Just happened to be ticking off a couple of boxes on our bucket list last week when we came across this.
We were crossing from Namibia into Botswana at the Buitepos border, we knew that the border post didn’t open until
7 a.m. so we arrived there early so that we would be on the doorstep. When we crossed onto the Botswana side we were surprised to see several fairly new U.K. registered B.M.W.'s along with this.
Now it looked like an ex U.K. Forces Seddon Atkinson pulling a tanker but it didn’t have any number plates on and it was obviously being driven from Walvis Bay in Namibia. As we were the only two Europeans at the border it was difficult to see who was driving these vehicles and to find out where they were going.
One of the B.M.W.'s had a back number plate that was from a dealer in Leicester and two of the others had plates which had no dealers name on and could of been made up anywhere.
As we were being watched by two of the policeman we didn’t think that it was a good idea to be taking photos or writing down registration numbers at an African border post as many years ago a guy who I was with ended up being locked up for taking a photo at Kano Airport in Nigeria. It was very hard to explian that Bob was taking a photo of two lizards bonking.
As we were about to leave the border post I noticed a small compound with two British trucks inside it.
This
and this.
Does anybody know anything about these vehicles ? somebody with an H.G.V. license must have driven them to the docks somewhere in the U.K. I can’t quite make out the rego’s on some of the cars but it could be not sure SJ 03 SUK or
SL 09 WSJ and the red truck looks like Bowmans Transport ? anybody ever heard of them.
Any comments would be most welcome.
Indeed the red truck is an ex Bowmans, but I don’t tend to see many of them these days.
Whoever gets the ex forces Atki, will probably get a truck that’s done virtually no mileage, (By hgv standards.) so it will probably be good for another 20 years. In fact it might well end up back here in the future on the classic circuit.
The green and white Scania is an ex Arla motor, probably from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and could well have been on the farm collecting side. It will have had a hard life and probably been double shifted, so will have a few km’s on it, but as it ran a pto, the engine will have done more than it’s fair share of work.
Quinny:
Indeed the red truck is an ex Bowmans, but I don’t tend to see many of them these days.
Whoever gets the ex forces Atki, will probably get a truck that’s done virtually no mileage, (By hgv standards.) so it will probably be good for another 20 years. In fact it might well end up back here in the future on the classic circuit.
The green and white Scania is an ex Arla motor, probably from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and could well have been on the farm collecting side. It will have had a hard life and probably been double shifted, so will have a few km’s on it, but as it ran a pto, the engine will have done more than it’s fair share of work.
Ken.
You beat me to it Deffo Bowmans … recognise that colour / signwriting … the other deffo looks Arla … not Leeds though
Hello Quinny, thanks for that where are Bowmans from as I have been doing a Google search and I came up with nothing. I seem to think that it might of said Northampton or Nottingham on the door but I am not sure now. If you look closely you will notice that somebody has very cleverly built a frame over the fifth wheel and put a red car on it. I am sure that somebody would of noticed this if it had travelled on U.K. roads during daylight hours.
Quinny:
Indeed the red truck is an ex Bowmans, but I don’t tend to see many of them these days.
Whoever gets the ex forces Atki, will probably get a truck that’s done virtually no mileage, (By hgv standards.) so it will probably be good for another 20 years. In fact it might well end up back here in the future on the classic circuit.
The green and white Scania is an ex Arla motor, probably from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and could well have been on the farm collecting side. It will have had a hard life and probably been double shifted, so will have a few km’s on it, but as it ran a pto, the engine will have done more than it’s fair share of work.
Ken.
You beat me to it Deffo Bowmans … recognise that colour / signwriting … the other deffo looks Arla … not Leeds though
Leeds did have the odd Scania. Most of their artic fleet in that colour were ERF’s (MAN’s) and Volvo on the farm side. I did a fair bit for them on the agency, and I can defo tell you that Ashby had mostly Scanias in that colour. Their colour scheme after 58 plate is an all white Scania.
Certain that Bowmans were from the Nottingham area as well.
Ken.
Edit: They were from Mansfield. (Google was my friend.)
If you look closely you will notice that somebody has very cleverly built a frame over the fifth wheel and put a red car on it. I am sure that somebody would of noticed this if it had travelled on U.K. roads during daylight hours.
Believe me you see tons like this on lowloader trailers being taken to Tilbury for the Grimaldi ferry. Often you will see a lowloader carrying a flat rigid, carrying a Nissan cabstar or similar (no wheels) and a car on the back of that. A lot of what goes out is crap, but there is some decent gear too.
lots of stuff goes to Africa from UK
as has been said tons of it from Tilbury
but a fair bit from Sheerness as well
i’ve taken vans to Tibury and once a ex London council minibus
from Northampton to Sheerness going to East Africa somewhere
a church group had bought it for some village over there
Hello 8 wheels without trying to get on Happydaze ■■■■ and not trying to sound like Judith Chalmers, I was going to mention that a couple of days later I saw at the South African/ Botswana border heading east, a bright yellow tipper on U.K. rego plates on the back of a lowloader. The name on the front of the tipper was Northumbrian Tippers which also had a website address. Again I did a search and came up with nothing so I was going to mention this on The Old North East Drivers thread to see if this company rang any bells and to see if it was of any interest to anybody.
Sugar Ray:
Its an ex British Army tanker unit, here`s one in action.
Hello Ray, I thought that it might of been Army as an ex R.A.F. one would of more that likely had a yellow stripe around it which it didn’t have. Does that GST07 code mean anything to anybody .
Well done Graham A, I didn’t spot the IMM code for Immingham .