Just to get you started " steviespain "it looks like that was some Pass bloody hell in an fiat ? Ron
Did it every day for 6 months, the trip was from Tobruk where we lived to Derna Hospital.
What happened was, we moved there in ´67 (I was 10) and my Dad, surgeon, took control of Tobruk Hospital surgical needs. Civvy, not Army or R.A.F…
He learned Italian (All the nurses were Italian, they were lovely) and Arabic, in 6 months. Proper clever bloke.
Then, when the Colonel took over, yeah scary night THAT was, he was told that he had to work at Derna Hospital.
I used to travel with him sometimes.
He´d already taught me to drive when we lived in Jersey, on the sand dunes, so I could do all the gear change stuff.
Tobruk to Derna every day. Must have been a nightmare for him. I loved it though. I got to go out with my Dad all day. School was obviously finished.
Somewhat spoiled by the bayonets poking through the windows at every checkpoint, and the rapid shouting of ■■■■ through the window asking for passes etc.
He wouldn´t let me drive DOWN the Derna Pass, but he let me drive UP it. Makes sense, I was only 12 
John West:
ronhawk:
The road train was checked over and made ready by JD & myself , it would have caused problems going out of Jeddah and also entering Dammam , RonYou can see why I wanted nothing to do with that steel reinforcing matting!
Life’s too short, and loads like that sometimes made it shorter!
Hi John,
I used to take lots of those loads which came from Stafford,loaded on days,I used to take them up to. Crooklands cafe for a night change over.
I heard on the grape vine one night,that one of the loads,they were all bound for Aberdeen,had shifted and the complete vehicle had left the road into a ditch,driver OK fortunately,the loads were notorious for moving if not secured correctly,originally the day men used to use hooks shaped like an S ,but they were superceded by "goal posts"at each corner of the load,didn’t shift at all then,either that or chain and dwangs,before the days of straps of course.
David
steviespain:
Did it every day for 6 months, the trip was from Tobruk where we lived to Derna Hospital.What happened was, we moved there in ´67 (I was 10) and my Dad, surgeon, took control of Tobruk Hospital surgical needs. Civvy, not Army or R.A.F…
He learned Italian (All the nurses were Italian, they were lovely) and Arabic, in 6 months. Proper clever bloke.Then, when the Colonel took over, yeah scary night THAT was, he was told that he had to work at Derna Hospital.
I used to travel with him sometimes.
He´d already taught me to drive when we lived in Jersey, on the sand dunes, so I could do all the gear change stuff.
Tobruk to Derna every day. Must have been a nightmare for him. I loved it though. I got to go out with my Dad all day. School was obviously finished.
Somewhat spoiled by the bayonets poking through the windows at every checkpoint, and the rapid shouting of [zb] through the window asking for passes etc.He wouldn´t let me drive DOWN the Derna Pass, but he let me drive UP it. Makes sense, I was only 12
Thanks all, for your kind words. Yeah, special times. I have a rubbish memory but alot of stuff is still in there from those 3 years in Libya.
And, my bad, I asked my sister about the car, she reminded me it was a fiat 124.
The good news with that car was that there was LOADS of infrastructure work being done on the roads. All Italian companies. With Italian workshops. With Italians who liked cars. They also liked my Dad who had bothered to learn Italian. So, free servicing, and parts, until the mad Colonel kicked em all out.
I´ve been reading all of this thread for a while now and loving every minute spent here.
Thanks to everyone who contributes it´s a real blast from the past and a tale of how it used to be done.
I was born 20 years too late.
I can see meself driving one of these monsters, pair of shorts, boots, sunglasses 
and suntan, hauling on the wheel getting around those godawful passes.
Yeah, big thanks.
backsplice:
Ron… something for you to watch memories■■?
