Monday 26th
Up early for a briefing at 7:30 am, then off to the Serbian border. However, as we started up our engine, we noticed that it wasn’t idling smoothly - it was occasionally rising as if someone was tapping the throttle. After a bit of consultation, we decided to carry on rather than hold up the convoy, so after a quick fuel stop, we headed towards the border, where we arrived at 10am.
After going through the initial passport control, we parked up in the compound, and started the paperwork to leave Hungary.
An hour or so later, and that paperwork was done ,and we were clear to leave the EU. However, in the meantime, another truck in the convoy was also having difficulties, so someone had gone off to get a spare fuel filter. We had another look at our problem, and decided that there wasn’t much we could do about it, and that we would carry on into Serbia when the other truck was running. Whilst we were waiting, we had a nice cooked “breakfast” (although by now it was past midday).
Eventually the other truck got going again, and we went through another checkpoint where they checked the back of the trailer (all OK), then we left Hungary and the EU, and entered no man’s land.
A couple of hundred metres later, we stopped again for another passport check, to enter Serbia. This was completed quickly, and we parked up again, for the remaining paperwork to be done.
A few more hours later, and we were successfully into Serbia, at 18:15 - 8 1/4 hours after we’d arrived, and only a couple of hours of that delay were due to mechanical problems - you guys think Tesco are bad…
We started off down the road, through Subotica and Novi Sad. However, as time went on, our problem got worse - as well as the throttle blipping, the engine started cutting out completely. The first time was whilst climbing a long hill; I stupidly tried to change gear as I slowed down, but that meant that the splitter disengaged the first gear, and as the engine was completely dead, the revs could never match, so I was left with a box full of neutrals. I started to feel the clutch go heavy, then the power steering went as well, so I had to wrestle the wheel to keep on the road. After a couple of attempts, the engine restarted on the key, and we were off and running again.
This happened a few more times along the road, so we initially pulled into an earlier hotel than we had planned, but since they had no food available (it was now after 11pm), I decided that I could cope with the problem and get to the planned hotel which was another 30 km down the road.
As we started up the next hill, I radioed the rest of the convoy to tell them to stay out of my way as I wanted to keep up as much speed as possible up the hill, which they duly did - we only weighed 20 tonnes, whereas every other vehicle was pretty much at maximum weight, so we sailed up the hill almost on the limiter whilst everyone else had to slow down
.
A few more engine deaths later, and we finally arrived at the hotel we’d been recommended. The recommendation turned out to be pretty poor, however, as the place was an absolute dump - the rooms were dirty, the en-suites were stained dark brown and stank badly, and we decided to use our own bedding. We had a vaguely acceptable meal (although I didn’t eat my chicken as it didn’t look cooked), and settled down to sleep.
260 km covered.
A better one for Ben - this time in the parking area at the Hungarian/Serbian border:
![](http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/MrFlibble1/kosovo_autumn_2005/IMG_0088.jpg)
Parked on the Serbian side of the border whilst the paperwork is being done:
![](http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/MrFlibble1/kosovo_autumn_2005/IMG_0089.jpg)
Looking back at most of the rest of the convoy as we’re leaving the Serbian side of the border:
![](http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/MrFlibble1/kosovo_autumn_2005/IMG_0091.jpg)
Approaching the first Serbian toll booth; we didn’t pay any road tolls in Germany or Serbia ![:wink: :wink:](https://emoji.discourse-cdn.com/twitter/wink.png?v=12)
![](http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b285/MrFlibble1/kosovo_autumn_2005/IMG_0093.jpg)