This really is sad news could somebody please send me a p.m. telling me about the cause of his death. Rick and I exchanged quite a few messages a couple of years ago but I haven’t heard from him for ages. My condolences go out to Julie and their daughters.
Sleep well Rick.
Rick’s Own Story.
Where it all began.
I thought it was the heat from the engines when I disembarked from the 747 at night, but soon found out that it was not the heat of engines but the summer heat, it was still 30c+ at night.
I walked to the small dirty arrivals terminal to find customs officers speaking a language I had never heard before; there was no queue discipline, he with the longest arm was getting served first, scruffy customs officers with dirty shoes with no laces. It all felt strange. Keep moving forward looking for a friendly face to eventually see, someone holding a board with my name on it. Adnan and I travelled to the villa in the dead of night, outside there was a small hut with someone sleeping inside, it was home made from wood with a corrugated tin roof which was held in place by the odd stone. I was shown to my quarters; upon entering the room, the smell of unwashed sweaty bodies hit me. Sharing a room with three others guys was strange and something I hadn’t experienced since I was a child.
The primitive AC was made from reeds where water ran down them and an external fan blew cool air into the room, I was not comfortable with the mosquitoes, and geckos on the dirty white washed walls, I had never experienced them before.
I drifted in and out of sleep to be woken by loud voices, but the language was English. I was greeted by three experienced truckers who had been here for some time, I was a green horn who had only held my HGV license for less than a year and never been beyond the shores of the UK. This was where I had wanted to be, it was the place I had plagued my good mate to get me a Job. I had arrived in this strange land they called Saudi Arabia. I had thought I was a driver, but very quickly found out that I knew almost nothing. It was here that the adventures and changes to my life began.
The Early Weeks.
Weeks had passed since my first arrival in Saudi Arabia, I had still not become accustomed to the dirty surroundings, the cockroaches, mosquitoes and geckos, there was no air conditioning in the trucks per say, and the one’s which had air conditioning only worked intermittently.
The dust, the searing heat was at times unbearable, being woken at night by the sweat running down your face which felt like a fly crawling on your skin, and the constant diarrhoea and the lack of facilities to shower, yet there was something unique about this place. I was learning more and more each day about myself and the culture of the people. I was also earning as much each month as a GP back home, which was unbelievable! I had the drive and the determination to succeed and replace all I had lost in my divorce with something better.
The contrast in the way the Saudi’s went about their lives was unbelievable. The “inshallah” relaxed attitude of tomorrow/ bukra will be soon enough, compared to the “no time to wait or give way” when they were on the roads, this is something that has not changed even today as I write.
The constant sounding of the horn, the impatience of the drivers made me crazy, the stupidity of the drivers with their inability to recognise danger and the constant knowledge that if I became involved in an accident it would be my fault for being here, the mentality at that time was, “if you as a foreigner had not been there, then the accident would not have happened” but my will to achieve and survive never faltered.
Apart from being on the roads there was no real dangers in Saudi Arabia, we never locked the vehicles, we never even locked the doors to the villa. Away from the villa and on the road, we slept at night with the truck doors open or on top of the load, some of the guys even rigged up a hammock under the trailer and the braver ones even slept on the desert floor, but not me.
My system had now become more accustomed to the change in diet and the diarrhoea was not so frequent, and my weight had reduced by more than 8kg in less than a month.
I had started to learn a few words of Arabic, the numbers, the greetings and niceties etc.
It was time to brave the road side cafés, as I was confident that I could order my food in Arabic.
The waiter came to the table and I ordered an omelette in what I considered was good Arabic, only to receive liver and onions. Oops here comes the diarrhoea again… still got a lot to learn and many more mistakes to make”
The Novice.
Meeting so many experienced drivers in those early weeks in Saudi, I soon realized that I knew very little about trucking and transportation and yet, most of the drivers I met were prepared to help and teach me things I never knew about the world of transport.
There would be times when they would make jokes at my expense, as it was obvious to them, that I was a novice and I never pretended to be anything but that. I would listen to their tales and experiences with awe, each trying to out do the other with their stories, some of which, I now feel were slight exaggerations, but wow to this novice the stories sounded fantastic, they would tell me of their experiences driving overland from the UK to Saudi and I wanted that experience, I wanted to do what they had done, I was hungry to learn.
Prior to my arrival in Saudi, I had never changed a wheel on a truck and certainly never repaired a puncture on the side of the road, I didn’t know what a trilex 3 piece wheel was and certainly would not have known how to split one and put it back together, but I was listening, watching and learning from what I considered to be “the masters”.
As each day passed, I was serving my apprenticeship, I was the boy in their eyes, but I was also like a sponge, just soaking up information and knowledge.
In the early weeks I was mainly running between Riyadh and Dammam on the old road, fighting to get passed trucks loaded with 70 tons of bagged cement, always watching for the chance to overtake and remain alive. The journey was approximately 7 hours on the old road and the night drive was horrendous, I had never encountered such stupidity on the roads either day or night, at times having to partially leave the road to avoid the 20 foot container coming towards me being carried sideways on the trailer without marker lights. The accidents and deaths on that old two way road from Riyadh to Dammam were unbelievable; the desert littered with accident damaged vehicles that served as sorry epitaphs for the unlucky drivers.
It was while I was in Dammam that I first came across Rynart Transport, the drivers were mainly Turks, with the exception of an English guy who later, tragically got killed on the OGEM construction site in Dammam, named after the Dutch company that built it but now known locally as Wow City.
Like many of the other drivers I had met in Saudi, most of the Rynart drivers were overland drivers who appeared to have been everywhere that I had not been, but then, prior to Saudi I had never been anywhere; this was my first time outside of England.
The Rynart Turkish drivers were true professionals who treated me with the utmost respect, their hospitality was like I had never experienced before in my life.
Even though, they must have known that I didn’t have the same level of knowledge and experience as they had, it didn’t matter to them. They were always polite and willing to show me a better way to do the job. I remained good friends and stayed in contact with many of the Rynart drivers for years to come and would often meet up with them on my future overland trips.
Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try”……
Regards Fred
