Many of the French roadsigns are still upside down. The farmers did this a couple of years ago to highlight their grievances and disputes with the French government. But now they still have not been righted mainly because nobody wants to be seen, ‘crossing the line’. The job should be done by the local council workers but they are as bolshy as the farmers. The only way Macron will get them righted is by bringing in the military. Until then you may have to rely on your satnav or stand on your head.
Random post,as requested by sandway1 ■■ 
Two ships from the Brittany Ferries fleet in Cherbourg. Neither are ready to be replaced any time soon but both need a bit of TLC especially the cabins of the Barfleur. Must admit I had long retired from the road when they were launched so took my lorry on neither of them. It’s good to see though that Brittany Ferries are running a winter schedule from Poole to Cherbourg this year. First time for a long time but unfortunately not using the Barfleur.
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Just seen this article in the local rag. Early retirement for 13,000 lorry drivers in Almeria, well not all right now I know. How are they going to replace them I wonder and do you think the British government will follow their lead?
Have read the interesting article ‘whisperingsmith’ posted in ‘Middle East-Not Astran’ concerning the proposed reinstatement of the railway down through Syria from Turkey to Saudi. On one trip to Saudi, I was delivering furniture to British Embassy’s in Damascus, Amman, Jeddah and Riyadh, I saw two sections of the old railway. The first one was in Damascus near Sami Sirissi’s office and the second was in the countryside to the south of the town. The second location was where a picnic had been organised by members of the embassy (see photo). As I was stuck there for about 10 days I was invited along. I remember wandering along the old lines for about a km. The locals didnt seemed to be to surprised to see us as I’m sure the embassy crew had been there before. I was told at the time that the railway line had been attacked by ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ when he was trying to unite the Arabs to fight the Turks.
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Free the sandway 1..
That photo was taken by the Promotor driver Stephen Lacey in Monte Carlo. He was there for a ‘World Duty Free Exhibition’.
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‘You never know what’s around the corner’ as the saying goes. Was driving the back streets of our local town here in West Dorset and came across this old gal hiding away.
Very nice one
Mad Max 3 
I could never get my head around this lorry, shown almost at the end of its trip to Saudi I believe. The story has been told before on here but ten lorries loaded with semi wide loads of decking made their way down to the Middle East. Ray Scutts was taken on as he had a lot of experience in that area but the job was a disaster almost bankrupting Promotor. But this lorry intrigues me. The first photo was taken in the desert. The lorry is a left hooker and has an air-conditioning unit on its roof. It also has, what looks like a temporary Promotor name board on the top of the cab. In the second photo, taken possibly at Ramtha on the way home, the name board is missing. Possibly it couldn’t put up with the jarring as the lorry was driven off road in the desert. I have no other photos of a Promotor unit with an air-conditioning unit on its roof so possibly it was a subbie. I know Big John McFall, another subbie on this trip, didnt work for Promotor again as it almost broke him. Maybe the same with this guy.
I posted these photos with the story of a trip to Baghdad on Trucknet back in January 2017 or thereabouts. My fellow driver was John ‘Wellie’ Ward. Recently I have posted them on various F/B sites where they were very popular and well received so thought I would repost the photos again on here. I would have liked to have bumped up the original stories from 2017 but thats beyond my capabilities. Anyway, I will post the photos, there are about 25 of them
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Fantastic pictures! My fingers still remember how awful fitting snow-chains was in Turkish winters.
That hill looks like Bolu
David Boulding MD
Southern IT Ltd
I had to put on snow chains to for a tiny ramp at the Bulgarian/Turkish border. Just a few yards and loads of dirty and cold work to travel just 5 metres The only time I ever needed them.
I once got in a massive queue on the Italian side of Mt Blanc due to heavy snow while heading home. Snow chains obligatory. However I didn’t have any and wasn’t going to sit for days waiting for the snow to go.
Arriving at the top after a very slow crawl of hours to the top after the tunnel on the French side the French held back each lorry for 5 minutes to release with a big gap between… My turn to descend came… In very low gear and I noticed that I was actually accelerating as I was sliding down the mountain faster and faster. On the Scania there was a manual trailer brake and I found that it was important to go faster to be able to steer rather than slide and occasionally using the trailer brake to straighten up. A most unpleasant experience. I arrived at the bottom after dawn.
Missed not being able to be awake enough to visit my girlfriend in Geneva. Happy days.
David Boulding MD
Southern IT Ltd
Yes efes its the bottom of Bolu. Photos were taken in the Londra and on the way to Bolu.
John and I continued our journey to Baghdad. It was bitterly cold as we crossed southern Turkey. We heard there was a diesel shortage in Iraq so had an extra trailer tank fitted near Kizeltepe. At least the sun was shining when we got to Baghdad.
