sandway:
I found myself back at the British Embassy in Damascus in 81 with another load of furniture but this time I remember very little of the trip. However, a few things have come to me through the haze.The first thing I remember was that I didn’t use the Koper to Tartous ferry. Obviously I was in ‘Staggies’ bad books. So it was back down through Turkey. Boy had I been spoiled using that ferry. The other thing that I remember was at Bab al Hawa, going into Syria from Turkey, I had handed my carnet and docs over to one of the customs agents for him to process. I had sat down in the lorry to have a brew when one of the lads there came running over with a letter. It was an authorisation letter on Promotor headed paper giving one of the other agents permission to handle all Promotor work at the border. It was in pristine condition, in a clear protective folder and was signed by Peter Calderwood, our boss. Peter had a very distinctive and clear signature with the P and the C standing out clearly. What really took my eye though was the date. It was dated 1974. I did hear a few years later that this particular agent had come to the UK in the early 70’s gone round many of the ME companies and got them to appoint him as their agent at the border so obviously I had to use him.
The only other thing I remember was that I couldn’t be unloaded because of the weekend. I was parked up near the Sheraton and was using their pool so all in all I was quite happy sitting there but my contact at the embassy took pity on me and invited me to a picnic on the Friday. A group of them were going out into the countryside near, I think, where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Israel meet. There was an old railway line running through the area but I can’t remember anything else about the place.
The last little thing that comes to mind was buying 20 classical music tapes at one Syrian pound each for my father in law before I left Damascus.
Excellent stories and photos Sandway… I’ve been rather too busy with work to contribute recently and I’ll have to dig out my own photos… Mrs Efes “tidies” everything so I no longer have any idea where things have been put… When I have a free moment I’ll have a look. I have a few of Yugo and some of Iraq. Not much of Russia alas despite doing far too many trips there for my liking.
Happy New Year to all…