Jelliot:
So recently I met this nurse (unfortunatly on a professional level ) in the Royal Hobart Hospital. Its late at night and all is quiet in the ward apart from a bit of coughing and spluttering from some of the other inmates. She knows a bit about me cause she’s read my report at the bottom of the bed, and they usually have 7 Mate playing on the TV which is what Out Back Truckers is on… The next bit she tells me in 1973 when she was 7 and her sister was 11 Her mum and dad sold there house in Essex. bought a bus and drove overland to Australia. They quickly learnt to run with the trucks as it was winter. Two of the Brit drivers she could remember were both called Ray. one drove a yellow truck and I’m guessing that would be Ray Skuts. she thought the other RAY was called Toures, not sure of the spelling… 3 days waiting in the shadow of mount Arrarat @-40 saw her sister get very ill and they spent along time at the British embassy in Tehran. they were getting low on funds but some Brit and Dutch drivers had a whip round got them enough money food and visas sorted out sorted to get them as far as Lahore with the aid of a couple to Swiss French trucks (I’m guessing Ferderici)… They eventually ran out of money when they decided to detour to Kathmandu. (as was appropriate in the 1973 ).The buss was sold there and they came the rest of the way via Indian train then boat to Australia.The whole trip took them just under 2 years…One last bit The bloke she remembers as Ray Toures cut his hand very badly when he was trying to open a jar of pickled onions… Her mum was an RN and sorted it out for him… I’ve just taken 2 hours to right this as I only have one operational hand at the moment…and seemingly it’s illegal to drive any kind of vehicle in Australia while you have a plaster cast attached to your body.
Jeff…
so recently
That’s a nice story Jelliot,hope your hand/arm heals speedily.
gingerfold:
I regret to inform members that Geoff Taylor, aka ‘The Crow’, a middle east veteran from Manchester, passed away in the early hours of this morning after a short illness. Condolences to Geoff’s family and R.I.P.
That’s very sad and very sudden… I enjoyed some of the tales…
I always wondered why " The Crow " nickname?
Safe journey anyway as they say… Regards, Baldrick.
Richie Thornes old Mack. Forward Control. Good old tool that was except for the time when the front diff went in Yugo with 20 tons of Alison’s wine on from Suhindol. We had loaded together and I had the same 20 tons on, I towed Richie with my 141 on my bar, both loaded, to Hungarocamion at Mosonmagyarovar where he arranged to fix the diff.
GS.
Hiya Gavin, I hope that you are well mate, I thought that might of been one of Richie’s old motors. Your post certainly got me thinking, was it Richie or his brother Sammy who slipped off the road in Czechoslovakia one winter and the motor had to be piggy backed home.
Your mention of the Suhindol Winery had me spending all yesterday afternoon on Google Earth trying to find out exactly where I took this photo of this bridge over 30 years ago. Surprisingly, some of the roads in the area looks as if they haven’t changed that much but the winery certainly has. Some of the road signs are still in the Cyrillic alphabet and it looks like there are not as many horses and carts and tractors pulling trailers around. I can remember the yard being cobbled and covered in mud and there wasn’t much room to load two forty foot trailers.
I.I.R.C. the bridge was less than twenty miles from Suhindol on the way to Sofia, where we had to do our customs clearance.
G’Day mushy
All is well at my end thanks. How are you and Mrs Mushy ? I think it was Sammy that fell off the road. Yes, the Suhindol winery was a bit tight ! It’s called Lovico Winery now. The showers were “interesting”, a couple of old pallets on the ground in the boiler room or something ! Plenty of hot water though and enough wine for 10DM, no labels… It was always a good load though eh ! The worst part was sneaking up the M11 to Harlow… I think I loaded at every winery in Bulgy.
GS
That’s good to know that all is well Gavin.
I have spent several hours trying to find out where I took that photo of Ken Bates going over that bridge in Bulgaria on Google Earth and I think that I have finally found it.
When I work out how to add the link then I shall try and put it on.
If you look at the road now then you will find that there has been very few changes in some places.
The Grid Reference on Google Earth is 43,04’47.87 North. 24,58’47.87 East.
It’s about 12 miles South West of Suhindol and about 1 mile past a town called Malki Varshets.
It says that, in Istanbul, the tractor “head” was swapped for one more suited to the conditions in Northern Turkey. Would our Astran experts know what that was?
I never saw a TIR plate put on an actual item that was ‘‘open TIR’’,rather the plate were on the vehicle as usual and somwhere a seal was affixed to the item.
RE the 'tractor head’could mean they had exchanged units for one which was more suitable for the terrain.
I have put a couple of videos on you tube, which are made from Gilbert Harding’s Cine film memories of his time driving on Carmans and Chapmen & Ball from Stoke -2nd video as some footage he filmed of Destination Doha being filmed
I have put a couple of videos on you tube, which are made from Gilbert Harding’s Cine film memories of his time driving on Carmans and Chapmen & Ball from Stoke -2nd video as some footage he filmed of Destination Doha being filmed
I have put a couple of videos on you tube, which are made from Gilbert Harding’s Cine film memories of his time driving on Carmans and Chapmen & Ball from Stoke -2nd video as some footage he filmed of Destination Doha being filmed
Willie Roadstar:
Morning All,
I have put a couple of videos on you tube, which are made from Gilbert Harding’s Cine film memories of his time driving on Carmans and Chapmen & Ball from Stoke -2nd video as some footage he filmed of Destination Doha being filmed youtu.be/-v6EV6kgtnc youtu.be/3a-O2pUlP8s
Hope you enjoy
Cheers Ant
Hi Ant, thanks for sharing that with us I am sure that it brought back quite a few memories for a lot of people. The views of Istanbul in the first couple of minutes were taken from one of the rooms in The Harem Hotel and it was good to see one of Thor’s Scania’s parked up, no doubt Gill knew who the driver was.
Those tunnels at 6 min 37 secs were down near Pirot in Yugoslavia, this is another photo of the place taken about five years later.
Could you or any of the Stoke men tell me what was the difference between Carman’s and Brit European, if there was one.
I think I loaded at every winery in Bulgy.
. Robert
