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It looks I really can't get to Arabia without first having to camp in front of workshops. And this is not due to snow-drifting in Serbia's hills.

I left home as usually. After two days of loading and last corrections on the truck late into the night, I left Karst Monday evening with no big words. I picked up a new GPS device at UScom pass ten p.m., 20 minutes later my ex-tyre-dealer brought me a spare rear tyre for the bike and after saying goodbye to Barbara and Brane, Carmen climbed into the cabin.

The brand-new GPS stopped working even before reaching Croatian border, where Croatian police officer turned us back to the truck terminal. No arguing! On both border-posts the officials couldn't understand why we had to take that way, but even so we lost some time and money. We stopped in eastern Croatia and went sleeping at six a.m. sharp.

In order to check the gps device the next day in Belgrade, we stopped for the night a bit before reaching Serbia's capital. Pain in the ass. Rush hour in the city, roadworks, detours, but, above all, fog. All day long. GPS doesn't work. But they can't exchange it since they are not EU. Never mind. After some shopping the road to Bulgarian border took us through the most remote places of Serbia because we didn't want to spend money on extremely high tolls for foreign trucks on their highways. MY GODDD!!! If the vehicle survived these roads, it will indeed any off-road. My goddd... I didn't have enough patience to drive 20kph so we were almost flying over the bumps and potholes. My goddd... But everything is still on its place. We were ascending and higher we got, more snow there was. On the road as well. Compressed snow, so I was extremely cautious. Curves, corners downhill. Uphill to the left of the road, downhill to the right. I was fed-up so I wanted to check how the toy is behaving on that kind of surface. My goddd, guys. This ten-ton cow started drifting sideways. It is by no means pleasant in the car, less so in a truck, in the middle of the night somewhere in Serbian mountains after not having crossed with anybody for hours. Carmen cheered. I was in a competely different mood despite having regaine control over the vehicle. 4WD was the one that saved us. Without it we would have spinned. Not even a thought about it was pleasant. Night race ended in Pirot, close to Bulgarian border, at 4 a.m.

While looking for the Garmin dealer in Sofia (EU), the alternator broke down. It was providing 8, instead of 28V. The guys at Iveco service are great. Martin, Ilko and Mihail, they all speak fluent English, took the alternator apart at 6 p.m. Of course, only after having admired the beast. We're waiting for the parts, job starts at 9 a.m. (GMT+2) again. Meanwhile we're camping on the courtyard of a splendid 2-year-old Iveco workshop on the western outskirts of Sofia. Thanks to a great support from UScom and a rush action of Geoset, I got a new device despite arguing of the Garmin dealer downtown. Thanks, guys!

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