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Zagreb - Evzoni
E.Route : Zagreb - Skopje : ETD 0406 : ETA 1806 : Dist 469 m.
A.Route : Zagreb - Evzoni : ATD 0405 : ATA 0055* : Dist 631 m.
- Depart Zagreb 0405
- 0600 - 0601 Crew change
- 0800 - 0807 Crew change
- 1005 - 1010 Crew chance
- 1131 - 1140 Bog stop
- 1305 - 1328 Lunch stop.
- 1455 - 1545 Shop stop ( Nis )
- Rasa Skopje turnoff 1847
- 2001 - 2007 Crew change
- 2200 - 2311 Frontier Clearance
- 2325 - 2333 Abortive camp stop.
- Arrive Evzoni 2355* (0055 Greek time)
Est.A.Spd : 33.5 mph : Gross A.Spd 31.9 mph. : Net A.Spd 37.40 mph
Stop time : 2:59 hr : Speedo TD 4347.1 : Speedo TA 4978.1
Comment : Another memorable day, for a number of reasons - firstly, one of the few days on which we actually achieved, our intended efficient long distance run : secondly, the first time we abandoned the convoy and went our own way : thirdly, the first time we camped out by the roadside. Some remarkable things going on in the mountains added incentive to cross the border into Greece.
Jim Lindsay's diary:
Greg was still making a brave attempt to make us work to his schedule, and this day we were the lead
coach. This meant leaving at 0400 and everything was carefully prepared the night before for a prompt
start. Remarkably we left only five minutes late. We had a long flat tedious run down the autoput, a
sort of sub-motorway crossed by a great many unmarked side roads. Horses dragged carts slowly across,
and the hulks of wrecked cars and buses were there to remind us what happened if concentration lapsed.
As we headed south into Serbia and then Macedonia things got more obviously Mediterranean. The landscape
became rugged, people darker, towns grubbier, and Cyrillic took the place of Roman script. Officially
we were meant to stop at a site near Skopje but the contingent wanted to be first in Kavalla, so we
pressed on. We negotiated the little town of Titov Veles as the evening promenade was at its height
and then there was darkness. We had been warned about bandits, and we were disconcerted to see big
fires here and there in the distance, and then we passed a roadside railway yard with its buildings
on fire, and ominously no sign of firemen or even spectators. Whether this was banditry or blood feuds,
we could not do much except switch off inessential lights and carry on. It was quite a relief to reach
the Greek customs post. After that we just wanted to stop when we could, and eventually laid out our
groundsheets on a little mound near the road. This had been a 20-hour travelling day, and marked the
beginning of the end for the formal convoy system.
