This was slightly different journey to those we had made in the past.

Firstly, we were taking goods for another organisation to Bosnia, and secondly, we had a group of supporters and WTN workers flying down to spend the weekend with us to discover where we went and what we did. To see for themselves what the conditions were actually like.

This was also the first trip which we had actually organised, with two other vans joining us, so for me it was a bit nerve racking making sure we had enough goods etc., which I cannot say I succeeded in doing as well as I would have wished. But I learnt several lessons along the way which I hope will stand me/us in good stead for the convoys we may organise in the future.

Bob and Fred were bringing their vans, with Fred having Roy and Tim joining him. Bob ambled down later! I was joined by Sandy and Cathy who had been with the convoy (of students!) which came down in July. It was really nice to see them again.

It was an uneventful journey on the way down although I was a little worried about going through Slovenian and Croatian customs because my documents were for Bosnia, and I seemed be getting warned quite a lot that I may experience difficulties with customs because of this. We cruised through the Slovenian border with no problem, but I was quite worried as I drove through no-man's land between Slovenia and Croatia. We drew up at the border control. "Where are you going?"

"Zagreb and Sarajevo", I replied.

"Go."

I went without a second thought. Thank you.

We arrived at Ljubica's in Zagreb quite early and actually had the time to walk in to town and have a look round, something we rarely get the chance to do.

We had been given forty 15 tog duvets, pillows and covers for both, by groups in Essex, coordinated by Hasmukh Patel, and the next day we took them to one camp where all of the people are from Vukovar, the town we visited in July which was still largely rubble. The heating was not working, and it can be cold in Croatia in October, so they accepted the duvets and other items with joy. Only another 164 to go and we will have made sure everyone on the camp has one.

We had also brought down one tonne of rice which had been donated by Tilda Rice, to whom we had been introduced by Amrit and Bhavesh Radia. In fact, Bhavesh, who was fast becoming one of Wherever the Need's biggest supporters, was one of the people who was flying in to see what was happening here and in what other ways he could help.

Just the one camp on the first day, and Ljubica and I went to the airport to collect our guests in the evening. There is an interesting story surrounding their flight down. One of WTN's trustees, Geoff, and his wife Lisa, were making the trip. Geoff is a very pragmatic man and doesn't go in for too much stuff of a mystical nature, but while he was sitting in his seat on the plane he suddenly discovered one of the small plastic 'angel' figures which you can buy, lying by his trouser leg. On closer inspection he found others and when he had collected them all there were five male angles and two female angels. Exactly the same number as the people who were making the trip, and also, incidentally, the same number who came down in the vans. I'll let you make your own mind up about this!

This trip was quite a lot easier than others we have been on because we wanted our visitors to relax and be able to ask questions and see the conditions people were living in without the need for rushing. So on our second day, the first for our new arrivals, we visited HZ, which is an illegal camp and has no electricity. The conditions are very basic to say the least and the people eke out an existence. It was here that one of the older women spoke, for the first time in the memories of those that knew her, of her treatment when the Serbian army occupied her village. After they had destroyed her house, the church, graveyard, school and all other buildings, they told her that she had nothing and came from nowhere, she never existed in this place. She, and many of those listening, were crying as she explained how right the army was, now she has nothing and belongs nowhere. It was a very emotional moment which will stay with those present for a long time. We left a lot of aid, including a large number of food parcels we had collected from groups in the south west of England.

After HZ we moved on to the hospital at Gornja Bistra. I had been to the hospital before and knew from my own experience that on your first visit in can be really shocking. Nothing really prepares you for what you see, hear and smell. All of our guests and several of the drivers had not been there before and all found themselves, in their own particular way, of dealing with the experience.

I came across a small child in bed whom, unusually, was having a conversation with the nurse as she walked past. I asked the translator about this child and was told that although she was no more than a metre long, if that, she was actually thirteen years old, and had been in the hospital for twelve years. Nina's parents had emigrated and now she was alone with only the hospital staff to befriend her. It was explained that she was making much progress with her speech and if she had more one to one support she would make even faster progress. But alas, with one nurse to thirteen children there isn't much chance of greater stimulation. Nina also suffered from brittle bones and was afraid to be lifted out of her bed in case she fell and and a bone was broken.

People left the hospital more aware of the plight of these very sad children, largely abandoned by their own parents and society. No nice specially designed school for these, just lying in bed for up to twenty four hours a day, in some cases heavily sedated, with nothing but white walls to stare at through the metal bars of their cot beds.

We returned to Ljubica's for a meal and a sharing of the day's experiences. Tomorrow we would visit Vukovar.

