I left my house at 07.15 on the Sunday and reached the Croatian border at 13.00 the following day. It was cool when I left England and hot when I arrived in Croatia.

I had been informed that there was a problem with the lorry at the border and as I cleared customs I saw my colleague's, Bob, van parked opposite. I pulled in next to him.

A customs official had opened a food box and discovered a tin which was out of date. He had refused to clear the lorry and we were now waiting for a more friendly official to make the journey to Zagreb to try and sort it all out.

In one instance, the customs officer at the border saw the indication BBE (best before end) August 2000. He insisted this was out of date. Sometimes they just want to be bloody minded.

The friendly official was due to arrive at 15.00, and Bob pointed out there was no reason for us both to stay and as I was at the end of my 2,000 kilometre journey I might as well drive on to Zagreb, collect our visitors from England, who were flying down, and relax a little.

I reached the house in Zagreb where we stay and saw Ljubica whose home it is. By now it was time to leave for the airport and we arrived just in time as the passengers were clearing passport control and customs. Four young women from England; Jana from Swindon, Rachel from Trowbridge, Steph from Portsmouth, and Claire from Epsom; had been inspired enough to collect aid for the trip and make the journey to Croatia in order to hand it out to people in need.

As we returned to Ljubicas house we heard that the lorry had been cleared but we had to take it to the central customs compound the next morning to unload the four - five tonnes of food on board in order to check every box that no out of date items were included.

That evening we were all together as a team, eight of us, sharing our first meal together. All were tired and most went to sleep early!

We had breakfast at 07.15 and left to be at the customs depot by 08.00. By 09.00 the lorry was inside and we had been joined by a large group of young people who were to help us in the difficult task of unloading the 400 food boxes which were stacked on pallets at different parts of the lorry. Other items were piled on top of them, so manoeuvring the removal of the boxes whilst trying to ensure that other, sometimes heavy, items do not fall on top of you is no easy matter. Fortunately, we had some strong young men to help, so us older ones left them too it.

As each box was unloaded, others took it away and check every item and discarded anything which was out of date.

I need to explain about this. We have cut off dates when we can no longer collect boxes. So if the cut off point for the August trip was the end of July, food boxes ready after that date are held over by the individual/group until the next trip. In this case the next trip is December and the cut off date is the end of October. If you have an item whose sell by date is October, it would be fine for the August trip but not the December. Boxes are checked, but on this trip there was a lot of stuff used which had been given in bulk and it was much of that which was out of date. You can check some, but if five percent of the food on this trip was out of date it equated to over 200 kilos, which is the estimate of how much we removed.

During the morning it was discovered that the driver of the lorry needed to make an urgent delivery to another customer some thirty kilometres north of Zagreb, but he wouldn't be able to take the lorry out until it was all checked by the customs officials, which wasnÕt going to happen until 13.30 at the earliest. We wanted to unload the remainder of the stuff before he disappeared and also deliver the other half of the lorry (to the technically minded it was a trailer and drag, a lorry with a trailer attached, which can be described as having two sections) to the Romany village at Kursanec which was a two hour drive north of Zagreb near Varazdin.

I volunteered to load the van with the goods, and drive them to the company, accompanied by two of the young people. We went to customs and received the necessary permission and paper work, I was now responsible for the goods, and left. That part went well, and while we were doing that the rest of the people finished unloading the boxes, sorting, repacking, and then re-loading the boxes on to the lorry.

This was all being done with the sun blazing down and the temperature soaring to 42°C (106° F).

When we got back to Zagreb, we went straight to the East Station where we store the goods prior to distribution to refugee camps. It was now 16.30. It was decided we would leave for Kursanec and we set off.

We arrived a little after 18.30 and immediately the crowds started to gather.

Kursanec is a village with about 1,100 inhabitants, at least 500 of which are under the age of fifteen. There are many single mothers, some in their early teens. There is little electricity or running water.

We started to unload the lorry. Things had been organised by Bob and each family were to receive one or two clothes parcels as well as a food box, other food parcels and a plastic bucket. There were other incidental items also.

