Bob was here and then he wasn't...

... because, having returned from a 13-hour drive on Monday he had another bright idea. We had a message from Tomasz, Paczki dla Ukrainy, that on Thursday, early morning, Staszek, volunteer driver, is taking aid in the second Polish van to an organisation that supports internally displaced people in central Ukraine.  

Bob thought: we have an empty van here in Lviv that needs to go back to Poland - why don't we take this van to Krakow, fill it with aid and accompany Staszek, with 2 vans loaded with aid? And, to avoid leaving Krakow at 5am on Thursday and face a 14 -15 hours journey (factoring in the border crossing and breaks), Bob decided to drive to Krakow Tuesday afternoon and return to Lviv the following day, to break up the journey.

So, I waved goodbye to Bob in the van called Bohdan. I did think of going with him but Tomasz's house is undergoing renovations and it would have been difficult. Secretly, I thought it may be a plot for Tomasz and Bob to indulge in an evening of Polish sausage and vodka!

But that was not the case. The border crossing took nearly 3 hours, even with the priority given to aid vehicles. Bob said that he has rarely seen such long queues - maybe due to the Easter holidays...
At this stage he suggested that, if he has any more bright ideas, I should hit him with "a bit of 2x4" - a bit excessive maybe!
Or maybe not. It took until 11pm Polish time (midnight here in Ukraine) to load the van and they still needed to buy 100 litres of diesel to put into cannisters. 
Despite the challenges of our aid journeys, we know that they will always be worthwhile.
And I am fully recuperated and eager to get behind the wheel of the van again on Thursday morning.

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