That prolific and regular contributor to this forum, mushroomman, has not looked in since 8th December. Does anyone know why?
ERF-NGC-European:
Noticed this on the Essex Boys thread. Robert
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EPU 305T. Nice to see my old lorry appearing again. Drove that from 78/79 through to about 82 or thereabouts.
EPU 305T again. Did a trip to Baghdad with Clive Turner aka ‘The Arab’ about 79 or 80. Pictured at the lakes near Ramadi on the way home. Next day we crossed the Syrian desert then made our way up to Tartous to catch the ferry. I am sure we were both loaded with JCB’s on the way down.
Just found another photo of Clive Turner and myself enjoying some time off at the lake near Ramadi. Not sure how I took the photo unless I had my tripod with me or I just put the camera on the back of the trailer?
Attached a photo of Clive and I again. Same trip to Baghdad. Somewhere we met up with others on the road.
Hi sandway! That green and yellow Volvo globbetrotter is if im not wrong Masen from Sweden at that time O/D did alot of Irak for a building company,his truck was in there livery to. Anyway thats long before my time. I got to now him last 10years or so when he was driving a pilotcar and helped our company out sometimes,good to work with and always a story to tell. Sadly his not with us any more lost his battle to cancer…
Danne
Dirty Dan:
Hi sandway! That green and yellow Volvo globbetrotter is if im not wrong Masen from Sweden at that time O/D did alot of Irak for a building company,his truck was in there livery to. Anyway thats long before my time. I got to now him last 10years or so when he was driving a pilotcar and helped our company out sometimes,good to work with and always a story to tell. Sadly his not with us any more lost his battle to cancer…Danne
Morning Danne. Yes, the driver was working for ‘Skanska’ who were building the impressive and expensive ‘Conference Palace’ in Baghdad. He is among the group of drivers but maybe to far away for you to pick him out. Opposite the Conference Palace was the Al Rasheed Hotel. Now that was a work of art and building costs were astronomical. I think Skanska built that as well. If I remember rightly the company had there own lorry and drag driven by a young Swedish guy who on one trip let me drive his rig around the lorry park in Tartous while we were waiting for the ferry.
No age at all, R.I.P Driver
Away on business the last couple of days and passed one of our regular stops… Seems unchanged. I’m sure you all know where it is?
I must say I have a yearning to go down to the old Commie Bloc routes and Turkey and see what these places are like these days…
Efes:
Away on business the last couple of days and passed one of our regular stops… Seems unchanged. I’m sure you all know where it is?I must say I have a yearning to go down to the old Commie Bloc routes and Turkey and see what these places are like these days…
Morning Efes. Although not been in that neck of the woods for many years I think your photo is of Lokeren. When I first started driving abroad, pulling for Win Voss in the mid 70’s, we were based there. Very handy having the cafe attached but didn’t use the truckwash until I worked for Pro’s. If its not Lokeren please enlighten me.
You mention going back to, what was the commie block. I have on the rare occasion revisited places from my past. I think I can honestly say they have never lived up to my expectations. But, maybe thats just me.
Glad you put the photo of ‘Blues’ headstone on here. I didn’t go to his funeral but my wife and I visited his grave a couple of years later and laid a wreath.
What are you up to now Efes. You should have retired from work by now!
Yes, it was Lokeren. I was passing on a business trip to Breda and, rumbling through Belgium and Holland, everything looked exactly the same. No retirement for me, I have a young son (14) and wife to support after starting a family quite late. I have my own business which I (mostly) quite enjoy although travelling is rare these days.
I was sorry to have missed Bugsy’s funeral but I didn’t hear about it till afterwards. I am advised his (2nd) wife still lives in the village but I’ve not met her.
Does anyone know what happened to John Preece? I went to his (2nd) wedding in Shoreham but some time after that he split up from his wife and went to Australia and after that I heard no more. He was always most entertaining as a travelling companion. He certainly lived life to the full.