We started to unload at about 19.30 and this continued for a couple of hours. We then had to help hand the items out and it was about midnight by the time we had finished and were able to start of our journey home.

It is difficult to describe the excitement that is generated as people prepare to receive their share. There was a deafening clamour echoing all around us. People pushing, pulling, asking for something special, whistling, trying to escape with a box unnoticed. It is really a kaleidoscope of chaos. As the evening progressed the light faded and the latter stages were completed in virtual darkness, everything lit up by a few strategically placed lights.

As we prepared to leave all was quiet. We were all tired, dirty and hungry. We reached Ljubica's house at 02.30. Of course, she had a meal waiting for us.

The next day we had decided we would sort out the railway carriages where everything was stored and then deliver to the two largest camps, Bundek and Spansko. Together these two camps are still home to about 350 families, most of whom have been here since the war started some eight years ago.

Because it was summer many people had left Zagreb to visit friends and family elsewhere - especially if they lived by the coast!

We started at Bundek and spent a little time sharing tea and biscuits with a few of the people. We unloaded the van and gave special items to the camp co-ordinator who had recently given birth to her third child, a daughter. All her children had been born at the refugee camp. Bob gave her eldest son the chance to pretend he was driving his van, sitting him on his lap as he moved his vehicle, and I did the same to the younger son

After unloading we moved on to Spansko.

Another enormous, sprawling camp, only with not quite the same welcome as we receive at some we visit. The people here seemed a little aloof. This was the first time I had visited Spansko and had heard many stories about things which had happened here in the past. Even the children seemed more choosy than at other places. Maybe it was just me.

The next day we were to visit the childrenÕs hospital at Gornje Bistra, which is always a little distressing. It is about thirty five kilometres north of Zagreb. We saw the same usual children, plus a young girl who was to be admitted again after three years. She has a problem with her wrists and ankles and needed to come back for more tests. She was very sad and we gave her a few toys and trinkets to cheer her up.

On the way back we called in at the camp I regard as the worst, Rakitje. We had a good time handing out lots of things, especially to the children, and then we had to return to the carriages to load up again for our next drops.

We were also going to HZ, Radnik Novska and Savska. We reached Savska first. The other two are illegal camps and word of our visit had spread and as we arrived in HZ there seemed like a much larger number of people than usual. We didnÕt quite have enough food to go round, but we messed around with some boxes and everyone got something.

Radnik Novska was the same, only with slightly less people, and as the night was growing dark we finished unloading, shared the fruit tea and coffee and waved goodbye.

We now only had half a day to finish our visits.

We spent a fair amount of time sorting out the remaining aid, deciding what was going to be delivered and what we could give to a Roman Catholic organisation which has its warehouse on the station. We were told they had not received any aid for months.

We gave them as much as we could, and Bob and I discussed how we could get a lorry together just for them as they do such a good job and have so many people to look after all over Croatia.

First we were going to Kenedyev TŸrk, a school which houses a large number of refugees from Vukovar. They were saying that they had just received notification that their building programme had been approved and they thought they would only have to spend another two years here.

From here we delivered some aid to a very poor family who live in what can only be described as slum conditions, with little food and clothing.

It is just a step from here to Grad Mladih, the summer camp, and our friends with whom we could only spend a short time because we had to be at a waste disposal centre to destroy the tins which we had found to be out of date. They were left on the rubbish heap, and we all knew that within thirty minutes the workers would have shared out the tins among themselves, out of date or not.

Later that afternoon we were to join a small convoy of vehicles taking children to the coast. A friend gives over his small apartment/hotel to the group for a chance to play in the sea.

We played in the sea as well.

It was nice to see so many people again whom I had met on my previous visit two years ago, when I was accompanied by my fourteen year old daughter. I felt very close to so many of them.

Too quickly the time had gone and I dropped the young women back at the airport before wending my way back across Europe once more.

Another journey done, time to start work on the next one.

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