Last Day At Camp Vineyard

Please excuse me for not writing for a while ...

Ruben, Sara and Marcus (left to right) seem happy with their new transport, or the "broom-broom" as Ruben likes to call it, but have yet to road-test it even though they know where the buttons are to start it.

Life at Camp Vineyard continues to be a pleasure with new 'travelling' friends being made all the time.

Con and Laura (picture, nice sausage!) arrived at the camp a few days ago and we quickly got on like the proverbial house-on-fire. I love their story of how they saved every penny, no luxuries, no going out, nothing, for 2 years, because they wanted to travel. They then quit their jobs, bought the converted Ford Transit and off they went. Fantastic! They are 2 months into their eventful travels and loving every minute. Where there's a will, there's a way. Keep Calm but Carry On! Although I do blame them for only the 2nd time on this trip that I've needed a horse-size dose of aspirin the next day; of course, it had nothing to do with the extraordinarily cheap Romanian plonk we were hoovering. Oh, with Cardiff John in Budapest was the first time.

With hugs and kisses, I said my good-bye's to the young love-birds and continue to help Maarten and Frits on their project. Maarten and Frits are two Dutch gents who have a lot of experience in Romania and offered their building knowledge and services to help rebuild a local house.
The mother and five children who live there, sadly lost their father who passed away a couple of weeks ago and the house is in major disrepair. When I say disrepair, I'm talking, crumbling walls and foundations, no windows, collapsed ceilings and so many broken roof tiles the sun shines into the house.
They do their best but they simply have no money and remember, the winter's here average minus 15 degreesC and can get to minus 30!

Understandably,  a few don't survive the harshness, so when I was asked to help the fella's as they only have 3 days spare, it was an easy decision to make.
You can see three of the children in the picture and looking at them, you would think there was nothing wrong. They constantly smile and play happily amoung the domestic animals and stray dogs (who, bizzarely, are all very healthy), without, what seems, a care in the world, but I guess they know no different.

For three long days, yesterday being the last, we worked tirelessly and in the direct 40 degreeC sunlight to get the house at least, stable and water-tight. I don't think I have ever experienced heat like it; Klaas had to make regular trips to fetch 2 litre bottles of cold water that we consumed by the gallon but that ice-cold beer at the end of each day was chair-slouchingly, pure, amber nectar and boy did it disappear fast.

Neighbours constantly watching our progress, kindly offered freshly home-baked doughnuts that were welcomed and delicious but you did have to discretely throw away their offerings of water as it likely came from the open well at the end of the dirt track. Local stomachs can cope with it but our utility-cleaned, delicate yards of ingesters would likely repel all at pace.
I wish I had taken pictures before the work started so you could see the contrast but this pic shows part of the end result. Oh yes, I didn't mention that because of the frequent breaks in the electricity supply (or the "phuts" as they call it here), the power tools were rendered useless and a lot of that wood you see had to be cut by hand.
Anyway, job done and they now don't have to all sleep in one room; just PVC windows to go in that Klaas will arrange and today is a day of rest.

Due to various technicalities, 90-day expiries, etc., I need to be back by mid-August, so my intended 'turn-around' destination of Istanbul is not going to be achieved. It's still another 1,500 kilometres further East and I have less than 30 days to get there and back to the UK. This trip has been all about travel, of course, but not rushing at the same time, although it took me the first two weeks to realise that, so, that Byzantine buzz will have to wait until next time.

An early start tomorrow for Bucharest, as it's over 600 kms away, where I will stay for the weekend before heading back over what could be the, or one of the, most exciting parts of my trip ... the Transfargasan, but I will tell you more once I've done it.

Have a good weekend people ...