We made our way back to Cizre to link up with the other driver, a Promotor part timer, waiting for us there. His crane had suffered damage on the way down and we had to try and get it to Baghdad. We all booked into a flea pit of a hotel for a couple of nights whilst it was sorted out. Luckily it was nothing major but Chic was in his element. He loved cranes and getting dirty. The exact opposite to the rest of us so he did most of the graft. The cranes were mostly six wheelers with one eight wheeler. Toys as far as Chic was concerned. He loved the hundred ton ones.
I didn’t realise until I looked closely at the third photo that Promotor driver George Fardell was there. He must have flown out from the UK to Mersin. It’s difficult to identify him as it’s not a clear picture but it certainly resembles him and the clincher for me is that he’s wearing two watches. One set on UK time and the other on Rhodesian. It’s been mentioned on here before that George has dual nationality. British and Rhodesian. If you really wanted to get him wound up you just had to mention the word "Zimbabwe"and he would go ballistic. It’s also been mentioned that Dave Stagg, our transport manager then, employed Paul Linscott, the coloured lad for the same reason, just to get him wound up. Dave certainly had a warped sense of humour sometimes, but was it that warped!!!
After the repairs were done we continued on our way. Now I can’t be sure (it was a long time ago) but I had the feeling that if you were driving plant of any kind you didn’t have to join the queue at Habur. You drove straight to the border gate. Anyway, we were through quite quickly and had no more problems. The only thing I remember later was drifting off he road well south of Mosul and almost losing it. Got it back though but next time we stopped Ramsey Patterson came across to me and took great delight in saying I didn’t have to worry as there were plenty of cranes around to get me back on the road.
