wurzel99uk:
Harry,interesting choice of route to Burgas…Where do you go across the border into BG ?
I was sent that way to avoid having to transit Hungary or Serbia, and Romania, as none of them were in the eu at the time and the border queues were horrendous. Normally we would have gone through Russia but the Chechen war was on at the time and I would have had to transit Chechenya, which is not a good idea for anybody who likes their head where it is.
I can’t remember the name of the Greek/Bulgarian border at this remove, but it is the one where you head northwards out of Thesseloniki towards Sofia.
As a general rule I have found, the cruddier the country, the more impressive the visa, although it hasn’t shown up particularly well here…
wurzel99uk:
So for a straight Bulgaria run,and given the options,you would still go via Greece ?
No, because you can get all the way there overland without leaving the eu nowadays.
Off the top of my head, I would say I would go via Austria, Hungary and Romania. When I did it, it wasn’t uncommon to queue up for a day to get into Hungary and two days to get into Romania.
The longest physical mileage was Winnipeg to St Johns on the Eastern edge of Newfoundland, 3000 miles, then from Newfie to Anderson, South Carolina, then Birmingham, Alabama to Winnipeg, another 3800 miles. I left on Monday, was empty in Newfie on Friday, tipped in South Carolina Wednesday and home on the driveway Friday night.
In Europe I guess Potugal would have been the longest individual mileage, but I would often tramp for 4-6 weeks on the tankers.
Hi Wurzell99uk, If you wish to go to Harmanli via GR,then take the E90 from Thessalonika east towards Turkey. About 15 /20 Kms From Ipsala ( the Turkish Border) turn left on the E85 (at Maria’s Truck stop) and head North This will take you to a small border between greece and Bulgaria near Kapitan Andreevo Which is on the E90 near Kapikule. It is not far from there back to Harmanli. If my memory serves me right i think it used to take around three hours by truck from Maria’s to the bulgi border. It is a Good road which takes you parrallell to the turkish border with Greece. If you go into Maria’s Resturaunt have a look on the back wall and see if the photo is still there of Alfie Jones’s wedding in south wales. With all the middle east driver friends Who wereThere. We used to spend some great night’s there. Regards Jamie
Simon:
I started on Tuesday morning at the yard in Kirkcaldy. Drove up to Aberdeen and loaded, then started the trip.
Aberdeen to Rosyth, to catch the Superfast ferry to Zeebrugge.
Zeebrugge to Ulm, a 10 hour drive (more or less).
Ulm to Bologna via the Brenner Pass, another 10 hour drive (more or less).
Bologna to Taranto, my final destination. A 9 hour drive.
I got there with just enough time to book in, drive in through the gates, tip and park up just outside the gates again.
On a more serious note that nissan job from amsterdam to roma that we used to do used to be quite far. 3 shifts in 2 days and legal because the swiss used to stop me every time and the italians on that drop to roma.
3, 9s used to do it. i bet the traffic is too bad to do it these days.
Glad to see you are still about, I havent seen or heard from anyone for years now. In Edinburgh now, not driving at present.
P.S. Hope it is you or you won’t know what I am on about!
My longest haul in a straight line was Naples to Furuset (Nr Oslo, Norway.) 1,630 miles or 2,640km give or take. I also did some crazy mileages on rock-and-roll tours, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to be away for 8-9 weeks at a time doing that.
harry monk got plenty of photo’s and video clips but have to be careful about posting them, as the company i work for are a funny about it.
even have the full video of the convoy that was posted on trucknet last year and the story behind it, soon as i can figure it out i’ll post them.
stuh:
harry monk got plenty of photo’s and video clips but have to be careful about posting them, as the company i work for are a funny about it.
even have the full video of the convoy that was posted on trucknet last year and the story behind it, soon as i can figure it out i’ll post them.
Stuh, videos and photos need to be hosted on an on-line album site.
The most popular ones are
and
There are several others.
A look at the Transport Photo Forum should give you a few more pointers too.
The best size of photo, for putting on a forum page, is 800 x 600 pixels (width x height). That size fits neatly onto a page so we don’t have to scroll back and forth to see the whole picture. Those two album sites both have tools to resize pics stored on them.
