Happy New Year,Steve!!Keep yer Baht dry! 
harry:
Happy New Year,Steve!!Keep yer Baht dry!
Thankyou mate, iâm off to Koh Chang for 5 days tomorrow, to escape the madness of Pattaya and Songkran.
Then off to Laos at the end of the month, will explore some parts i have not been to before.
I chatted to Norman ( Ray Usher ) yesterday, he did indeed use that ferry and will post his comments on here soon, this weekend he is moving house back to Braintree so is a bit busy at the moment. He did indeed deliver a long load to the ME, but the other load was done by John Latham and not Tony Baker as Mr. McClung thought.
When Norman is back on the internet maybe he can answer who the other fellas are â â
Steve.
Beware of the little rip-off merchants in Koh Chang,Steve. Otherwise a lovely little island altho that old ferry seems a bit dodgy. 
Bad accident at Chanthaburi this morning - Camboâs heading home direction Trat -RIP.
Hi Jamie,thanks for the info regards gordon forest of dean.
Hi archie,
I first met these drivers at the national then on the ferry.
regards
Gordon
Forest of Dean.
Come on boys, this thread has been going for the best part of ten years âŚand itâs dying on itâs ar.se. There are guys on here that were thinking of jacking it in when I Started in 1980, just tell us about your first trip, the first time you went through Kapicule. The first time you went down death valley. Crossing H4, come on you know you have been thereâŚ
I wish I had taken more photos to make it more interesting but I have exhausted my limited source of old photos. Get up in your loft and dig some old photoâs outâŚ
All the very bestâŚ
Mick B.
Be nice to see Karl skiltons centurion 143 in full Astran livery on commercial motors stand at truckfest Peterborough as it is a regular to the Middle East If Karlâs on the stand a very knowledgeable and witty chap he should liven up the old hacks of commercial motor
PanX:
Come on boys, this thread has been going for the best part of ten years âŚand itâs dying on itâs ar.se. There are guys on here that were thinking of jacking it in when I Started in 1980, just tell us about your first trip, the first time you went through Kapicule. The first time you went down death valley. Crossing H4, come on you know you have been thereâŚI wish I had taken more photos to make it more interesting but I have exhausted my limited source of old photos. Get up in your loft and dig some old photoâs outâŚ
All the very bestâŚ
Mick B.
Oh man! Donât be despondent. This stuff comes and goes on these threads. Middle-East is getting thinner because itâs dried up a bit for now. But keep looking at the other threads, mate: all sorts of tales keep seaping into them. For example, look at todayâs Fretitalia thread.
And you ask about Kapic! The first time I went through Kapic was '95, so it was after they had modernised it. The weather was appalling but Iâd got well ahead of the lads I was running with. A wonderful Iranian driver showed me the ropes and helped me to navigate the dozens of windows and offices. By the time my compatriots had arrived to help me through, Iâd done the lot; except for the vetinary inspection for my sheep pelts, which could wait till morning. The pic below shows not H4, but near enough: Turaif in Saudi. Robert
Loading lead in Derbyshire for a wheel weight factory in Adana. Not as far as some folk went but it got my foot in the door for going farther south and east.
Back load was usually through DT out of Istanbul, 3 collections on Wednesday and Thursday, paperwork on Friday.
Never went through Kapic, I always went out through Italy, Greece, even when I was doing Musct for Trans Mondo.
JeffâŚ
Hi all, and a Happy Easter to everyone, I hope you are at home with your families to enjoy it!!!
Gotta agree with PanX, lets keep the thread going. It has always ebbed and flowed, been on page one but sometimes slipped back to page two but then pops back up again! Scanning and then loading up pics takes time as does writing up a memory or tale from back in the day but its always appreciated and enjoyed but those of us who missed the boat so to speak!
So, just a question that may fire things up again, do any of you chaps have any pics of âThe Mirrorsâ restaurant / watering hole? I remember seeing a pic in the Cola Cowboys book. It was on the Tapline wasnât it? Any stories or outrageous tales of the place? Was it really covered in mirrors to reflect the sun off of it thus keeping it cool?
Cheers all 
Iâm not reading this thread all the way through today, but Iâm sure myself others have told tales of the early days, if you can call '75 early, when I did my first trip.
Look at the pics I posted on this page which were taken on my first few trips in '75.
Click on these links below for some more pics.
OK Hereâs the hardest trip I did in the 70s
I was a bit short on work and took on a one way job to Pakistan.
Two 1418 Mercs with 2 ex Cementation trailers, loaded with two mobile cranes.
I used an own account permit for Germany and did paperwork that showed me as the exporter.
Helping me out was John Porter from Crays Hill Essex, I gave him what I thought was the better of the two units, however that wasnât to be as his was an absolute dog and was in constant need of repairs & bodges.
John Porter
We limped into Ankara with a dodgy diff where it was built up with weld and machined into a working unit again - expertly stripped and rebuilt by the 12 year old fitter
We had 2 sacks of old trousers so we kept warm in the yard by soaking them in diesel and kept a constant fire going
We were then ready for the scenic part of the journey to the Iranian Border:
A few tyre repair stops:
By this time I was running behind John so that I was ready to help when he broke down, the next time was going over Tahir - completely snow covered but icy firm. He ground to a halt and couldnât move, we discovered that his trailer brakes were seized on solid, but as it had been ice nearly all the way the trailer had just slid easily along behind and it was only the last climb that stopped him.
