I do think the red and yellow livery suited the 141s rather well, much better than the later models.
The picture on the back of the 4 series cab posted earlier is the Bob Paul and Gordon Pearce truck isn’t it? Setting out for the Middle East from London way back when, it was in Ashley’s Marvellous book.
Looks like I missed seeing Neil jarmans stunning 141 recently at heaton park, rats!
Does anyone know if he is attending truckfest northwest this weekend with his 141 at all? I do hope so.
Many thanks
Thank you! Yes, you are right about the picture on the back of the cab. As for Carl Jarman’s 141 - I wouldn’t hold your breath, as he’s already sold the trailer.
Meanwhile here are a couple of blasts from the past I found online this morning. Robert
I do think the red and yellow livery suited the 141s rather well, much better than the later models.
The picture on the back of the 4 series cab posted earlier is the Bob Paul and Gordon Pearce truck isn’t it? Setting out for the Middle East from London way back when, it was in Ashley’s Marvellous book.
Looks like I missed seeing Neil jarmans stunning 141 recently at heaton park, rats!
Does anyone know if he is attending truckfest northwest this weekend with his 141 at all? I do hope so.
Many thanks
Thank you! Yes, you are right about the picture on the back of the cab. As for Carl Jarman’s 141 - I wouldn’t hold your breath, as he’s already sold the trailer.
Meanwhile here are a couple of blasts from the past I found online this morning. Robert
10
Thank you Robert,
You were right, no sign of Carl’s 141 at weekend at truckfest northwest, at least not on the Saturday anyway…
Rats! He’s sold his trailer!?. That doesn’t bode well for some local truck spotting then! I wonder who bought it? My ambition is to one day own a similar outfit and go to the shows in it, pipe dreams at the moment though!
Nice pictures again too Robert, the strato was bob Hadley’s? (without consulting ash’s book!) in the book I think it is pictured next to the transcontinental of chris hooper (?)
Just jumping back a couple of posts, fantastic pics of your run with Dave Poulton, and it is great to have another Middle East icon on the forum in Dave too, hopefully some more Middle East tales and stories to come ! Oh and pictures!
tracker:
Hello Robert,
good to hear from you. Nice pics. That old 143 was a beautiful motor. Ive got a lot of good memories about the middle east but I wouldnt want to go back to it now. altogether I suppose I must have done about 170 trips. I did quite a few for Trevor Marks and Barry Barnes as well as Astran. I retired 4 weeks ago today. Everyone said I’d miss it all,but not a bit. Lots to do here. Renewing all the facia and barge boards. Enough to keep me going for a few months. All the best
dave
Ho Dave you worked with my mages brother John sheen on Reynolds great to see n here you certainly Had an intresting work life
Hi All
I found out yesterday on facecrap that another one of us has died,! Mike Walker is on his last trip to the big T.I.R. parking in the sky…One hit…R.I.P. Mike, It used to be great running with you. Say hi to Rick when you get there.
G.S.Overland.
Wheel Nut:
What2do asked me to post a few pictures from a while back. so here goes, some unseen footage he hopes. Apologies if not…
At the same time as the Overland Bus trips were running, the Europe to Asia transport activity was really growing; in 1964 two blokes set off from London for Kabul with an articulated truck loaded with printing presses. Following the success of this venture they set up a company called Asian Transport - which in later years was renamed Astran. This now large company still runs out to the Middle East today.
Another regular driver, though not of Overland Buses, was a guy called John Frost who drove for Asian International/Astran trucks on the rout to Tehran. There were not many trucks heading East in those days though after 1972 the situation changed quickly.
In 1970-1 Iran began to increase its hunger for trade with Europe so the amount of truck traffic increased in a very short period, all this freight movement overloaded the primitive road systems, particularly in areas like eastern Turkey. Reluctantly in 1977, the Turkish authorities opened an existing military road to create the northern bypass route around the mountain range that peaked at the notorious Tahir Pass - this old road had been a tortuous and twisting climb to over 8000’ on an unmade surface. By the late 1970s it’d be fair to say that for every Overland bus, there were many hundreds of international trucks on the same routes - and as the numbers of trucks increased the likelehood of those drivers stopping to help you out decreased.[…]
(This is my first post so bear with me)
There is a white Bedford RL visible in one of these photographs. Was it a local truck, a truck used by hippies on their way to India, or a truck used by a ME Overlander driving it out from GB ? As far as I know they Bedford RL was not exported and most of the ones you ever see or saw were ex British Army / RAF. Any one ever see any other Bedford RL ?
The RL is probably a cross between two of your categories. The hippy trail was picked up by commercial overland operators using ex-army vehicles and old buses to create what we now know as overland adventure tourism. I would think the white RL was one of these early examples. Robert
There is a white Bedford RL visible in one of these photographs. Was it a local truck, a truck used by hippies on their way to India, or a truck used by a ME Overlander driving it out from GB ? As far as I know they Bedford RL was not exported and most of the ones you ever see or saw were ex British Army / RAF. Any one ever see any other Bedford RL ?
Hello Kurt and welcome to Trucknet as there is only Robert who has been able to shed some light on your question I thought that I would add a bit of further information for what it’s worth.
