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Policeman Steve Blackmore is to undertake a 5,500-charity trip in a double-decker bus with 11 pals ... and his mum ... to raise £10,000 for child cancer and leukaemia charity CLIC Sargent along
the way.

The Weymouth-based bobby is set to embark on the once in a lifetime road trip - from Weymouth to Ethiopia - and is urging football fans to donate old Weymouth and Dorchester Town shirts so he can kit
out entire teams in Ethiopia.

Castles in the sky

The road to Crac De Chevalier is a yellow one on the map. In reality it is a narrow, windy route through a hillside town up to the summit where there is perched one of the biggest and most impressive castles I have ever seen.

Homage to Mr Gaffer

I would just like to take a moment to pay my sincere respects to the inventor of gaffer tape. Mr Gaffer, you have done us proud and without you, this trip would have been a lot more difficult. Currently we have a number of items held together by gaffer tape. My camera battery charger, the dashboard and the beer fridge to name a few.

Past half way

Distance wise that is. The Turkey/Syria border is approximately 4400km from both Weymouth and Addis.

From Bulgarian border to Turkish delight

After a brief stop in a Serbian hypermarket for some non-essentials I took over the driving for a brief non-motorway section in to Bulgaria. It turned out to be an incredibly intense session, leaving me frazzled.

The wheels on the bus go ... flat!

I woke up somewhere in Germany at a fuel station. Having the bus credit card means I'm going to be an ever present at fuel stops.

The countries start racking up

Dawn broke in a rather dismal, half-hearted way as we docked in Calais and Kev was behind the wheel for the first leg on foreign soil. The north of the continent can seem a little dull and featureless, not improved by drizzle and traffic jams.

Ding ding ... all aboard!

So, after all of those months of planning, preparation, stress and sheer hard work, here we were on the leaving day.