Leaving Bulgaria

I was at the British Embassy and waiting from the moment they opened to get my emergency travel documents.

I had to give them the route that I intended to take home so they could give me a pass to travel through the countries I needed to which I had five days to do. Everything was going to plan and my brother had agreed to transfer another £500 to a Western Union which I would have no problem collecting with the documents issued by the Embassy however the Embassy had concerns about me driving myself back on a ban and seeing as they advised against it I had to get approval from a higher level before they would issue me with the documents. They could not confirm whether it would be signed off or not and so I waited 3 hours to hear the decision which thankfully was that they would give me the permission to leave and clear the border out of Bulgaria but they could not confirm that I would be able to clear the borders through Europe and advised  that I was not able to seek assistance from the British Embassy should I be caught driving outside of Bulgaria.
It was a risk I was prepared to take so I signed all the necessary waivers and I was finally issued the documents that I needed to get home.

Copy of my emergency travel document

My brother transferred £500 to Western Union and by the time I got my documents and the money and set off towards the border it was gone 6pm.

I put my foot down and within 4 hours I had reached the  border between Bulgaria and Serbia.

I cleared the border without any problem and I was finally out of the country and in Serbia! I have never felt such relief and the feeling that I was finally free was overwhelming! I cried for the next 100 kms and then the heavens decided to cry with me and the rain came down in such a downpour that I couldn't see where I was going so I had to pull over in a service station and park up for a few hours until it lifted!

I managed to get a bit of sleep before I carried on with my journey home which was now just under 3000km away

Taken after I crossed the border into Serbia