Europe by van Day 17

How the mighty have fallen. If this was Race Across the World we’d be out.

All went well crossing into Serbia and finding our Subotica site. We had lunch and set off in the van with the help of Google to the Art Nouveau town centre. The road was dug up so she re-routed us under a low bridge which was fine but just round a tight bend came another, much lower, and before we could stop it took off the front of the roof. Ouch. Much debris and a big hole.

We headed back to camp where a young man working in the wood got a ladder to have a look. He indicated he’d come back to help try us fix it to make it as watertight as possible when he had finished work. A few hours later he and another man came back and knocked out the broken glass, then using what we hope is strong plastic, and Mr C’s gaffa tape, stuck it down. Mr C and they communicated by gestures and the site manager spoke a little English. They went to the shop for 2 more rolls of tape and worked away to make it as secure as possible for the long road home. The woman who manages the site (there’s only us here in the wood up a narrow track behind some derelict buildings) said Croatian people would help too if needed. These three were so helpful. I hope British people would be equally kind with their time and concern.

Now we need to take the best route back, slowly, well away from fast lorries making big gusts of wind. It’s dark now, raining hard and there’s thunder with lightning and we are in a wood, so fingers crossed.