My first Middle East trip in January 1979 was to Baghdad - but not for Promotor in this instance - but for Star Transport in Crowborough owned by the Taylors (TayTran?). Travelling via Greece through Ipsala over the floating bridge that moved drunkenly up and down as the truck passed over it. A rather unpleasant feeling… And the shock of arriving into the chaos that was Turkey - something I’d never experienced before.
There has been heavy snow in Turkey and I stopped at a parking more or less opposite the Londra that had open air showers with cold water. I felt so dirty by then - the last shower had been in Austria - that I even had a cold shower outside in the snow… Probably the most unpleasant shower I ever had - with the one possible exception of a car factory in Pristina which had warm water but the bowl in which you stood was filled with litter and ■■■ ends… I had to balance in the shower edges to avoid the filth. I was loading car window winders for Vauxhall cars - or possibly shock absorbers (maybe that was a different trip?)…
Turkish roads were almost empty as Turkey had run out of fuel. The Londra opposite had only a few trucks there as foreign trucks transiting Turkey had virtually stopped. The few UK lorries I met were those coming home from Iran which has just had a revolution and all trucks were held up on the borders for 3 months in the deep snow of winter. Many had run out of fuel to keep warm as it wasn’t available from Turkey and no one could get into Iran to get it… I had a very large belly tank of red diesel and so didn’t need to stop except to eat… All went smoothly until stopping at Biricik to eat. Here whilst eating my really delicious meal (good food in Turkey) a man came to my table with a large meat cleaver that he slammed down (his idea of a joke I discovered). He was selling hand made kitchen knives. I bought a set which I use even today.
However, outside trouble was brewing, around the truck was a small army of men with tractors demanding fuel which was no longer available locally… The angry crowd was getting very excited indeed and it was all I could to squeeze past them and drive off in great haste… Driving without stop to Habur/Zacko border during which time an attempt was made to force the lorry off the road… Very unpleasant indeed. Odd that I even felt relaxed entering Iraq after Turkey where the water pump I was delivering went to Tikrit.
Meeting the trucks stuck on the Iran/Turkey border reminds me of a fellow - he looked like the wild man of Borneo - I met who has been trapped in Afghanistan with his truck his wild looking wife and a tiny baby when they had their war. I saw his truck first while they were heading home towards the UK. He had an open flatbed trailer with the baldest tyres you’ve ever seen in your life (how he got through to Germany amazes me…) and no lights at all. Every panel of the lorry had been crushed. He’d apparently rolled it 3 times in Afghanistan as all the bridges had been blown and he’d had to ford the rivers…
I can’t imagine he’d have passed the UK Waterguard with a truck in that state. Shame I don’t remember his name. Whoever he was he really had amazing resources to survive and bring back what was left of his truck.
Talking of showers, when I was doing the food relief to Poland during the Solidarity campaign I remember the first warm showers after Poland were at Helmstadt. Travelling back with John Preece (where is he now? He went to Australia but did he come back? Anyone know?) when having showers if you turned off the hot water suddenly the neighbouring shower cubicle was doused with scalding water or conversely switching the hot water on full doused the neighbour with cold water… What fun could be had… John was having a shower and decided to give me some of this “treatment”. However, he didn’t realise I’d finished and he was in fact torturing some German driver. I was combing my hair as I heard the resultant screams from the cubicle I had just vacated… I could hear John laughing his head off until a very deep and threatening voice in German was heard…