On the road to Odesa...

Tomasz left Krakow very, very early, in order to be in Lviv for 10am so that we could get on our way. He had a van load of aid and a surprise extra driver - our friend, Alen (third from left), who was the chef in the Plaza Galeria refugee centre in Krakow, where we worked. He remains a passionate supporter of Ukraine, and he and Tomasz have linked up to reinforce their humanitarian aid efforts.

We had to transfer the aid from one van to another again, but this time we had more helpers than we could dream of! Which was a good thing, because there was all our stuff and a lot of aid, both for civilians and soldiers, including household products, baby food, dried cereal, toys and trauma teddies for children, incontinence diapers for adults, camping stoves, an electrical inverter and men's rubber boots. There were also cans of free diesel from Poland, which will, hopefully, last us for our journey.

I was amazed that everything fitted into the van but, with a little re-packing, somehow it did, with not an inch of space remaining.

When we unload our stuff into our new apartment in Odesa, we will see if we can buy some dried dog food with donations, to take with us to Kherson.

We decided to drive as far as we could on the road to Odesa. First, we stopped at the Wheels of Victory garage in Ternopil because one of the van's tyres was losing air. It turned out that a small screw had lodged itself into the tyre, which would not have been easy to spot and had been missed by a previous mechanic.

My mum wondered how we cope with living out of a suitcase or, for us, a rucksack. In fact, this has become so much a part of life that I don't even think about it. Life on the road also means that we eat when and where we can, such as, today, bread and cheese outside the garage!

Tempers frayed somewhat as we left Ternopil because someone (no names mentioned) tried to open the van's side door, which would not lock afterwards as the van was so packed. Bob had to take a penknife to it, which eventually did the trick.

We still had a long way to go and the day was warm again. We made time for a brief stop by a lake - a new one, to us - although, they probably look much the same in the blog photos. I think that the beauty and tranquility of these lakes help to keep me sane

Today, we think of our new friends in Dnipro, who suffered a 'noisy night' yesterday - a common euphemism for shelling or missile attacks. At least eight people were wounded and scores of buildings were damaged in a Russian air attack on the Dnipro region, including what appears to have been a strike on a fire station. And, yet, Russia continues to claim that it does not attack civilian targets.