111 days on the road, Just got back home, left on March 7th

[dave_o_donnell]

Iv’e just returned from an epic journey, I left home on March the 7th (2011), went to my mates yard, just off the A14 nr Thrapston, where I helped prepare the Magnum 480 Mack tractor unit & curtainside trl I was due to drive for the next 4 months, until I left the yard after a nice welcome shower at 22.00hrs on Friday 11th, shipped out of Dover to Calais, & ran to Namur for a well earned sleep, had 9hrs off then ran onto Ramstien for a 24hr break, cracked on at 04.00 Monday heading to a machine manufacturer, just north of Munich, loaded 2 new diggers, then met up with my mate in an identical truck & box trl in Basel, spent 2 days here demonstrating the 2 diggers I had & 3 skidsteers my mate had on board, we then ran onto Nurnberg, then after a nights sleep, we split, I went to a hotel in the centre of Berlin, to drive the mini digger into the hotel reception for a demolition conference, my mate to a dealers in Berlin Sud, after 4 nights in the hotel, we then met up in Berlin Sud to load 3 more diggers onto my trl, then off to Bremen, 2 days here, then to Koln, 2 days then to Koblenz, a night in the hotel, & after reloading, off to Leipzig, I spent 6 nights in the hotel & again reloaded our machines then run down to Ulm, demo & 2 nights hotel here, then a quick drive to Munich, demo again, 2 nights in hotel (thats end of March) then off to Straubing, 1 night hotel then off to Poland, via Czech, arriving inone of the oldest towns in Poland, Kalisz, demo & 1 night in hotel then off to Krakow, way south of Warsaw, demo again & 2 nights hotel, then onto Lublin, same again & 2 nights hotel & off to north west of Warsaw, to Torun, demo & 4 nights here in hotel,
Once reloaded we then headed upto the north east corner to Elk, then after 3 nights in the truck, we craic on through Slovakia, stopping & paying the transit tax use, to a town called Bekescsab in Hungary, nr the Romainian border, 1 night here then back up north of the M3 to Nyiregyhaza, once demo & hotel stay over to Budaors, Budapest, again reload & back up Slovakia,stopping again to pay €50 for the rental of the massive “road toll” box & some €110 for the poor roads, we now head for Banska Bystrica, where i spend the next 10 nights on my own in a fantastic town centre hotel April has ended

[gadge]

mate get some pics up here , sounds a bloody good trip

[bald_bloke]

gadge:
mate get some pics up here , sounds a bloody good trip

Sounds like a great trip, now take a leaf out of Euro Mat’s book and post some nice pictures to go with the diary.

[daftrucker]

That’s the sort of job that would have been right up my street 20 years ago. The longest I was away was 4 weeks running back a forth to Spain and Portugal, with trailer swaps at Bordeaux.

[skids]

13 weeks was my longest trip, that was before the job became well and truly fubar though!

[betz]

wow impressive tour! do you have any photos of your tour? dont mind ask you who you work for?

Cheers Ben

[dave_o_donnell]

its not Willi Betz, but i did see their defunknt yard in Turkey, might even have a photo of it
I’m not allowed to show photo’s of the tour due to copy right reasons, but when i get round to it i will post some pics of it in a candid way, I work for myself & get booked up to do various jobs for various companies

[betz]

Of course its not Willi Betz but sound’s like you are WB driver expect hotels! no worry about photos! cheers

[dave_o_donnell]

[dave_o_donnell]

anyone know this stretch of “European” road above ?
no prizes

[wheel_nut]

Dave are the machines Red or Yellow?

[dave_o_donnell]

[dave_o_donnell]

This system at the border between Croatia & Serbia is self regulated by the other truck drivers, you put yours at the bottom of the pile on the window sill & when it gets near the top get ready to get it into customs

as seen here all the drivers hang about, bit like the the old days from Austria to Hungary, with the old porta cabins, not good in the rain or winter

this is a quiet moment

check out the time on the right at 14.18

[dave_o_donnell]

now in the que for for Serbia

my mate passing me on route to Zagreb

[dave_o_donnell]

WHEELNUT, they can be any colour you want, but normally a kind of Mustard

[betz]

Great pictures!!! Croatia to Bulgaria via Serbia - full of Turkish lorries out there! First picture - saw MLC of Chelthenham at queue in somewhere at Balkan, is that right?

[dave_o_donnell]

you might try this link below, as its in the open domain & I didn’t film or post it on youtube
you can see the trucks in the back ground

youtube.com/watch?v=aHDRdDlU4-k

[toby1234abc]

Great diary and photos,you were not far from the enormous USAF at Ramstein,they have everything there,bowling alley,cimemas,all the fast food outlets,it is the size of a town.

[wheel_nut]

Here is a picture from me!

[wheel_nut]

And here is another one at Britcom in Market Weighton in East Yorkshire on the UK Tour

Dave. when I asked you if the colour was red or yellow. I thought you were doing the Schäffer loader tour as a friend of mine has recently begun working for them in Australia. Before he emigrated he was sales manager at Kubota and I think there is a link now with the engines they use.

I have just read about Britcom taking the CAT agency onboard. I lived about 2 miles from them when I was in Yorkshire.

Do you work for Finning or through an agency?