Vukovar was the place where about 1,500 Croatian soldiers tried to hold the town against a force of about 15,000 Serbian soldiers. Of course, they failed, and in the process the town was largely destroyed. The problem with Vukovar today is that not only are the buildings still destroyed, although chunks of the town are being rebuilt, the infrastructure was also destroyed. Homes, shops, factories, roads were all destroyed. Now although houses can be rebuilt as part of a government scheme, how can people return to a place where there is no work, and little government assistance?

We were accompanied by a man who lives in the camp where we left the duvets on the first day, Mr Gouya, and Helena who works at the orphanage where the students stayed in July. This was the first time Helena had returned to Vukovar since she ran away with her mother five years previously. Helena has some very bad memories to contend with and this was an extremely brave step for her to make this visit. We went to the Red Cross headquarters and left more rice for the local people - if you're not working how do you eat?

We visited the local graveyard and were shown a mass grave where thirty six bodies had been unearthed. About once a month in the surrounding area, other unmarked mass graves are found with varying numbers of bodies contained within. Sometimes six, sometimes sixty. Here the bodies had been given proper burial, but the area where the bodies were found was still there, unfilled, for people like us to see the way Man treats his fellow Man. Hopefully there won't be many more to find.

A four hour journey there, and the same back, so we returned to Zagreb quite late and quite tired.

The next day we went to one camp, Radnik Novska, and to the mainly rebuilt village of Lasinja. Radnik Novska is on the other side of the bridge to HZ where we were on the first day, and we left the same kind of things, food, rice, toiletries, clothes. Things are very depressing in both camps and as it is raining it appears even more so.

We set off for Lasinja. The bridge had been destroyed in the war, both sides claim the other did it, and previously we managed to get across by a pontoon bridge. However, there had been heavy rain and the pontoon had broken so the army provided a large dinghy to ferry people across. On to a moored boat, on to the dinghy and then on the other side wade through mud to the shore. Now this is what it's all about!

Eirik, one of the visitors, said that all it needed was for us to be caught in a downpour, and guess what, it started to chuck it down on the return journey.

Father Bradica, the local priest, is the motivating force behind the village being rebuilt as quickly as it had, albeit that it is not finished. He had also managed to get his church mainly rebuilt, only this time it would have a community centre, library and rooms for what are going to be human value lessons.

It was remarked that it was just a pleasure to sit down with him, or walk along with him. He is a remarkable man, suffering with diabetes and heart problems, yet he works ceaselessly for his parishioners. He is a wonderful example for us all. Sandy was there to talk about a project which students from different universities in England may be able to participate in during the summer. We had said that we would help were we could, and there was a general feeling that Father Bradica deserved all the help we could give him.

We returned to Zagreb in the rain with just one cake stop, at the house of some people who had been in a refugee camp for a long time and who had managed to extricate themselves. They were particularly good friends with Bob, but extended a welcome to all fourteen people who descended on their house that afternoon.

In Zagreb some of us went back to the hall where the children were rehearsing a play. Many of them my daughter and I had joined in August when they went to the coast, and I had grown extremely fond of them. It was lovely to see them again and give them each a hug and a kiss. These are special children.

A last meal together and we part, for our seven guests to fly home the next morning full of stories, experiences and inspiration, and for us to leave for Sarajevo.

We left quite early and arrived at the Bosnian border in good time, passing through some very beautiful countryside which, inevitably, bore the scars of war. We were told we had to made a spedition form, which we expected, and drove into the compound. We found the company who was to make the form and was told they couldn't because the organisation we were delivering to were not registered to receive goods. We discussed the matter for four and half hours and were eventually told we would have to return to Croatia.

This was a real nuisance, not just because we couldn't get into Bosnia, but because we had a whole bunch of goods which we had no home for and to bring them back through three tricky borders would be a challenge (and no, I haven't forgotten my earlier experience, it is a fact that we would be quizzed by Austrian customs at the very least). However, once we returned to Ljubica's she made some phone calls and the next day we left everything with an organisation which deals with disabled people. In fact, this was really good contact as they are in need of help and we can bring specific items down for them on the next trip in December.

We left on the Wednesday morning and made our way back home. We had a detour in Austria when a crash on the motorway caused it to be closed, so we found ourselves weaving through picturesque Austrian mountain villages - I am sure I saw Julie Andrews dancing and singing down the road in one. Germany was rainy and windswept, or to be more accurate, beset by gales. Many a time as I was driving I found myself struggling to keep hold of the van as the wind caught it and moved us across the road. We saw several crashes, including one in which a van had been blown over by the wind.

We reached Dover to catch the ferry back and found that other ports had been closed due to the bad weather and there were vehicles everywhere. Our ferry was only forty minutes late and by nine o'clock on the Thursday evening we were home in Bath.

Better start getting ready for the Christmas trip.

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