Astran or Falcongate got our Bulgy visas for us as we had two passports travelling on one while the other was away getting visas.
Bulgy visa
LB76:
German humour ? thats a strange beast
u got it lb76 never met one, only when i was going out of Aachen and he dipped my tanks.he did have a smile on his face when the ruler came out,d-marks for me ba-be.
klunk/■■■■■■■■
Astran or Falcongate got our Bulgy visas for us as we had two passports travelling on one while the other was away getting visas.Bulgy visa
see u went the easy way (sometimes) 2 klunk(ipsala) broke down once in the sheep dip coming out, greeks got the right hump,them little fury bob’s on the soldier’s shoes got all wet.
I always got my visa’s on the borders ,except iraq’i visa’s I got from Brussells, It took 2 days usually, good excuse to go on the effes.
rocky 7:
I always got my visa’s on the borders ,except iraq’i visa’s I got from Brussells, It took 2 days usually, good excuse to go on the effes.
“good excuse to go on the effes.” Wot…in Brussells? 
Can you beleive it, Efes on sale in Tesco’s Ipswich, is nothing sacred ! Doesn’t taste of Turkey though…
Just been looking at this site middenoostenchauffeursnederl … index.html a must for all you middle east fans, though the site is in dutch if you click on photo’ s (foto’s) there are pitures of Astran and a few other well known hauliers.
mushroomman:
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.
Regards Steve.
If I’m not mistaken I was behind you when you took that pic. Steve
rocky 7:
I always got my visa’s on the borders ,except iraq’i visa’s I got from Brussells, It took 2 days usually, good excuse to go on the effes.
From 1975 to 1986,the only visas I had to get from an embassy were Iran,Iraq Saudi,Czech,and Hungarian if it was a multi entry.
All others I always got at the border.
I used to get the Czech visa from Brusselles.
Other visas were obtained by my firm on my second passport.
If there was not enough time to get a Saudi visa,it was quick to get one in Amman.
zulu1512:
Just been looking at this site middenoostenchauffeursnederl … index.html a must for all you middle east fans, though the site is in dutch if you click on photo’ s (foto’s) there are pitures of Astran and a few other well known hauliers.
Seems like my photos are turning up everywhere!
klunk/■■■■■■■■
Middle east driver or wongaI 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,
Klunk
I can vouch for that.Here is a pic taken in 1982 on that same service area near Prague,the temperature was down to minus 36 centigrade,our engines and even the night heaters froze to a standstill!
Is that a young Ian Taylor in that pic with the Expo Scanny ?
I remember one time in the national at belgrade, it was well below freezing, and we had got fires going under the tanks.
there where two first trippers( londoners as i remember) joined us at the weekend, they had never seen this done before and decided they would do the same,
We where sat in the hotel when there was an explosion. They had not taken the filler caps off and the diesel expanded with the heat.
Does anyone else remember this I cant remember who was there at the time.
freshir:
Is that a young Ian Taylor in that pic with the Expo Scanny ?
Well it’s my Scanny,but I was taking the photo.The guy standing by my motor is my best mate Alan Jones aka Mr.Magoo.
Thanks Ian - Is that the same Alan Jones that worked for Grangewood’s ? I have also seen him mentioned earlier on the forum ■■ Regards Fred H
Looks like Centrum Transport from Valkensvaard, Holland.
Dave.
freshir:
Thanks Ian - Is that the same Alan Jones that worked for Grangewood’s ? I have also seen him mentioned earlier on the forum ■■ Regards Fred H
As far as I know,Alan never worked for Grangewoods.
We moved jobs together for several years from Chapman and Ball to Expo Freight.
I lost track of him when I left Expo in '83,but when he called past here a couple of years ago and brought me up to date,he had his own motor for some time before losing it and he was working for Andreas Andreson for some years doing UK to Russia.
Thanks for that bit of info - On the mention of Russia I have never been there unfortunately, we used to sub it out to Fransons, I heard along the grapevine that there was a certain amount of hassle involved and being escorted to and from but I would still of liked to have had a crack at it - this could be an interesting topic if anyone out there has done a Russia - Regards Fred.H
The last time I spoke to Alan Jones, he said to me,“There’s a lot of folk who did the M/E,and some that’s done Russia,but there’s not many that’s done both!”