This is home to the oka she is powered by a 4cy PERKINS PHASER 110HP it has been updated with a larger turbo 5 speed turner gear box badged Spicer NP transfer box and Spicer diffs
As you can see a fitter must have this space ,sat in a lot of ground with tame hand fed MAGPIES ,a small holding property ideal to start off my trip .
We arranged to meet Dave at a well know spot called HILLIARYS my niece and myself ,we were looking for a ex Aussie trucker, i said to my niece ring his mobile and i will go look in the restaurants and see who is chatting on the phone while we did that he was sitting 2 tables behind us he stood up and shouted my name and that was that ,within half a hour his wife and my niece were chocking on diesel fumes, after a couple of beers we were mates as if we had worked together and lot in common ,i have been know by family ,as they say i can [chops a lot] esp lorry talk i think i might have overdone it as we had another beer ,the 2 ladies went off lots to see at that place and it was roasting it was NOVEMBER.
.Arrangements were made that i would be picked up Sunday and start our trip however there was a surprise for me Sunday DAVE told me to put my boots ON .
I had packed a borrowed hold all ,i had no idea where we were going and how long for so it was socks and undies Tshirts etc and a coat as i was told it would get cold at night,i packed as if i was going to work for a week or morei had no idea if it was a ute with a back for sleeping
camper van or a car and sleeping on the ground in what i did know as a SWAG, for us uk men a swag is like a massive sports bag hold all that really is a outdoor sleeping bag like a old army sleeping bag with canvas outside and quilt inside i used one when cabbing it in the CRUSADER .PRE 1980.
Ihad no idea about the OKA i had never heard of them.
Dave picked me up around 9am and i can tell you i was really looking forward to this ,in all my years i was nearly always in control where i went or what i did ,this time nothing ,it felt sort of strange .we drove out of the PERTH ,I was all eyes we pulled on to a industrial estates stopped out side a place Dave got out and said wait there a minute later he shouted me to come on over the gate opened and my mouth dropped i had never seen so many massive KENWORTH trucks in all my life, trailers, dollies, I thought PULLENS and BOWKERS had some set up but this was like[really] usual transport yard blokes shouting, fork lift about etc i had no idea why we were there .
Dave said follow me we went into a transport office and i met the boss one of DAVES OLD MATES MR BISHOP. after introductions we soon got down to lorry talk and i was off again mostly about EUROPE ,THE PREVIOUS CUSTOMS,ETC they had no idea what EUROPEAN HAULAGE was like i did stress i never did middle east as the were the real pioneers and only started euro in 1982 .but learnet quickly.
he then said i have a bit of bad news for you ,you were going with one of our drivers this afternoon for a trip up north and DAVE was going to meet you the next day and carry on with your trip however things had changed and the run is off,f so one minute i was up then bump down again [thats transport ] i said no problem thank you anyway ,he said when you get back you come here and we will take you out for a day run in a truck ,that was fair enough.