An emotional day

We woke at 5am and were on the road by 6am: Tony, me, Julia and Chica.

We have a much more appropriate set-up on our dash these days

(and another on the back of the van)

We found a use for the Russian flag this morning when dipsticking

It’s been a long day of driving but at around 5pm, after various stops for peepees and poopoos (the dog, not Tony or Julia – but then again...) we delivered Julia to her husband. (Today's theme tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2-yUQS70Kc)

During the 10-hour-long journey, Julia and I talked in broken Russian and English about her 4 hectares of fields, her 0.1 hectare farm, the pleasure and therapy that is gardening, about her joy for sewing (so that's why her bag is so heavy!), about her sister who is struggling to leave Kyiv with her 1-year-old daughter, apart the sparsity of vehicles leaving the capital of Ukraine, and about their brother who is braced ready to fight for his country.

You may think it cheesy but the sound of Julia saying my name will long echo in my mind and melt my heart. She was a sweet soul who kept offering to pay for the hotel/meals we sorted for her. She left one dog at home and brought Chica with her, but Chica is used to fields - not petrol stations full of people/cars. Julie had taken 3 different cars to get to where we met her. She didn't sleep last night because she heard cars going by and woke from her slumber thinking it was tanks.

Chica managed to chill out in the end

Julia and I promised to keep in touch and it truly was heart-breaking saying goodbye.

What Julia was able to take from her home town near the Belarus border

We drove 500 miles from Chelm to Lesczno today, near Poznan (not far from the Czech border). A round trip of approximately 1,000 miles. And just one life saved. How is it fair that tens of thousands of lives can be impacted so easily by others? A very emotional day.

Julia reunited with her husband, at her in-laws house

Once we'd said goodbye to Julia, we stopped in a steakhouse, had some dinner, grabbed some shopping (and wifi to book a hotel!) and tonight we’re staying in a top swanky place towards the town of Swiebodzin, where there is a Christ the Redeemer supposedly bigger than the one in Brazil. We’ll go check that out tomorrow and head further west/south towards south of France. We’re making a beeline for Africa.

P.S. Mr Garlick. Hoping you're still OK?