The route

May - Fire engine + ambulance to Bohemia.

This was a first for me, taking a fire engine and ambulance together in convoy.  The fire engine was donated to a group of monks called the White Canons to serve a group of local villages and replace a post war Russian vehicle.  The ambulance went to Prague to the Knights of Malta, a Christian organisation who look after the poor.  We stopped at Colditz for a night on our way down.

Photo shoot on the Stray in Harrogate with the team before departure

Our priest blessing the fire engine with holy water before its long journey to Bohemia.  

Overnight stop at Colditz

This was the post war Russian fire engine we were replacing!  It serves several villages in the area, manned by volunteers.

On our last fire engine trip we had delivered another Dennis vehicle to Russia where the local fire station had a fleet of these old Russian fire engines in a warehouse.  Out of about a dozen vehicles, only a couple were still operational because it is now impossible to get parts for them.

May 2011 - Ambulance + Fire Engine to Bohemia

Official handover of the ambulance

We had actually managed to source this left hand drive ambulance in the UK from a film company - a big saving vs buying one from Europe