Hi All
Sadiky…
That reminds me of a trip I did.
I had come off the camel road (Red Desert Fox 
) and was at the filling station on the left after Hofuf when a South American fellah and his Son came over and started chatting. I had written London-Doha in the dirt on the back of my tilt. Apparently they had been driving behind me and the son had pointed out the writing in the dirt, and asked his dad if trucks could really come all the way from London to Doha. So the father followed me to the filling station, where they asked if I had really come from London and where I got off the boat !! I told them that I had got of the boat in Zeebrugge, Belgium. 
So the usual questions were asked, which route I had taken, how many “hours”!! has it taken, etc etc.
Any way after a while the chap gave me his phone number and said next time I was passing, to give him a call and I could come round for a meal, shower and some Sadiky. He was an English teacher and lived at the Mubaraz housing complex near Al Hofuf.
So next trip I gave him a call and he met me and took me back to the house where I had a nice shower, some food and a few drinks!! It was a pleasant experience but unfortunately I lost touch with him. I tried calling on the next trip but couldnt reach him. The Gulf War was imminent and I think that they had gone home to safer surroundings.
GS
, 2009 2:35 pm
hlb wrote:
Well I suppose we will never know the answer to the brick question, maybe they were light weight bricks, or the front container was empty. They had not been loaded by a fork lift or anything, because it was bricks wall to wall, well at the back door anyway.
Dunno why folk go on about Astran’s. Apart from the time they made the film, I hardly ever came across them.
…
Mister hlb…You appear to be trying to make enemies rather than friends. With statements like your last, I can now understand why people like Roger get stuck into you from the start…My apologies to you Roger this guy is full of B/S as you recognised from the start…"We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right."Reddesertfox
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Location: Middle East / Africa
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…
Can some one explain what I said that makes enemies rather than friends. There’s no Bull ■■■■ there I assure you. There may be a mistake, I was asking a question. We only saw the back row of bricks.
It helps me understand why I mostly kept to myself though. There were many with big chips on there shoulders.
Some folk went back and forth, seeing one side, some did internal work, which was different. I’m not going into the argument about how much weight breaks trailers, it’s clearly been defined by others. Not agreeing wont help.
I was just reminiscing on my time in the middle east, Did the folk that call Bull ■■■■, ever go there.■■ If they did, they missed allot. Mostly my time there was good. Beer most nights in BAE or Lockheed’s, Wimpy’s Or was it Balfore Beaties. I used to relate the stories in the pub when I got back the first time. Most did not believe a word. So after that I just said, I had a nice time. So we are back to having a nice time here. If you dont want to believe. Or think it didn’t happen dont read.
I did about 25 trips across, To Iraq Kuwait and SAudi, mostly Saudi. But spent most of the time working in Saudi.
If you want a row about it, I’m waiting.
Haydn,
You asked for an explanation of what makes enemies rather than friends 
. Well…maybe you don’t know why people go on about Astran, but there are both former driver’s and former subcontractors on this thread that can explain to you why they were proud and privileged to work for Astran, who as a company were a cut above the rest, and like you stated “you hardly came across them” Maybe if you had known some of the guys and heard how they were treated as both drivers and sub-contractors you would not have made such a profound statement as you did.
Come on you old Astran Subcontractors and Drivers, the gauntlet has been thrown down by hlb, let us hear your stories of what made Astran so special……for the sake of clarity…
A lot of you will have a biased view of Astrans, you worked/subbed for them so it stands to reason, but if I may I’ll add an outsiders view.
The reason they are seen as the elite is simple, not only were they the pioneers of overland transport, they’re still doing it now, 40 odd years & many thousands of trips later, that sets them apart from the companies that went in the boom times to make a quick buck, many of which no longer exist, that fact alone sets them apart from all the rest.
Now that’s not to say that anyone who didn’t work for Astrans is not as good, many were, but I think you’ll find that there weren’t a lot of muppets at Astran, this was not the same at other firms, there were features in the magazines of the time about the so called supertruckers doing the ME, many of them didn’t even manage to get out of Europe before some mishap or another wiped them out, a case in point is a post from Bestbooties showing a fleet of Scammel Crusaders in a magazine telling the world how good they were, six of them left London & the final two took each other out in Turkey somewhere (details a little shaky, Ian was there, I was not) that wasn’t even halfway to the destination!
