20th September 2006

Zdravo!

After extensive passport checks and our first border stamps we have reached Serbia! There has been a dramatic culture change and we are now truly in the depths of Eastern Europe. We are currently in Belgrade after a long 7 days of solid walking since our last blog update from Croatia. It has been an interesting week with on-the-spot police checks, drinking sessions with the locals of backcountry villages and the crossing of our first minefield!

The first of our 'on the spot' police checks came 4 kms from the Serbia border and took us rather by surprise at 6 in the morning! We were peacefully plodding along after an early start on a road that would lead us to the Croatian border town, when in the distance we heard sirens and saw blue flashing lights in a cloud of dust racing towards us. We were forced to surrender our documents by the 4 heavily armed officers who leaped out of the car. They looked very disappointed when we didn’t take off across the fields so that they could take chase or even have some target practice! However they were very impressed with our efforts and quickly sent us on our way.

In our first Serbian city of Sremska Mitrovica we met a lady that spoke very good English and she immediately warned us of the trouble that we would have in Serbia if we were not careful. This is partly due to the role that the UK had in the NATO force that heavily bombed areas of the country during the war in 1991. However so far her views have been as far from the truth as possible and we have met incredibly generous and nice people who have always been amazed at our adventure and how far we have come. Once again we have been treated to a whole host of freebies ranging from beer to donunts which has kept us motivated on the road.

The only other news to report is that over the last week we have twice been thought to be Russian! I can only assume that this is because of our dirty, bearded appearance and our attempt to speak Serbian! The roads are so full of diesel fumes and dust from the old cars and lorries that our lungs are about to give up and are voices become rather deeper than normal. We have however had a chance to clean up our appearance now we are in Belgrade for 2 nights while we await a diplomatic bag from England full of new maps to get us to Istanbul.

The end is truly in sight and within the next week we shall have walked further than the straight-line distance between London and the North Pole ! Just 6 weeks of solid walking lie between us and Istanbul now! Thank you once again for all those of you that have sponsored us over the last few weeks. It is great moral boost and reminds us when we are in a low spot why we are doing this marathon effort and bring us back on track. Please encourage all your friends that have not sponsored us to log on to www.justgiving.com/paddymorris help us try and reach our £10,000 target.

As promised we also have an update on our party

Hours of day dreaming while we endure our endless march across Europe has lead to some rather productive party planning for our (hopefully) triumphant return to London in November.

On the 25th of November we shall be having a massive fundraising party in London. We have already, thanks to the invaluable help of a couple of friends and family, been able to secure a number of fabulous prizes for our raffle. A fancy Belgrave venue has been booked, caterers consulted and Oddbins warned to double their Christmas stock order! There will also be photos, videos, endless story-telling and for the geography minded of you, hundreds of maps!

The dress code changes hourly but be sure that it will get you out of your Monday to Friday suits and is certain to take Belgravia by surprise!

Obviously invitations are a little tricky with us being on the road 6 days a week so don't expect a fancy invite through the door quite yet but everyone is of course invited so please keep evening of the 25th of November free.

Andy and Paddy

10th September

Hello! By the time you read this blog we shall be crossing the Croatian border in to Serbia. Since leaving Zagreb over a week ago, we have been racing in the straightest line possible towards Belgrade. This included a quick trip into Bosnia to add another country to the ever growing list.


Over the past couple of weeks we have been increasingly aware of just how close to Asia we are starting to become. With people now booking flights to Istambul for our crossing of the finish line, we thought it prudent to have a reckoning of just how much of the job there is left for us to do. Thanks to some astonishingly detailed map work carried out by our Surrey office, we can present you the following vital statistics:

In the next forty seven days we must walk 1,320km through three more countries. Although we will still allow ourselves one day each week for laundry, a shower and blog updates, we will otherwise be covering at the very least 35km or seven hours walking every day until the end of next month. Although that might not sound too much to you folk reading this from the comfort of your desks, think of this as walking between Sloan Square and Crazy Larry’s, twelve and a bit times every day, carrying sixteen bottles of wine on your back, for the next seven and a half weeks - sober. Ok, it’s still better than being an accountant.


