OHs PROVIDE MUCH NEEDED AID FOR ORPHANAGE IN ROMANIA

Congratulations must surely go to OHs Patrick Musters (St.66-70) and Richard Anderson (M.67-71) who have just returned from a gruelling 6 day,  3,500 mile drive from UK and across Europe to Suceava in Romania to deliver much need supplies for an orphanage on the border with war torn Ukraine.

Thanks to the generosity of friends, family and OHs, the pair managed to raise over £3,000.00 within a matter of days of planning the trip allowing them to add to the supplies that had already been donated and providing funds for the actual journey itself.

Below is an extract from the log that the pair kept of their trip:

"We had decided to get in and out of Romania as quickly as possible and planned to do it in one day but this plan quickly fell apart. The roads are terrible and with over 200 miles to get to our ‘hub’ we were only managing 30 miles in an hour. We were also given lots of warnings about the dangers in Romania as aid wagons are a real target for local thieves. Apparently they watch your movements and phone them ahead so they are ready to hijack the vehicles.  We were told not to stop for anyone, not to pick up hitch hikers or picnic!  We did try and neutralise the van as much as possible and as normal on foreign trips, to hide all our belongings. Not easy in a van!

We reached the ‘hub’ quite late and unpacked as quickly as possible in order to have a fast turnaround.  They were extremely grateful and offered us a meal but we were keen to get started and out of Romania. It quickly became dark and then it started raining and as if it could not get any worse the van suddenly lost all power! We pulled over and made some frantic calls including Simon Sherrington, our car service man, who gave us some good advice so we waited a while and tried to restart the van which burst into life.  We knew we would not make it out of Romania so we phoned ahead to a hotel at the very top of the Carpathian mountains , which happened to be shut, and they agreed to give us a bed for the night.  We had an hour and a half climbing the mountain pass, not knowing if the van would stop again. Not a great time!"

A tremendous and valuable achievement by two OHs Well done Patrick and Richard!