Hi John, thanks for sharing those brilliant photos and memories especially the ones of The Khyber Pass which I am sure we would all love to have driven in a lorry some forty odd years ago. A bloke who I worked with in the 80’s used to work for Thor from Stoke and he told me that all the British Regiments who had been stationed along the road had all carved their regimental badges into the sand stone cliffs, that must of been spectacular to see so far away from home.
John, a mate of mine who I worked with in the U.K. emigrated to Perth circa 1996 and worked for this mob, I wonder if you knew them.
Hi. Just a couple of stamps from my old passport and it has to be one of the best trip that a man can do. You can forget about Tahir in eastern Turkey although in winter it gave me a few changelings times but Afghanistan/Pakistan was without doubt the most rewarding for me. From Herat/Kandahar/Kabul was boring to drive the Russian’s built the road from Herat to Kandahar and was just concrete slabs every 25mtr but from Kandahar to Kabul was buit by the Yanks which was good. But the road from Kabul to Islamabad was great its what mountains and gorges are all about the over The Khyber Pass which is about 75km long that part of the trip tested your driving skill’s. Then you had to get over the Terbela River which the British had built a bridge over but was not designed to take a articulated truck over it had an arch way at 90 deg angle to the road so you drove through until your trailer would hit about half way down the top so you had to jack one side up and try to push it straight to get onto the bridge all go fun with half of the locals watching giving you all the advice you need but it was the greats bite of road that I’ve driven on I’ve enclosed a couple of photo of that road Regards John Holland
However could anyone top that .YOU ARE THE PERSON WHO SHOULD BE WRITING A BOOK.or have you ?I cannot believe the year you were doing that journey. 90%of drivers did not know about EUROPEAN THEN let alone what you done.good stuff…
> JOHN HOLLAND: > Hi it has to be one of the best trip that a man can do. You can forget about Tahir in eastern Turkey but Afghanistan/Pakistan was without doubt the most rewarding for me. From Herat/Kandahar/Kabul was boring to drive the Russian’s built the road from Herat to Kandahar and was just concrete slabs every 25mtr but from Kandahar to Kabul was buit by the Yanks which was good. But the road from Kabul to Islamabad was great its what mountains and gorges are all about the over The Khyber Pass which is about 75km long that part of the trip tested your driving skill’s.
Thanks to you ( & RIP my pal Jock Bell) having gone before & passed on the knowledge - when I first went life was much easier thanks to your tips
mushroomman:
Hi John, thanks for sharing those brilliant photos and memories especially the ones of The Khyber Pass which I am sure we would all love to have driven in a lorry some forty odd years ago. A bloke who I worked with in the 80’s used to work for Thor from Stoke and he told me that all the British Regiments who had been stationed along the road had all carved their regimental badges into the sand stone cliffs, that must of been spectacular to see so far away from home.
John, a mate of mine who I worked with in the U.K. emigrated to Perth circa 1996 and worked for this mob, I wonder if you knew them.
Nullabor Roadhouse.
2
Somewhere in W.A.
1
Slurry Tank For Kirfield’s Perth to Telfer.
0
Regards Steve.
P.S. Hiya Gavin, I bet that a trip over The Khyber in your old 141 is still on your bucket list.
Ehh upp Mushy…you’re spot on with that sir. One of those “magic moments”…bucket list Nullabor is also on the “list”…
