Driving through the Arabian deserts in the middle of summer with both windows down and a wet towel over your head…home made AC. !!
That beastly scorching hot wind blowing in at ya…
Tilting the cab at the end of a shift to let some of the engine heat escape before hitting the sack…
Sleeping up on top of the tilt, sunk between the metal poles so as not to roll off, trying to escape from the mozzies…
Getting stung on the elbow by a scorpion in Jordan whilst laying under the truck fixing a broken rangechange wire…then not getting any medical attention until Istanbul…Big fat swollen arm and hand.
Being towed with a broken gearbox on a wire hauser from Ar Ar border to Baghdad…Ha Ha.
Getting home after a bad trip and saying “thats it, I aint doing no more, Ive had enough” then after a couple of days calling to see when your’e loading !!
The list of memories goes on and on…
It wasn’t a job… it was our way of life. And we loved it… 
skipvitesse:
GS OVERLAND:
Nicely written…Brings back dusty memories.
I can still picture it in my minds eye.
Brilliant.
GSBrings back memories of Dust in my Eyes !!,
Damman to Riyhad & Jeddah in Mid Summer, backwards and forewards on ‘Internals’
No Air Con,
Both Windows open,
Cool Box full of Ice & Local Drinks, (one block of Ice lasted 6-8Hrs Max)
Way before they built proper Roads,
Do you remember the Phillipino ‘Guest’ drivers that always had cardboard boxes on drivers door to act as Sunshade??
Do i regret it?
NO WAY
It was brilliant, but only in its time,
Everything changed when roads were built,
I understand you can now drive on motorway from Calais/Zeebrugge to Syrian border, or almost to Iran,
Wheres the Adventure in that?
I remember in early days guys taking down the Tram overhead wires in Salzburg trying to figure out how to get in direction of Graz and onto Yugo, the old road wasnt called the ‘Ho Chin Min’ trail for nothing.
My 1st trip i met a driver in a Guy Big J4 at the Draggoman Gorge, he was heading home, i felt like i had covered half the world, he felt like he was almost home,
He was on way back from Karachi, Pakistan!!!
I never did the Khyber Pass, or across Afghanistan, but he did, and with a Gardener 220,
The VERY FEW guys that did trips in the late 60’s/early 70’s deserve our respect,
Everything after early 80’s was just ‘A Drive’,
Early 70’s was the HeyDay, no roads worth talking about, but everyday you met Brits, Dutch, Frogs, Swiss, Krauts etc, and everyone would help out no matter what, even if it meant them spending a couple of days to get you going, Hungarocamion were Stars, they would never see you sitting stuck,
It wasnt just the ‘Drive’
It was the Companionship
How many nights did you spend parked with a group of drivers, none that could speak eachothers language, but food was shared, lots of laughs, and you felt that you part of a bigger world
Made me grow up very fast and treat people as ‘friends’ way before you got to know them,
It was a time for a very short period, long gone now, Glad i was part of it
Skip
Skip,
Think you will find the Gardner in the Big J you quoted was the proverbial 240,not heard of a 220.
David
“Skip,Think you will find the Gardner in the Big J you quoted was the proverbial 240,not heard of a 220.David”
Think more dust got into my brain than my eyes,
I stand corrected.
Must have been an adventure though!
Skip
GS OVERLAND:
Driving through the Arabian deserts in the middle of summer with both windows down and a wet towel over your head…home made AC. !!
That beastly scorching hot wind blowing in at ya…
Tilting the cab at the end of a shift to let some of the engine heat escape before hitting the sack…
Sleeping up on top of the tilt, sunk between the metal poles so as not to roll off, trying to escape from the mozzies…
Getting stung on the elbow by a scorpion in Jordan whilst laying under the truck fixing a broken rangechange wire…then not getting any medical attention until Istanbul…Big fat swollen arm and hand.
Being towed with a broken gearbox on a wire hauser from Ar Ar border to Baghdad…Ha Ha.
Getting home after a bad trip and saying “thats it, I aint doing no more, Ive had enough” then after a couple of days calling to see when your’e loading !!
The list of memories goes on and on…
It wasn’t a job… it was our way of life. And we loved it…
…ripping my finger open down to the bone from my steel towrope while dragging Kenny Searle out of the sand at the Mirrors, and having it sewn up by a Jordanian medic at the pumping station at Raf’ha.
Having my Scania 111 drop a valve on the Tapline in the same area, while running with Big Cliff on Funston’s. He towed me on a straight bar for 1,000 miles back to the Oryx garage, where we topped my motor on his back to Belgrade where I repaired the engine and loaded tractor tyres back home.
All in a days work!
Failing to anticipate the exact amount of diesel required to get you to the pennies-per-litre countries, and running out of diesel in the Jordanian desert just short of the Saudi border. Syphoning diesel by mouth from another truck and bleeding the system through to get you going. Yes, that was another little irritation on the Middle-East run.
Robert
robert1952:
Failing to anticipate the exact amount of diesel required to get you to the pennies-per-litre countries, and running out of diesel in the Jordanian desert just short of the Saudi border. Syphoning diesel by mouth from another truck and bleeding the system through to get you going. Yes, that was another little irritation on the Middle-East run.
RobertHa ha…that only happens once though !!
GS OVERLAND:
robert1952:
Failing to anticipate the exact amount of diesel required to get you to the pennies-per-litre countries, and running out of diesel in the Jordanian desert just short of the Saudi border. Syphoning diesel by mouth from another truck and bleeding the system through to get you going. Yes, that was another little irritation on the Middle-East run.
