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July
2004.
For
some time I had been playing bridge each week at the Bridge club in
Crayford. My regular partner was a long-standing member, Hilary Heffernan.
She was a very good bridge player and we enjoyed each other's company.
One week in the summer of 2004 she told me that she was longing to
go to Croatia. Knowing that she was free to go and could afford to
fly out there whenever she chose I asked her, "So what's stopping
you from going Hillary?"
"Well Iain," she said. "It's difficult to explain what's
stopping me."
"Well there are plenty aeroplanes, or you could go overland,
ferry and train or coach. I can't see that you'd have any problem
in travelling out there. I know you're not a young lady anymore,"
I smiled and laughed, "but you seem to be fit and healthy and
you certainly have all your faculties. Short of some major problem
I can't see that you'd come to any harm." I opined.
"I don't want to fly or go overland by train." she told
me. "What I would like to do is to drive to Croatia and back."
She'd put strong emphasis on the personal pronoun, then continued,
"but that's not something that I want to do on my own and I can't
find anyone who is interested in making such a long journey."
"How long do you think it would take? How long you want to stay
there?" I asked adding, "I understand it's a fair hike to
Croatia."
"Oh I don't know." Hillary answered as we sat at the table
waiting for the bridge game to begin. "I suppose about three
or four weeks really."
"Well that's certainly an ambitious project. Are you just thinking
to go for the trip or do you actually know some people that you would
like to visit or," I hesitated, "what would be your planif
you were able to go? I enquired.
"I know some people whom I'd dearly love to visit in Zagreb.
I have friends in Germany and Milan so the journey could easily be
broken up into manageable segments."
"Well I think it's a trip that could be made in the summer, July
next month might be a good time when you would expect to have good
weather and it could be an exciting and interesting adventure.
"Well if I could find someone to share the driving with me I
would be very happy to go in July but until then I just leave everything
on hold." I could understand from the tone of her voice that
she was very keen to embark on such an adventure. "Anyway we
have to play bridge now so that's that." she finished dismissing
the subject and preparing to start playing cards.
During
the course of the first session of bridge I give the matter some thought
and concluded that I would like to drive out to Croatia with Hillary
so decided to mention it to her later.
When
the Bridge finished that evening I chatted to Hillary and suggested
that I accompany her on what I'd envisioned would be a memorable holiday
for both of us. It turned out that she was delighted by my suggestion
and clearly quite keen on the notion. Over the next couple of weeks
we discussed the route, and made plans. Hilary contacted the people
whom she wanted to visit and I made arrangements so that we would
both be covered by the necessary insurances etc to share the driving
of my car.
On
the following pages you can read Hillary's account of our wanderings
in Europe.
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