Day 02 journey from Hungary to Serbia to North Macedonia - Strumica

After a night in the van and a good breakfast, we continued towards Serbia. Just before the border, I refueled again. For vehicles with Hungarian license plates, diesel costs 480FT per liter, for all others 662FT. Obviously, the state supports fuel for locals... The gas station attendant also seemed reluctant that I, despite paying the full price, refueled at his station. For whatever reason...

The crossing to Serbia went smoothly, the customs officer obviously didn't feel like inspecting the contents of my vehicle on the weekend. He practically assured me that everything was only used items...

Hardly at the border control, the engine coolant temperature rises from its usual level of about 1/3 to over 1/2, something seems to be wrong... So I prefer to turn on the heater and use my specially installed additional fan switch... This prevents the temperature from rising further and keeps it in a bearable range... The coolant level is ok, no leaks are visible. I decide to continue driving and observe.

Two hours and 150km later, the temperature returns to 1/3... Who knows... Maybe the thermostat was stuck? Observe and continue driving...

Later, the already annoying and flickering speedometer starts indicating a steady 160 and gives up on life there... Whatever, I still have the digital speedometer and can still drive by sound if necessary...

While refueling, I then notice that a hose from the tank to the expansion tank has become leaky at the upper end. Well, I simply won't fully refuel anymore.

The landscape in Serbia was very diverse, from flat open land to beautiful mountain worlds... But also a lot of rain, partly strong thunderstorms today...

At around 8pm, I reach the border to North Macedonia, and I cross there without any problems... Done, I was really worried that I would have problems with customs due to the many relief goods...

Actually, I wanted to find a service area with Wi-Fi now to be connected to the world again and to spend the night there. I missed one in the classic way, and the other places I went to didn't have Wi-Fi... Well, and so I just kept driving in pouring rain until I reached my originally planned destination for the next day, Strumica. Something started creaking on the front axle when driving over bumps. The noise suspiciously reminds me of the trip to Ukraine in 2019, where a control arm bearing went bad due to bad roads. Strange though, that this time there hasn't been any significantly bad road so far. Anyway, observe...

Arriving in Strumica, the engine suddenly turned off and only briefly turned on from time to time. I managed to drive another 300m to a restaurant, then it was quiet. What's the matter now? Diesel shortage? But why? Is the new filter clogged? Or is the line blocked? Or is the fuel pump not working anymore? Well, tomorrow is another day. Now I had a delicious meal and drinks in that restaurant (a tuna salad and two beers for a total of 7 euros, you're looking for the hidden camera). The staff was in a good mood, a really great team... And then off to bed, once again in the van...

Today, we covered 865 kilometers...