Published Feb 16th 2022 in the ‘Good News Blog’

Today, we were walking past a port & saw there was a tourist pleasure boat there with the attractive slogan, ‘One day escape!’ The Lord reminded us that exactly one year ago to the day, He delivered us from a restrictive lockdown & kept us safe on a one year road trip through Turkey & the Balkans!

   Our ‘one year escape’ came right after France declared a national lockdown with movement restricted to only 1 km from our place of residence, & even for that we needed to prepare a ‘certificate of attestation’ in case we might be checked by the police. Since we were only visiting France because our Fiji mission field was closed to outsiders due to the pandemic, we felt no obligation to stay & live through the winter under such draconian restrictions, & so prayed seriously about where we might escape to!

   We basically had 3 criteria: we wanted to go to warm places where there were no PCR entry requirements, where there was no quarantine or lockdown, & where we would be free to travel around. Google summed it up pretty well: in or near to Europe there was only Turkey, Albania & some of the Balkan countries, (basically those that were previously part of Yugoslavia), that we could go to. We quickly got our plane tickets for Istanbul, Turkey & packed our small, 10 kg carry on only suitcases.

  It was all by faith because just to go the nearest airport would exceed the 1 km distance limit. Moreover, simply wanting to escape lockdown might not be accepted as a valid reason for travel…. Sure enough when we got to the airport, French officials demanded to know our reason for travel at this time. We told them firmly, ‘We’re leaving France!’ We were waived through with no objections.

   This was the start of an amazing adventure where we frequently found ourselves in places of incredible natural beauty: sometimes up in the mountains, other times next to lakes, waterfalls or beautiful beaches, with almost nobody else around! Other times we were in old, historic towns or little stone villages. We travelled on buses & trains wherever possible, filling in gaps with hitch hiking. And of course everywhere we went, we told our story & encouraged people to stand up for freedom & liberty, not accepting everything they hear or see or read about in the media! We also followed up on contacts & friends that we knew or that were passed on to us.

up in the Albanian Alps

following up on friend Sebastian in Kosovo

   When our 3-month stay in Turkey came to an end, we flew to Albania for the next 2 months, & then crossed land borders to North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia & Bosnia, spending 1 to 2 months in each.

   At this point, some people might wonder, ‘But doesn’t it cost a lot of money to travel non-stop through all these different countries for a year?’ Answer: no, not if you travel cheaply. It actually cost us less than if were staying in one place & paying rent & other bills.

   And of course, having the Lord’s help & years of missionary training really helps keep costs down. In addition, websites like Couch surfing, Airbnb & various travel blogs offer useful advice & great budget alternatives.

   Travel testimonies have been innumerable this past year, but here are just a few:

  *In Albania, one day we had to travel over 200 kms, & since there were no buses in this area, the only option was hitch hiking on narrow, winding roads. By the time the sun was going down, we found ourselves on the outskirts of a very small town, getting cold, still 60 kms from our destination & with no cars on the road. There seemed to be some type of school in front of us, & just a few houses; after that, the open road. Things were not looking good, but then a young woman came out of the house directly opposite us & started asking us questions. We explained who we were & what we were doing. She said she was working with an American pastor that had set up a Vacation Bible College next door & invited us to stay with them for the night! It would have been amazing to find a Bible College even in the capital, seeing as this is a very Muslim country, but in this little boonie town in the middle of nowhere?? And on top of that, we had ended up right in front of it?! Sure enough, they took good care of us, happily providing meals & putting us on the early morning bus that passes just once a day.

*In North Macedonia, we were hitch hiking in one of the national parks, but again, there were very few cars on the road & we were getting hungry after a lot of walking. Eventually a car stopped & after making friends, they invited us to join them for lunch at a really good lakeside restaurant! Later on, when we told them that we will be travelling to the capital, Skopje, they told us that they had an airbnb apartment & would be happy to let us stay in it for a big discount! It turned out to be a real upmarket place that we normally wouldn’t have been able to afford, but that was perfectly located for all the places we needed to go, (see photo below of our new ‘international office’!). We continue to stay in touch with these new friends.

*One time in Albania we were hiking from the beach up to a mountain village & weren’t sure if we would need to take along a picnic or not. Finally we decided not to, but the trek was longer & more uphill than expected, making us regret our decision. Moreover, our water bottles had run out, so we stopped at the last village farm house & asked if they could put water in the empty bottles. Straight away, they invited us in & wanted to talk with us, since foreigners are rare in these parts. We communicated in a mixture of broken English, French, German, Albanian & Spanish, as they showed us around their farm. As we finally left, & without us saying a word, they loaded us up with fruit, boiled eggs, bread, cheese, olives & even a bottle of homemade wine! Needless to say, we had a great picnic!

our 192 km hike through 3 different Balkan countries

  Border crossings during all our travels were surprisingly easy, with few if any questions asked. Perhaps most surprising of all was when we went on a long-distance hike that passes through the mountainous areas of Kosovo, Albania & Montenegro, called ‘Peaks of the Balkans’. There, we could pass easily from one country to another, with no borders at all!

   All through this one year adventure in Turkey & the Balkan countries, we were praying that Fiji would open up again to foreign visitors & finally the good news came that this will happen soon, albeit under very strict conditions, so we are currently preparing to return there.

   We pray these few testimonies will encourage those that are free of obligations, that there are still new mountains to climb & new horizons to explore for those that yearn for more adventure. We don’t want to do things that are foolish or risky or illegal, but at the same time we don’t want to accept more limitations than we need to. There are nearly always more options available than at first sight.

Peaks of the Balkans hike

visiting the famous bridge in Mostar, Bosnia

  One thing we’ve noticed, & we’ve heard quite a few others confirm this, is that in these troubled times, it seems to often be the case that travel restriction warnings & regulations appear very constraining, but then on the ground things are seldom as bad as the media or the ‘official line’ made it sound. Another strange truth we’ve often encountered is that usually, land borders are much, much more flexible than arriving in a new country by air. Same country but 2 entirely different standards, depending on how one arrives.

hiking in Mrtvica canyon, Montenegro

  Throughout our one year escape, Covid-related rules & restrictions changed a lot, usually getting tighter each time, with several countries in our area starting to require PCR test certificates at land borders. However, when we arrived at these same borders, we weren’t asked to show anything. In the whole year, we officially crossed 8 borders, (plus another 3 on our big hike), & only one time needed a rapid antigen PCR test.

hiking in Rugova gorge in Kosovo

  In closing, let’s all remember that, even with so many limitations, the Lord remains unlimited & He specializes in opening doors & supplying all our needs. Thank you Jesus for the freedom & liberty we have in Him!