This endurance rate is taking its toll on our bodies. Paddy has been hit with tendonitis, whilst I continue to wake with cramp in the night caused by being a foot too long for my tiny tent. It will be both a mental and physical challenge to keep up this pace to Istanbul, but a challenge we look forward to facing. Keep sponsorship and texts raining in as it really boosts moral, and keeps us motivated.

Croatia, meanwhile has been fascinating. We didn’t realise the extent to which the Balkan wars had affected the whole of the eastern half of the country. Every village through which we pass shows the clear signs of recent conflict. In the poorer regions, where repair and reconstruction is less common, every house front is pock-marked with bullet holes, and every second paving slab is shattered by mortar rounds. While in the more affluent areas the damage has been completely repaired with new breeze-block houses lining the roads, there is still the anti-Serbian graffiti, black-clad widows, and road-side memorials, which is so unexpected in communities that are, don’t forget, within walking distance from London!

This not withstanding, the people have been welcoming, friendly and generous to an extraordinary degree. Not half an hour ago we were beckoned in to a village bar for a free lunch (thanks Krono), free drinks, and sent away with bundles of chocolate bars which we are trying to munch our way through before they all melt in the afternoon heat.

However the novelty of being stopped in every village, by upwards of twenty people, to ask us what we are doing is wearing thin and slowing our pace dramatically. We are longing for the hopefully less populated mountain passes of Bulgaria where we can wander undisturbed and not feel like the local celebrities.

All that remains, before we say farewell for another few days, is to tell you all to keep the evening of the 25th November free. We will be having an enormous party in London, and everyone’s invited. More details to come next week.

So thanks once again for all the sponsorship and encouragement, its hugely appreciated.

Kind regards

Paddy and Andy

5th September 2006

Well, another blog, another country. This one comes to you from Zagreb, in Croatia, where we are enjoying another of our none-too-frequent days off. The sun is shining and the sky is blue, and all would be well if Andy and I hadn't just discovered, thanks to RAC Routeplanner, that there's still a ridiculous 1,600kms between us and Asia.

The satisfaction of reaching Croatia two days ago was countered by our disappointment at having to leave Slovenia. The week or so that we spent walking through it was nicely finished off by an early morning border crossing (with our first passport-check since Dover), following our descent through the hills seen photographed in fetching Sepia tones below.

On we raced into Croatia, where for some reason summer was back in full swing after our Slovenian autumn. As yet we have no real feel for the country as our experience has been restricted to the suburbs of Zagreb, which seem to stretch almost all the way to the border. But apart from the mildly worring Italian driving ethic, the people have all been friendly and curious (see photograph below, of a passing consultation from the Zagrebi Cartographic Society), and we've a good fortnight or so of countryside coming up in which to get a proper feel of the country before we're spat out at the other end into Serbia (oooooh- Serbia! Landmines!)

It's now less than 2 months until we aim to cross the bridge in Istanbul between Europe and Asia. Andy has now booked his flight to New York for the marathon on the 5th of November, so a definite end is in sight. A very curious feeling, he assures me. This means, importantly, that A DATE IS SET! On the 31st of october we will be hosting a bridge-side reception (BYOBoc*, dress code: rambling) with an open invitation to one and all (conditional on reciept of sponsorship by that date, dear friends). We already have a whole host of exciting people with flights booked, but as with all these things, the more the merrier.

*- of champagne please. No Cava.

And that concludes the news for today. We'll leave you with our fond farewells, and this current travel advice from our friends at the Foreign Office...

"...be careful not to stray from roads and paved areas without an experienced guide. If you are planning to travel outside the normal tourist resorts you should be aware that there are areas affected by the war, which ended in 1995, where unexploded mines remain. Areas include the Danube region (Eastern Slavonia) [which means, of course, the main walking route from London to Istanbul]. You should be wary about leaving cultivated land or marked paths."

Perhaps we should consider replacing our walking sticks with metal detectors??

Regards and thanks, as usual,

Paddy and Andy