He spent two nights in his cab up there, whilst in the mornings I collected Mustafa Ali the Eleskirt blacksmith who stripped both hubs down and freed up the brakes - although it meant finishing the trip with no trailer brakes.
Good man Mustafa, I enjoyed three nights in the Eleskirt cafe drinking Efes with him, John joined us for the third night
before moving on again.
The Dynamo - yes the 1418 had a dynamo - was next to go, with no heating John was up for packing it in - I said*âOK Iâll deliver mine and come back for yoursâ* âYou would you Bstd wouldnât youâ said John who wasnât up for the shame of jacking it in. So I hooked him up and towed him through both sides of the border.
It was Christmas Eve when we arrived in Tabriz, so we parked up at the International Hotel and celebrated with a few beers and some great food.
Eventually we found an old man in a shed who rewound the Armature by hand, it was better than new from Bosch when heâd finished.
We had a smooth run through Iran - apart from the compulsory tea stops with the Iranian Police - and it looked as if anything likely to go wrong with the Merc was now fixed.
Weâd cut into the trailer edges to take the securing chains to stay safe of Iranian regs, but were still constantly stopped and measured - they werenât all happy about it, I guess they got good backhanders for â â â â â â duty.
We sailed on into Afghanistan, stopping outside Herat to help the locals inflate a tyre
John was smiling, the weather was getting warmer and everything seemed fine - but no chance - the old Russian concrete slab road took its toll on the trailer tyres and again it was John who got it worse.
We stopped just North of Kandahar to patch up the tubes - almost rebuilding them in some of them - a local lad on a bike stopped to help and really grafted, he wouldnât share tea with us until weâd put everything back together, what he was really after was our rubbish so we piled his bike with as much as he could lash on.
A rare pic of me!!
He then invited us to his home for dinner, âwhereâs your houseâ I asked, he pointed off in to the distance but nothing to be seen, just barren land - we politely declined and as the tyres were holding pressure we set off again, stopping for the night on one of the dry river fords.
Off again in the morning and about 50 clicks on I groaned as I saw all 8 tyres on his trailer shredding to pieces.
After much scratching of heads, we took the wheels of the crane, got all our jacks out and managed to fit them on the trailer - job done!!
We had two more scheduled stops: to visit the agent in Kabul and then another Agent in Jalalabad
The scenery improves after Kabul, though going through the Kabul Gorge tunnels with our overheight loads wasnât so much fun, a few more stops for Camion Stew
On more of me, definitely smiling as we are almost at the Pakistan border
A few arguments on the Afghan side as weâd gone over our allotted transit time, but we settled on me bringing a Remington Rifle with infra red sights next trip.
Over on the Pakistan side, we were welcomed by Chief of Customs with a tray of tea served in the best porcelain teapot with cup sand saucers.
Bashir, the client wasnât too happy when he learnt that we had burned both sacks of trousers to keep warm and de-ice our brakes and fuel, however he accepted the explanation.
Soon we were holed up in the Hotel in Peshawar - view from the window
It had taken us 5 long weeks to get there, but we both felt a great sense of satisfaction in overcoming all the odds.
Weâd also timed it just right for Bashirâs sonâs wedding and they donât skimp on weddings out there, Bashirâs house was built around a courtyard with 2nd floor balconies running around all three sides.
We were installed on the 2nd floor with a view over the proceedings, the groom - on horseback - was led into the courtyard by the Pipe band of the Khyber Rifles, and then a period of what seemed like chaos but was probably the Pakistani version of order. All finished off with what was definitely the finest wedding feast I have ever had.
A few days break, a bit of shopping for presents as weâd missed Christmas & New Year and of to Islamabad and a flight home.
A last edit: to any of my old buddies out there, real name is Geoff Nicholas - living the dream in Penzance
Brilliant, thanks for posting that.
Wow!!! 
Outstanding!! True British pioneer spirit!!! Now that is a proper, long haul trip and something that no one will ever be able to make again!! Thanks for taking the time to post and write up the story Mr Smith, excellent stuff!!
Fantastic story and great photos as well⌠got any moreâ â ?
JeffâŚ
What a great story ⌠well done and thanks for posting !!! nobody can say that was a "Fairy Tale " written the way it happened and photographic evidence to back it up magic stuff by the Regos it must have been around 76/77 âŚwe,ve all had "adventures but that takes a bit of beating ⌠thanks again
Now that is the sort of trip one could write a book about, how about it?
bestbooties:
Now that is the sort of trip one could write a book about, how about it?
Most of us have got a book inside of us,Boots. Your stories,my stories,the majority of lads on here ,have a good book in 'em.But until they find a way of painlessly extracting the info and converting it into print thatâs where itâs likely to remain.
Come on Ian, get back to the keyboard.
It is a fairly painless process to write a book Harry, if life didnât keep getting in the way, Iâd have some of mine out already. I have a thread on here about doing it, and with all the self publishing options available at the moment itâs fairly easy.
" Sack of trousers," thatâs a phrase that you donât hear very often, and you had 2 of them to dip in diesel and burn to keep warm. Iâve burnt a few pallets in my time. Those blue ones go really well.
We were given a box of those Italian Christmas cakes by the boss to take to China, none of them even got to the Kaz border ( very nice with a bit of fresh cream. ) It was probably a good thing as the Russian, Kaz, and China border guards were often a bit suspicious and iffy about drivers giving gifts.
JeffâŚ
What a great piece Geoff; and expertly put together. Thanks for that - made my morning! Robert