The fact that the name ‘Astran’ has become a legend is borne out by this very thread, the title is Astran/Middle East Drivers, not the other way around, the horse always comes before the cart 
sinbin31:
SteveThe Astran driver who had the cards made I think was Tony Somerson.
Hlb
Sorry if I started world War 4 I never said you didnt go to the ME I just wanted to know if I knew you ,I know sometimes drivers never cross paths but stories about other drivers do,so its our loss we never met ,I still dont know your real name or have I missed it,my picture is on the last page submitted by Sheeplady ,and yes I was born old ,not sure when this was taken ,about 30 years ago maybe,what a good looking geezer still look the same less hair
Roger
Hi Roger, thanks for clearing that up about the cards, I wasn’t sure if it was two hundred he had printed or if it was only 50 . You know what these old drivers are like when it comes to mentioning something that happened between 30 or 40 years ago, you have to be precise .
The Red Desert Fox may not of been precise when he asked if you were born old, in fact I bet that you were born at a very young age .
Regards Steve.
rondavies:
Would I be right in saying that Astran were the only Brit outfit back in the mid 70’s that went beyond Iran?
I seem to remember talking to one of their drivers back then who told me that they used to take goods to Phillips who had a place in Karachi. Am I correct?
Hi Ron, I dont think so mate, I worked with two old fellers who went past Iran in the seventies.
One was an owner driver who I worked with called Ken Corrigan from Manchester, now I don’t know if Ken was driving for somebody else at the time but I did hear that he once got stuck halfway across a river in Pakistan and it took him two days to get out. Maybe Rocky 7 can phone him and ask him where he went to exactly.
Another old bloke ( who was also an old bloke in the eighties ) who is lurking on this thread called Alan Morrey took a load of copper to India when he worked for Thor Transport from Stoke-on -Trent. I have mentioned Alan before on here and hopefully he will tell us just how far he got as I remember him telling me that they had a lot of problems once they arrived at the Indian border.
I also have a feeling that there was a mention of somebody going to either Pakistan or Iran in a Bedford T.K. or a Ford D Series somewhere on this site .
Regards Steve.
[
Come on you old Astran Subcontractors and Drivers, the gauntlet has been thrown down by hlb, let us here your stories of what made Astran so special……for the sake of clarity…
They treated the people that worked for them like human beings.
Dave.
rondavies:
Would I be right in saying that Astran were the only Brit outfit back in the mid 70’s that went beyond Iran?
I seem to remember talking to one of their drivers back then who told me that they used to take goods to Phillips who had a place in Karachi. Am I correct?
Not hundred percent but im sure Frank White sent drivers to lahore and karachi. I will ask him to be sure. As for astrans i could throw a few spanners in the works but i best not as i enjoy this thread to much to upset anyone 
mushroomman:
rondavies:
Would I be right in saying that Astran were the only Brit outfit back in the mid 70’s that went beyond Iran?
I seem to remember talking to one of their drivers back then who told me that they used to take goods to Phillips who had a place in Karachi. Am I correct?Hi Ron, I dont think so mate, I worked with two old fellers who went past Iran in the seventies.
One was an owner driver who I worked with called Ken Corrigan from Manchester, now I don’t know if Ken was driving for somebody else at the time but I did hear that he once got stuck halfway across a river in Pakistan and it took him two days to get out. Maybe Rocky 7 can phone him and ask him where he went to exactly.
Another old bloke ( who was also an old bloke in the eighties
I also have a feeling that there was a mention of somebody going to either Pakistan or Iran in a Bedford T.K. or a Ford D Series somewhere on this siteRegards Steve.
Thank you for answering my question Steve.
I didn’t realise that Thor Transport went that far in the mid 70’s. (It was the time period of the mid 70’s that I was particularly interested in). I know that others did it in the 80’s, even the old firm that I used to work for did runs out to Pakistan in the early 80’s.
davemackie:
[They treated the people that worked for them like human beings.
Dave.
The reason why Astran was so special back then is because of Bob Paul. Astran is Bob Paul. Everyone else were just normal human beings - but who had respect for their boss - and that in turn produced a ■■■■ good company to work for. That is why we all give this company/man so much support. It doesn’t mean other drivers were any different - they weren’t - as I found out when I worked with them outside Astran. You get bad drivers and you get bad bosses! No different to anything else. I cant believe the public back-biting and that’s started up.
Allison,Uwe Ploog as well as Bob Paul installed confidence in the Drivers that they sent out, knowing that, all documents that were required, were in order.having said that there were the back room staff that did the real work.
