Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.

Day 10. Like kids in a sweetshop, the Stage 1 crew, now fully up and running and functioning like the high performing team I knew was always there, were looking forward to Wednesday with schoolboy excitement as it meant only one thing. No driving and a rest. Or so we thought.

Unfortunately as we have quickly come to realise, even days with little or no mileage, still mean work for the FTFE crew. Thursday 29th July will find us travelling from our temporary home 225 miles away in Vilnius, Lithuania to the Latvian-Russian border with our “fixer” Tadas, a giant of a man at 6’9″. A gentle giant however and well up there for nicest chap we have met so far in Europe

Imagine our joy then when instead of relaxing at our hotel with a cheeky game of travel scrabble or a rainy stroll around the historic Vilnius old town, we set about unloading Martha at the Transtira workshop where she was being serviced and checking every item in every box against the Carnet.

The Russians are, for want of a better word, “thorough” when it comes to letting big red charity fire engines into their country and it was imperative to ensure that each of the 625 items detailed on the Carnet was in it’s rightful home and could be retrieved for border inspection at the drop of a Columbia Cap.

Delays to find the 14mm Alun key, Black Silicone grease and sump key not withstanding (all off on their holidays in boxes 5, 9 and 12 respectively) we flew through the list in super quick time ticking every item off under the watchful supervision of Mr C Moore.

We don’t know what to expect of our Russian comrades come mid-afternoon  tomorrow and what they will make of Martha, however we do know that we are fully prep’d, fully organised and fully on target to be in Moscow on Friday evening. Even the US Dollars, ciggarettes and vodka are packed. Bring on the negotiating.

BJB

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