sinbin31:
Ok as you all like, the hole thing is boring now will give the site a miss from now on any friends who wish to contact me us a PM.bye bye all
Roger Haywood
Yawn,not again Roger.
We all appreciate that Astran and it’s drivers,including subbies,and yourself were high profile on the M/E,everyone that did the run cannot say they never saw an Astran motor.
However,you seem to talk as though Astran were the be all and end all of the M/E!.and their drivers were above other mortals.
Don’t make the mistake of getting too full of your own importance Roger,there were a lot of others did that job with just as much success as anyone else.
I was most surprised when I read The Long Haul Pioneers,how many accidents Astran trucks had been involved in.I know most of the accidents out there were no fault of our drivers in most cases,but one can’t help but think.
If you’re going to give this site a miss,does this mean you wont read this post? Go on Roger,bite back!Or we’ll miss you and your posts.
I have nothing but admiration,respect and envy for ANY driver that worked the Middle East run.
Reading about your experiences and looking at photos of the era are both fascinating and something you should all be very proud of.
In my opinion you’ve all conquered the most challenging aspect there is of being a lorry driver.
So to the odd one or two pedantic misery guts’.
Instead of worrying about “who drove for who” or “who went there first” or “i don’t remember you”,just keep sharing the stories with those of us who are too young to have had a go at the job.
Davnic:
I have nothing but admiration,respect and envy for ANY driver that worked the Middle East run.
Reading about your experiences and looking at photos of the era are both fascinating and something you should all be very proud of.
In my opinion you’ve all conquered the most challenging aspect there is of being a lorry driver.
So to the odd one or two pedantic misery guts’.
Instead of worrying about “who drove for who” or “who went there first” or “i don’t remember you”,just keep sharing the stories with those of us who are too young to have had a go at the job.
hello Davnic,
this was the same intention of me, when I wrote my comment.
@ freshir: I will do my best, but I could be take it takes time. The one who made the pics is on the road for long trips sometimes and we need the ok from him and a few others.
When I will get the clearance, I can not write anything about the loads, the haulier and the location excatly, this is what he previously said to me, when I meet him im Ehingen at the Liebherr parking.
I have noticed that there is a new member called Dave Clark who has been Lurking on this thread for the last couple of days .
If it’s The Dave Clark, the owner driver from Cornwall who pulled for Whittles in the early 80’s then welcome to the TruckNet site Dave
Maybe you have some old photos of your travels Dave as well as some photos of your old Fiat/Iveco.
I have just found this in the photo shoebox, can anybody remember where it was taken.
Just to let anyone intrested know there is an intresting articale about middle east owner driver pat seale by his brother in heritage commercials this month.
mushroomman:
I have just found this in the photo shoebox, can anybody remember where it was taken.
Regards Steve.
Mmmmm!! Hazarding a guess at Erdine■■?
rgds Ron
Hi,
Edirne Centrum.
16 km to Kapikule
231 km to Istanbul
Can anyone remember on the way back through Edirne, not far from where that photo was taken. Parking in the main street and going down one of the side street’s to the bulgarian consulate for a Visa■■?
Regards Jamie.
Does anybody know if any trucks still go out to the middle east… would be great to see some pictures of the what it is like they’s days … would have loved to have been given the chance to go out there …
cockney:
Does anybody know if any trucks still go out to the middle east… would be great to see some pictures of the what it is like they’s days … would have loved to have been given the chance to go out there …
Karl skilton just come back in his 143 after having a new gearbox fitted.
cockney:
Does anybody know if any trucks still go out to the middle east… would be great to see some pictures of the what it is like they’s days … would have loved to have been given the chance to go out there …
Check out the TopRun site. There is one trip documented “Switzerland to Iran”. Plenty of pics.
I did middle east in 1984/85 and to this day it is the best job I have ever done, Admittedly there were rogues on the job, maybe one in ten,and we knew who they were, and not to park next to them or it could cost lost fuel or cash, as we carried at lot of both.
Most of them were good family men running out there to make a living and pay the bills back home and in the time I did the job I made a lot of friends who I still see today.
The comradeship of these men that did the job will not be understood by the majority of drivers today as out there it was life and death with the numerous hazards we had to face,I learned this the hard way by helping the chech police, by looking through a dead uk drivers belongings with them to identify both him and his contacts ,he had frozen to death just below Prague on a motorway parking area,he did not have even a good warm jacket.the temp was -25c. not nice believe me.
Bad weather (from snow/ice to sandstorms)
Standard of driving (Meeting a Turk with a load of lambs flashing for you to get off the road)
Bad roads (breakdowns caused by them)
Bandits(army deserters in southern Turkey/Northern Iraq)
Thiefs and Muggers (as we were carried a Rumos 2 years wages in cash in running money)
This is a small selection of the hazards we had to face on the road, as the border crossings are another story as every border was different.
On the money side, as a few have said we used to deal in the commodities that were tradeable in every country from ■■■■(Rumo =Kent ,Turkey=Marlboro)Nylon combs,shampoo,wrangler /levi jeans(pair jeans =100litre fuel )in the commie block,
Catalogs in Iraq/Syria/Jordan/Saudi(as good as a fiesta to them)use our 4000lt belly tanks to deal in fuel buy in cheap countries and sell in dear ones.
So if careful, I could feed and refresh myself without going daft, there and back on my running money, so £250 to £300 a week banked in 1985 was not a bad wage.
For me, a adventure, or as one of the Persits Ponts Pass N.I.drivers said after doing Tehran in the middle of winter,
An experiance never to be missed but never to be repeated,
.