Bottom line, If Astran sent you out on trip, paperwork would not be a problem.
TIR definition of a problem, mister no problem, mister big problem, the latter meaning big delay or big cost.
Dave.
I see. So Astran did better paper work and stuff and treated folk like human beings. Theres none of them here obviously then!!
As some one said further up. Most folk that did ME just lerk. I’m not surprised. The woodentops dont seem to have learned allot in the last 30 years do they. It’s like being back in the school yard.
Paper work.
Yep, I once had 20 I think, three piece suites. The arabs said I was cheating because I had 20 big chairs and 40 little ones.
hlb:
I see. So Astran did better paper work and stuff and treated folk like human beings. Theres none of them here obviously then!!As some one said further up. Most folk that did ME just lerk. I’m not surprised. The woodentops dont seem to have learned allot in the last 30 years do they. It’s like being back in the school yard.
Paper work.
Yep, I once had 20 I think, three piece suites. The arabs said I was cheating because I had 20 big chairs and 40 little ones.
Haydn.
Did you ever get to Albania?
Talking about paper work got me remembering.
As I said, I did allot of work for BAC. Some times I could have thousands of spare parts, all itemized on the manifest.
One time, I was stuck at the Syrian/Jordan border. The agent was trying to trancelate this lot into arabic. The agent kept calling me to the office. What is this, he would say looking puzzled. NUTS it said. Come outside I said, I’ll show you. No, no. You tell me. It was not that easy, he did not speak perfect english. Eventually I dragged him outside and pointed to a wheel nut.
From then on life became easier. We went down the whole list. Does this make the truck go or make it stop he would say. I’d no idea, but thought it probably would not work well without it. So the trancelation for most of it was. Parts to make truck go. I added in a few to make it stop just for good measure. Arabic does not have any tecnical words, so thats about as close as you could get.
Haydn.
Did you ever get to Albania?
…
I once nearly went by boat. But that was only because I went the wrong way.
hlb:
Haydn.Did you ever get to Albania?
…I once nearly went by boat. But that was only because I went the wrong way.
Don’t worry, it is called sarcasm and it is lost on many
Any more middle east stories welcome, whether it be Astran, Whittle, Dornach, Simons, Michael White or GLP from Hartshead Moor 
davemackie:
Allison,Uwe Ploog as well as Bob Paul installed confidence in the Drivers that they sent out, knowing that, all documents that were required, were in order.having said that there were the back room staff that did the real work.
Bottom line, If Astran sent you out on trip, paperwork would not be a problem.TIR definition of a problem, mister no problem, mister big problem, the latter meaning big delay or big cost.
Dave.
I agree wholeheartedly Dave but I think Uwe only started there a little while before me - so in the mid 70’s. Because of good leadership everyone pulled together… none of this back-biting in those days!!! Did some of the Astran drivers think they were a cut above the others? Oh dear…
GS OVERLAND:
What a nice looking trailer. Isn’t it a shame that when the sign writing was done the spelling wasn’t proofed.!!
They spelt Qatar wrong…QUATAR…Dipstick.
Don’t you just hate that.!
GS
[/quote]
Sorry to have to tell you Steve,but I think you’ll find that QATAR is the correct spelling!
bestbooties:
GS OVERLAND:
What a nice looking trailer. Isn’t it a shame that when the sign writing was done the spelling wasn’t proofed.!!
They spelt Qatar wrong…QUATAR…Dipstick.
Don’t you just hate that.!
GS
Sorry to have to tell you Steve,but I think you’ll find that QATAR is the correct spelling!
[/quote]
I think thats what hes trying to say. On the trailer it says Quatar, which is wrong .
Well i know what i mean !!
Qatar (pronounced /kʌˈtÉ‘:r/ kut-TAHR in English[3][4]), also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaá¹ar, is an Arab emirate in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south; otherwise the Persian Gulf surrounds the state.
Qatar is an oil and gas-rich nation, with the third largest gas reserves[5] and the second highest GDP per capita in the world.[6] An absolute monarchy, Qatar has been ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-1800s and has since transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas revenues. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by the Amir, who had ruled the country since 1972. His son, the current Amir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, overthrew him in a bloodless coup in 1995. In 2001, Qatar resolved its longstanding border disputes with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia
Never been on any overland trips,will leave it all to you fella’s. I enjoy reading about the exploits and tales.
Cheers Dave.