I believe that the Bedford R.L. was probably exported to most, if not all of the British Commonwealth countries and protectorates to serve in their defence and police forces. Having said that Bedford lorries were also assembled in places like Port Elizabeth in South Africa and Nigeria to name just a couple of places.
In 1976 the South African Police Force who were operating counter terrorism measure along the South West African/ Angolan border converted a number of Bedford R.L.s into what they called I.I.R.C. 'Spooks or Hippo’s. These were supposed to be anti land mine proof basically, it had some amour plating sheets along the sides and the underneath and bullet proof glass. The one that I drove a couple of times with it’s forty five gallon petrol tank and the several sand filled bags that lay on the floor of the cab
didn’t give me much confidence but you couldn’t mistake the sound of the R.L. even though it was a little quieter on the inside.
When that photo with the white Bedford was first shown on here several years ago I did ask could it of belonged to Encounter Overland from Hitchen who did overland trips to Kathmandu back in the seventies. I also asked had anybody ever met a very interesting driver called John Finch Davies who worked for Encounter Overland for many years. I met John on the campsite in Kano, Nigeria in 1975, he was driving this orange Bedford on his way to Kenya while we were on our way overland to Cape Town.
Five years later I was in Ayden’s garage in Istanbul getting a head gasket fixed when an Encounter Overland Bedford K.M. came in to do a service on his way back from Kathmandu. I asked the driver if he knew John and he told me that John was doing trips around South America.
It’s a shame that John never joined Trucknet as I am sure that he would of had a few good stories to share.
Edit.
While doing a bit more research this evening to see if I could find anymore out about J.F.D. I came across this interesting forum. It seems that Safaris Overland finished in 1972 so the above photo must of been taken in 1972 or before.
I thought that this was quite an interesting story of how “The Hippy Trail” buses operated and I wonder if Trucknet member ‘Sheeter’ is still around.
mushroomman:
…I thought that this was quite an interesting story of how “The Hippy Trail” buses operated and I wonder if Trucknet member ‘Sheeter’ is still around.
Just read that diary link MM, bloody amazing stuff! It kind of puts into perspective how much the world has changed in 40 years!! Trundling backwards and forwards around the Middle East and into Afghan and Pakistan with (apart from mechanical) seemingly hardly any problems at all! Amazing adventures.
Your trip overland to South Africa must have been the same! Great stuff.
I spent a couple of seasons in Morocco from 69 to72 there was a guy by the name of George ,cant remember his surname but he ran a lwb landrover and a bedford and used to sub for a company called frontier international they were based in Crawley, george used to run around Morocco in the summer and down to South Africa for the winter, does any one remember another driver called Gus who had done the route east , last I knew he was living in New Zealand also there was a driver whose name was Renne Dee , he featured on Safaris advertising , i think it was the last time I was down in Morocco Safari,s base just outside of Asilah was shut down and guarded because of bankruptcy.
GS OVERLAND:
Hi All
Just in case anyone knew Mike Walker and missed my original post, here it is again.
I found out a couple of weeks ago on facecrap that another one of us has died,! Mike Walker is on his last trip to the big T.I.R. parking in the sky…One hit…R.I.P. Mike, It used to be great running with you. Say hi to Rick when you get there.
Poole Crematorium tomorrow Monday 13th Nov at 12.30pm.
G.S.Overland.
hutpik:
Bit disappointed no one has put anything about Mike Walkers funeral,who went,any photos etc,or is it a case of '‘out of sight,out of mind’'yet again.
Way back then many of us were young in our twenties & didn’t always remember names
Trucks that often passed in the night as no-one kept records after Austria (or some never Cantrells ?)
We came together to share camion stew - often when it was 20 below & easier to drive on the ice than walk (Or in stifling heat in Saudi or Qatar) & we ALWAYS looked after each other - regardless of nationality or religion
Alhamdulillahاَلحَمْدُ لِله
The reservations book at the Harum in Istanbul is probably the best record ever kept if they still have it
R.I.P Pal — & all who travelled east of the Bosphorus - We had the best times & the best pals !!
T’was the Night before Christmas … … and … I have written a memoir of Middle East Overland in 1984. At the time, my destination was Afghanistan. At the time, I had not heard of the what would become the legends of Overland, neither the personalities nor the places. I am trying to identify the drivers and the locations in my photographs and maps. I have inserted questions into the text, and numbered them. Some drivers here may recognise the places or even the people. This page has been written and drawn entirely from memory because I am unable to find my diary from that year. It is buried somewhere.
There are some problems with this webhost (junk webpages coming up) which have only come to my attention in the last few months during website testing. For the moment I intend to live with them and concentrate on adding to the webpage but I will move this webpage to better webhost in due course.
I have read the Astran/MiddleEast thread from page1 to around page140 but I have limited time on-line which means this has taken six months. If anyone knows how to download the entire thread in some sort of format , so I can read if off-line, then please let me know.
as there is only Robert who has been able to shed some light on your question I thought that I would add a bit of further information for what it’s worth.
basically, it had some amour plating sheets along the sides and the underneath and bullet proof glass. The one that I drove a couple of times with it’s forty five gallon petrol 