Thanks Backsplice , once seen never forgoten I went straight back to that Bedowin tent , I supose we became sort of Bedowin People, it was all about surviving in that desert driving on a mirror with no arizon in sight it was almost like driving on a road that went nowhere , Ron
A blast from the past ? I thought this would come in handy one day !! This fan I had in Jeddah when building the Mac engines up in that OVEN of a place with John Davies , the temp here is certanly getting close to 32 deg but in that tin shed it must have been 60!!! at least , Ron
Stan Brindley with Bill Smith sitting on a new part of the wall , the start of the rebuild of Jeddah front , I remember a fish market there with a tarpaulin cover and big sharks Jaws hanging down , the queens building in the background which Led to the old town Sueks where we had Shi with the locals and changed our King Fiesals to queen Elisabeth’s " Money " it was hot hot , Ron
ronhawk:
backsplice:
Ron… something for you to watch memories■■?Thanks Backsplice , once seen never forgoten I went straight back to that Bedowin tent , I supose we became sort of Bedowin People, it was all about surviving in that desert driving on a mirror with no arizon in sight it was almost like driving on a road that went nowhere , Ron
I second that Backsplice. I have 3 ‘Spencer Tart’ limited edition prints of Jeddah. (I had a fourth, but it was ‘borrowed’ by an American cousin.)
One of them is of the Jeddah Souk from the entrance, very similar to one of the scenes in this video. Such a mixture of old and new. 13 centuries kicked up the backside by immeasurable wealth!
Another is if the donkey cart water carriers. Remember them? A 45 gallon drum…
In 1979, ( even just after the Iranian revolution) Jeddah was very laid back, despite being so close to Mecca. We watched soft ■■■■ films at the British Embassy - undoubtably brought in in the diplomatic bag. I was bollocked, but not thrown out, of a restaurant for wearing a sleeveless T shirt. The souk didn’t bother closing the shutters at prayer time.
Over at Dammam, you could still fill up with diesel at prayer time, but the lights went off. I remember stopping at a restaurant in Abqaiq (I think you had to have been there to understand the word restaurant in that part of the world.There was no menu, you had ‘nus djaj wa ruz’ half a chicken and rice. I had just ordered when prayer time started. My meal arrived, but I ate it in the dark.
By 1980, the fear of the Iranian revolution spreading to Saudi meant that everything and I mean everything, closed at prayer time, no food, no fuel. A Shi ite prophet was publicly beheaded. They were taking no risks!
The only thing missing on the video was the flies. I didn’t see one. Wherever you stopped, even 500 miles from anything, you were instantly surrounded by them. Luckily, they didn’t fly at night - but…
The mosquitoes, which obviously slept in the day, went looking for succulent white flesh at night. There’s a thread on the astran FB page about ‘raid’ and piff paf’. One of my favourite Ginger McNeil quotes is ’ I don’t know about the mozzies, but that ‘raid’ is F******well killing me!’
I delivered once to a site miles off the main road (I’ve written about this in one of my stories) where they were going to build an unmanned aeroplane VOR station. It was inhabited by a Bedouin family who lived in one of those black (why black - surely the wrong colour?) tents at the site. The government had paid him a fortune for the land. He went shoeless. His soles were like leather. His 12 year old son drove the family Toyota. He could drive that across soft sand like a waterboatman across a pond. His wife didn’t wear an abaya - couldn’t care less that we could see her face. Laughed like a drain at Eric, who wore shorts and no t shirt. ( I was prone to sunburn and wore jeans and a shirt).
He invited us to supper. Goat and rice, cooked in some sort of badly rancid ghee. We all ate from a central plate. Luckily, very little light, darkness and a billion stars, so I pushed a little rice around and didn’t eat much. Eric suddenly said ‘I’ve, gulp, just, gulp, eaten, an eye!’ Oh how we laughed. The Arab and his wife said ‘hamdullilah’ .
For many weeks all you had to mention was eating an eye and Eric would be close to throwing up!
Happy days,
John.
ronhawk:
A blast from the past ? I thought this would come in handy one day !! This fan I had in Jeddah when building the Mac engines up in that OVEN of a place with John Davies , the temp here is certanly getting close to 32 deg but in that tin shed it must have been 60!!! at least , Ron
Ron, you must have drunk daily quite a few litres of water. Did you buy it by the pallet? [emoji3]
Johnny
Sent using Tapatalk.
Johnny
Hey whats up with that parasites coments everywere Ron?
Danne
Post removed