Graham Bertram aka ‘Blue’ or ‘Bugsy’. Promotor driver and Mr Nice Guy. His name has been mentioned on here recently along with a picture of his headstone. Cruelly taken well before his time.
Thought I would add a few photos I took of him even though they have all been posted before.
Just found this photo from early 80’s of Clive Turner (on the left) myself by the lifebelt and another driver (no not her) on board the Scandinavia homeward bound from Tartous in Syria to Koper in Yugoslavia. We had been at sea for a couple of days and were steaming up the Adriatic. Still had another day at sea though.
The deprivation of being a lorry driver just doesn’t show through in this picture but just try and imagine the hardship and boredom we were all suffering.
Another photo on board the Scandinavia en-route from Tartous. The guy on the left is a Swedish driver. Next is Clive Turner then myself and sitting in front of me is another British driver. Don’t know his name or who he drove for? Perhaps someone recognises him. His lorry is one of those in the group photo shown earlier. The couple on the right were on their way home from Amman where they worked. I must admit the weather was not always that great and then the crossing became a bit tedious.
One of my favourite sayings is ‘the little grey cells are not what they used to be’. This is the truth and its getting worse. Not just me. My wife, who keeps a small diary often says, ‘what did we do 3 days ago’. Duh!! Pointless asking me. Cant even remember getting up this morning! I am staggered by peggydeckboy’s fantastic memory. His recent utterings of his working life make very interesting reading. Its a pity more people don’t post such stories on here. Of course it could be to do with the ‘cells’. I have been lucky I suppose as I have had lots of photos to jog mine.
This brings me nicely onto my recent postings of a trip to Baghdad I did with fellow Promotor driver, Clive Turner aka ‘The Arab’. It was one of those trips where everything went smoothly, well almost as there was a bit of a sting in the tail.
I had done a couple of trips to the M/E using the Volos/Tartous ferry in 78/79 but early in 1980 they switched the ferry from Volos to Koper right up the top of the Adriatic in Yugoslavia just round the corner from Trieste in Italy. Certainly made any M/E trip a doddle unless you were headed for Iran. Of course at that time virtually no British lorries were going that way anyway. The ferry took over three days to do the trip. As you have seen in the recent photos some of us made the most of it but other drivers complained of boredom. Yeh, well!! You can’t please all the people all of the time.
Clive and I travelled down together via the conventional Promotor route of Zeebrugge/Belgium/Germany/Austria/Yugo and onto Koper. All very straightforward. I thought we were carrying JCB’s but after looking at one of the later photos I see Clive was pulling one of our supercubes so no JCB’s but almost certainly both loads were for an exhibition down there. I still think I was loaded with the bright yellow machines though.
Once off the ferry in Tartous we headed inland to Homs. Our only stop being in the bit of the Lebanon which jutted into Syria, where all the Lebanese shopkeepers had set up their stalls or stores. Here we purchased a few cases of beer to keep us going. From there it was a few hours drive down to north of Damascus where we chucked a left and headed off across the Syrian desert to the Iraqi border post at Rutba. Once through there it was on to Fallujah, the great dusty sh-t hole set up to the west of Baghdad where all drivers had to go to register and deposit their passports then to await instructions. Normally if you were going to the trade fair you didn’t hang around in Fallujah after registering, you were told to go to the fairground as the customs had an office there and your agent had to produce the ‘Temporary Import Document’. A TID had to be produced for each invoice you had for your load. So if all you had on you trailer were two JCB tractors then only two TID’s were needed. If you had a mixed load, like groupage, then maybe thirty would be needed.