I’ve never tried with videos, so can’t help you at all with them.
their are some very well travelled people on here.
my longest trip away, was 11 weeks, on the rolling stones tour last year, it was my 1st crack at the rock n roll stuff, really enjoyed it.
made a change from the norm, did most of western europe, also went too bergen in norway, that was pretty cool, although a punishing drive due too gigs and date scheduling.
Hi Guys
I used to run overland via commie bloc from the UK to Doha every month. But my actual longest trip was loading Steel Pipes in Aberdeen, and tipping in Dukhan, Qatar, then loading Steel in Umm Said, Qatar for Sharjah, UAE. Then loading Macaroni ( 40 tons) from Jebel Ali, UAE, tipping Doha, then loading Plastic pellets from Doha to be delivered in the Jordan Valley, overlooking Bethlehem on the other side of the river Jordan. Then run empty to Damascus and load Oil Rig equipment from Deir es zor, for Lowestoft, UK. The good thing about the Oil Rig equipment was that it had great big diesel tanks so I got into the trailer at the containers in Hungary and filled everything up at 4 to 1, aswell as my 2000 litre Belly tank and 1500ltrs on the Unit. I took a chance coming into Germany, and declared 200 litres, as you do…And that fuel got me home tipped and loaded and back down to Aksaray where I dropped my Belly tank and headed to Cilvegozu, and into Syria for more cheap squirt en-route to Doha.
That was a good trip money wise but it took ages. But that was what it was all about, wasnt it lads…
GS
GS OVERLAND:
Hi Guys
I used to run overland via commie bloc from the UK to Doha every month. But my actual longest trip was loading Steel Pipes in Aberdeen, and tipping in Dukhan, Qatar, then loading Steel in Umm Said, Qatar for Sharjah, UAE. Then loading Macaroni ( 40 tons) from Jebel Ali, UAE, tipping Doha, then loading Plastic pellets from Doha to be delivered in the Jordan Valley, overlooking Bethlehem on the other side of the river Jordan. Then run empty to Damascus and load Oil Rig equipment from Deir es zor, for Lowestoft, UK. The good thing about the Oil Rig equipment was that it had great big diesel tanks so I got into the trailer at the containers in Hungary and filled everything up at 4 to 1, aswell as my 2000 litre Belly tank and 1500ltrs on the Unit. I took a chance coming into Germany, and declared 200 litres, as you do…And that fuel got me home tipped and loaded and back down to Aksaray where I dropped my Belly tank and headed to Cilvegozu, and into Syria for more cheap squirt en-route to Doha.
That was a good trip money wise but it took ages. But that was what it was all about, wasnt it lads…
GS
here are a couple from people I know over here.
near hobart in tasmania in australia to broome in north weast australia. with cattle one load. took 10 days with the stops to let them out to rest and graze every couple of days approx 6500 klms the way he went through perth
and just today a guy was saying in his last job he drove 2 up with his wife. they did 15000 klms in a week. and that was in a daf cf75 rigid. b4 you call bollock as I know you will we have what is called fatigue managment over here where you can do 14 hours work with 12 hours driving. and our speed limit is 100 kph. and up to 14 days straight. but you catch up the rest days
on a number of aoccasions I have spoken to melbourne - perth drivers and they to the 3500 klm in 40 hours 2 up its 21/2 3 days on your own
its a big counrty so long hauls are regular.
cheers
meggala
Hmm…longest regular run I used to do was Coventry to Godollo (just east of Budapest) Could take five days, could take up to ten, depending on how drunk the customs officers were on the Austrian/Hungarian border.
The longest one-off I did was a trip from Bordeaux to Calais, which took just under four months, because it included a minor diversion to the chinese border. (They wouldn’t let me in…apparently they close early on a friday )
Why did I do it? I really don’t know. I just…meh, it is in the blood. I loved the independence (even with the new-famgled cab-phones that came in in the early nineties…we had 3 in the cab. 1 for the UK, one for France and one for Everywhere Else)
It destroyed my marriage, but…would I do it again? Hell yes, if another company like GBE asked if I’d be interested in a trunk back to Hungary I’d be over there so fast I’d leave scorch-marks on the floor
The longest single trip I took was frop Palmela in Portugal to Elk in Poland with car parts for Dawoo about 3500 km, but that was part of a trip that had me away from the UK for 4 1/2 weeks first loading from Dagenham to Palmela, then from there to Elk, then Elk to Bremen in Germany, then Berlin to Milton keynes. a total of over 8500 km
)