable in here almost so that it would be nice to open the window or the roof hatch! It is a bit cramped though! I’ve just got enough room to wedge the laptop between myself and the roof and type with the keyboard resting on my chest, and due to slight misjudgement of size of me verses size of window (from cab to rear) means I’m having to take off coat, boots and excess layers and go in feet first, at least its nice and cosy though!

Plan is a long days travelling tomorrow and Sunday, Croatia (Zagreb) Monday morning.

Day Two
We’ll they weren’t joking, up at 6 and on the road by 7am. Convoy is run with almost military precision! Had a good night in France (well what there was of it anyway). Spent about 14 hours travelling at speeds around 40-55mph, in a 101 that does seem to make time drag! We had two stops, one at lunchtime where I had a chance to practice my French, I wont be doing that again, and the second stop where an entire kitchen was assembled, used and dismantled in the middle of a snowstorm in less than an hour all by the side of the road would you believe! These guys have definitely done this sort of thing before.

We crossed France, into Belgium and then on into Germany. Seemed like a very long day, but was rounded off nicely with a few German beers in an Autohoff where we stopped off for the night. Starting to seem a bit colder - but still quite comfortable in the ambulance, in all honesty it may be a little cramped but I suspect its warmer than either Neil or Keiths roof tents! The other guys are making me feel very welcome on the trip and we’re working together very well.

Day Three
Slept well again although morning seemed to roll around much too quickly. Got up around 6am and then we’re off again trundling through the snow towards Austria. Self inflicted headache wore off within a couple of hours of being on the road!

Stopped off briefly for food where I had some sort of yellow rubber slices with egg in a sandwich. Paid so much for the sandwich that I felt quite justified in taking enough single servings of UHT milk to last me the rest of the trip, white coffee whenever I like from now on!

The weather did deteriorate at one point to the extent that Barry was having trouble keeping the trailer on the road, but the 101 just ploughed on as if nothing was happening, so much so that I got asked to jump start a lorry at the garage and tow a vehicle off the motorway, reminded me of that Freelander advert, but nobody asked anything about a tiger! We had to stop for the weather in the end and wait for the plough to come through before continuing.

Tonight we’re in a service station just over 50kms across the German/Austrian border. It’s -7 outside, and +3 inside and not snowing any more, so hopefully we’re through the worst of the freak weather now until we hit Croatia/Bosnia itself sometime tomorrow. The plan is that we stay at the old metal factory army base at Banja Luka and use this as our base to distribute the aid. Also very much looking forward to meeting the people from the Genesis project now and the recipients.

Day Four
Woke up in Austrian car park, very cold indeed! Gas would not work, so despite having acquired milk yesterday still didn’t get coffee this morning, shame! Things didn’t sound hopeful either as it turned out we were heading for a place called Ice Station Zebra, that sounded even colder! Good job I used the facility to have a shower last night as there was no way I was having one this morning.

Conditions much better for travelling though despite the cold, and we crossed Austria into Croatia in good time today, although we were held up at the Croatian boarder for a good couple of hours for “paper work”. We got through in the end and made good time into Croatia, heading for Zagreb. During the day we stopped off at a roadside cafe. The food was good, but more language problems lead to my being served with the equivalent of three main courses!

The others booked into the Hotel but I had to stay with the vehicles and sleep in the back again as it wasn’t really safe to leave mine unattended all night as it was not secure.

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