We were sent to the fairground arriving late morning. After parking up in this green, secure oasis we knew nothing could or would be done until next day. It was at this point Clive decided he wanted some dinars. Don’t know why as I had a few for emergencies and we both had some hard currency but he was insistent. I said wait until the agent comes in the morning. He would give us a good rate. But no. This was Clive’s first trip to Baghdad and he had been told by another driver that he should go to the Baghdad Hotel in Sadoun Street, then the best (still crap) hotel in town, to change up some money. So off we went in a taxi forgetting we were still wearing just shorts and t-shirts. Now ■■■■■■ or even part ■■■■■■ don’t go down to well in much of the Arab world and Clive’s shorts were well on the short side, mine being just marginally more modest. As soon as we climbed out of the taxi it was made abundantly clear that the sight of our legs was not appreciated. After quickly entering the hotel where Clive changed up some money it was back outside to find another taxi to take us back to the fairground. As we waited we were subjected to more insults all from Iraqi men. I put in down to jealousy as we had better legs than them.
It took three days to clear customs and tip and on the forth day we collected our passports at Fallujah and headed west towards home. That afternoon we parked up at the lakes near Ramadi glad to be away from the hustle and bustle of Baghdad. The photos I’ve posted of Clive and I at the lake show what a lovely peaceful spot it was. It always surprised me that no others parked up there on their way home. I’m sure it was because the homing instinct got the better of them, something that never worried me.
Back at Tartous we embarked on the Scandinavia which smoothly and effortlessly transported us back to Koper. We both reloaded near Zagreb. My load being 20 ton of zinc sheets as I had a straight frame trailer. I’m not sure what Clive loaded but we met up again in Maribor for the last leg home.
We drove up through Germany and into Belgium making our way to Lokeren as I wanted to have the rig washed down. It was here we were given the bad news that French fishermen had blockaded all the French ports and both Ostend and Zeebrugge were inundated with traffic all trying to get on a ferry, both private and commercial vehicles blocking every road into those two ports. I didn’t bother with the truckwash we headed off asap for Zeebrugge to see for ourselves what was happening. Sure enough we were stopped well short of the port and parked up, I think in two lanes, on the right. Cars, motorhomes, vans and anything else were parked up on the left. The road had been turned into a one way system so all the traffic parked up here was heading into the port. There was very little movement and that night we climbed into our bunks confident that we would not be overtaken by the queue moving while we slept. Next morning there was some movement but not from our side of the road. Cars were moving up and this continued all morning. Come midday we heard that private vehicles were being given priority over commercial vehicles and that we would have to wait until the tailback was cleared. This news went down very badly with us lorry drivers and in no time lorries were pulling across the road to form a blockade. This action of course really stirred things up and we had visits from the ferry company, the port authority and the police. But we stayed put. In the end we did move up towards the dock but our second night there was spent in the drivers seats not our bunks. We finally boarded a ferry at five in the morning.
Even though we lost two days in Zeebrugge we still did the round trip in twenty eight days. My norm. Clive was a good bloke to run with and as for the trip? Well it was just “straightforward”.
If there are any cycling enthusiasts reading this blog you will know that the Giro d’Italia race has just started in Israel. The first time the race has ever started outside of Europe. I watched yesterdays stage which started in the northern port of Haifa and ran down to Tel Aviv. This brought back memories of the trip I and three of our drivers did in the early 90’s for Promotor. I have posted the story previously so won’t go into details again suffice to say though the only thing I kinda recognised was an aerial shot of Haifa harbour where I am sure I saw the exact spot where our ferry berthed before we disembarked and were met by one of the Israeli production company crew. I kick myself now for not having taken any pictures whilst in Israel but at the time security was high on there agenda and I was a bit wary of doing so.
Ex Promotor driver Micky Twemlow has died.
I’m not very good at expressing my feelings at a time like this however I would like to say I greatly enjoyed working with Micky and more recently reading his books.
Gone but not forgotten.
R.I.P Micky Twemlow.
sandway:
Ex Promotor driver Micky Twemlow has died.
I’m not very good at expressing my feelings at a time like this however I would like to say I greatly enjoyed working with Micky and more recently reading his books.
Gone but not forgotten.
R.I.P Micky Twemlow.
I’m very sorry to hear this. Had a meal with him only a few months back. A proper driver and a good transport writer. He’ll be missed. RIP Micky. Robert