RobertHa ha…that only happens once though !!
Spot on, old mate! Once burnt never forgotten - as any wise infant brought up with a Rayburn or Aga will attest! 
Robert
Or even worse when you’ve waxed up at 40 or so below and after burning a few pairs of trousers and clearing the fuel system through, the lift pump still won’t fill the filter bowls and to avoid freezing to death the only option is to ■■■■ mouthfuls of diesel & fill them up that way.
Oh what bliss when the engine fires up again and you can go back to bed.
Those on the Professional forum complaining about night heater problems wouldn’t have lasted long
Or that sinking feeling that you always got whenever some official said “Problem Mista”.
Hi Just a couple of my photos from the past first one is going up the Khyber Pass the next two are at the Afghan/Pakistan border the next one is part of the road up the Khyber Pass towards the Khyber Riffles Fort and the last one is between Doha/UAE before the road was there
Afghan / Pakistan! 
Brilliant stuff and, sadly, never to be done again! Outstanding!!
That is the importance of this Forum. People who have done this kind of thing tell it like it was and those who follow their experiences get an understanding of what it took to get the job done. Respect. Jim.
mushroomman:
Or that sinking feeling that you always got whenever some official said “Problem Mista”.
Hi Mushy.
How are ya me old sport ?
Long time no speak…Oh yes and then the dance !! how much it will cost for the problem to go away.
Its all too PC now a days.
Best regards
GS
Hi Just a few more photo’s from my time with Asian Transport during a trip from UK to Islamabad Pakistan
Hi John
Thanks for sharing. I remember when John Willie used to talk about going to Rawalpindi. Fascinating, even then. I was doing regular trips to Doha and his trips seemed so much more distant !!
GS.
Hi John! Fantastic pics! Would bit my arm of for a trip lik that.
Thanks for sharing!
Danne
Outstanding pictures, thank you for sharing them, especially the one of the British Army outpost in the Khyber Pass. My grandfather was there sometime at the beginning of the last century, early 1900`s! Great to see what it really looked like.
Hi. Just a few picture from Australia. After leaving the UK in 1980 and arriving in Perth I had already contacted Bell Freightliners about a driving job but was told their only us sub contactors so I bought a Scania 140 and had a 14 speed Spicer g/box fitted and pulled triples from Perth to Darwin around trip of 9000km twice a month at that time I had about 350km of dirt road from Fitzroy Crossing to Halls Creek the rest was all sealed after a couple of years the Scania was getting tied so I Bought a SAR Kenworth which was rated to 310tons so the job became easier. I ended up buying a couple of flat top trailers and a dolly and finding my own freight and ran anywhere in Australia but again after a couple of years I found work OK but getting paid for it became harder and harder so I sold up. A friend of mine had started a company called West Coast Heavy Haulage so I started my first employed job in Australia. Most of the loads were for mining company all around Australia. So hears a few photo of the way Aussie truck drivers work Regards johnholland042@gmail.com
Wow that makes my life as a heavyhaulier here in Sweden wery smal…
Danne
Hi Just about one trip I did to Kabul. Bob Paul told me my next trip was to Kabul and I had a special load which turn out to be Afghan money which was printed by the Royal Mint in the UK so off I start on my trip to Kabul and had no troubles at all till I left Iran and travelled the 17km of no mans land and it has an Afghan army post half way to check on visa’s which I had but the solder did not recognise my visa but after about an hour he let me through and I got to the custom area on the Afghan side were the chief of custom greeted me like I was god he told me he had a phone call from the President to expect a truck from the British Government that phone call was the highlight of his life. I had to say the night at the border and when I woke up in the morning I had about 50 solders around my truck. So I spoke to the custom chief to get my paper work done and ill be on my way to which he told me than I would be traveling to Kabul very safely. It use to take me about 17hrs driving from the border to Kabul but I had to wait one more day which I was getting ■■■■■■ off with waiting around then when I looked up the road their was 4 army trucks full of solders ready to ■■■■■■ me to Kabul their trucks were old S type Bedford about 1950 models. Well a trip should of taken me about 17 hrs took me 3 days from Herat/Kandahar/Kabul and when we arrived the truck was parked in the police compound for a day then the guys from the British Embassy turn up and we got escorted to the Royal Palace in town were I had a big argument with the army about them wonting to drive my truck inside whilst I stayed outside so after telling them that it was going to happen that way their let me drive inside and for me to drop my trailer where there wonted it. So I drove in and parked in the right place for them and started to wind down my legs on the trailer when all the army guy started to ■■■■ themselves so I turned around and well The President of Afghanistan/ The Fiancés Minister and The Minister of Interior where standing there as it takes all three of them to open the vault then the President came over to me and asked me in good English what I was doing so I told him I had to leave and wait outside to which he said I was a guest of Afghanistan and I could stay so I did. The next day I had to get an exit visa to leave so the guys from the British Embassy took my passport and arranged that for me. Four days later I got my passport back and asked about my entry visa as I had trouble getting in and was told that the visa their gave me in London was a one off entry visa that would only be renewed on me delivering the load to Kabul. After which I got hold of ■■■■ Parkinson an agent for Oriental Carpet Manufacture in Kabul and loaded carpet back to London and off loaded them at their warehouse near St Pauls Cathedral in London. One more trip done Regards John Holland