I remember the first load i done to Saudi,5000 plastic buckets.It got some strange looks at borders but they were destined for the then new ‘‘King Faisal’’ hospital in Riyhad.
Also 1 time 20ton of sand for Kuwait.I had some arguments at borders as they thought i was being funny,but it was for a water filtration plant
hutpik:
I remember the first load i done to Saudi,5000 plastic buckets.It got some strange looks at borders but they were destined for the then new ‘‘King Faisal’’ hospital in Riyhad.
Also 1 time 20ton of sand for Kuwait.I had some arguments at borders as they thought i was being funny,but it was for a water filtration plant
Sorry! Off thread as usual - mention of the Riyadh hospital has reminded me. We did many containers there from Dammam Port.
Waiting to unload with ‘Ginger’ McNeill, a doctor and two nurses walked by. The doctor was in a white suit. I think he was Egyptian.
‘Ow, John, look at the clip of this, Haway son, who got you ready this morning, have yer got yer mam washing and ironing yer stuff.’
Doctor keeps walking and talking trying to ignore him. Nurses stifling laughter.
Bearing in mind Ginger was in shorts and flip flops and nothing else.
He would also say at the top of his voice when shopping at the Souks supermarket in Khobar
‘Ow, son, come and look at this. What a waste of an air fare! I mean, everyone’s got the right to be ugly, but she abuses the privilege!’
I tried to pretend not to be with him!
John.
For a few year we used to shift the camels for Smarts Circus when they were in the North East. We would pick them up about 11.00 pm on the Saturday night after the last show had finished at Newcastle leave them on the wagon overnight with some hay and water and by the Sunday morning the whole show had moved to the next site in Sunderland and we would drop said camels off at about 11.00am. No questions about how much it would cost, invoice went with the driver on the Sunday and a cheque handed over there and then.
tyneside:
For a few year we used to shift the camels for Smarts Circus when they were in the North East. We would pick them up about 11.00 pm on the Saturday night after the last show had finished at Newcastle leave them on the wagon overnight with some hay and water and by the Sunday morning the whole show had moved to the next site in Sunderland and we would drop said camels off at about 11.00am. No questions about how much it would cost, invoice went with the driver on the Sunday and a cheque handed over there and then.
I haven’t transported camels myself, but I saw several of these artic loads of camels on the road in Djibouti, but didn’t get the opportunity to snap them. However, I stumbled upon a BBC piece which not only provided this picture, but explained that trailer loads of camels travel from Somalia through east Africa en route for Egypt! Presumably, then, they transit Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan to access southern Egypt; more or less tracing some very old camel droving routes. Robert
Thoroughly enjoying reading all your post ,i knew a i was not on my own. As for the Bosnia work the firms i worked for did not want to know.as we had done some aid work ,when the war was on ,not in war zone, however enough aggro for the bosses to steer clear.
Buzzer, i seem to remember the spalding work was through Hargreaves,and loaded at ADAMS, [PORK] most of the loads i done were for Brittany [st briac] or like that also i remember a cold store near a nuclear power station in Brittany.i liked the sunday night boat from portsmouth.
john your mate ginger just seems the right kind of man to be with, i think we all come from a differnt type of mould.
Back to the quarry…, as you know quarries are not on the flat,so once in the bowl the sides were very high,and time was getting on ,so as told i stayed in the cab again, the trailer doors were full open ,but not clipped back to the sides ,like wings my doors shut and windows up,i could see nothing in the mirrors so i thought ,f–k it get the grub on ,and i must say home cooking in the cab was, even if i say it, me. one pan for all ,or saucepan . as time went on i progressed to a pressure cooker. thats another story.
After about 2 hours i knew the trailer was getting lighter,and less movement, i heard the trailer doors bang shut, so i knew i was empty , i thought good i can now get my dishes etc washed up and put away ,however the unloaders had a differnt idea as you all know our esteemed french colleagues are not the quietest of men, not the light tap on the door they must bang the sh-t out of it,as if we are all deaf,so that is a wind up,i fling the door open hoping to catch the banger in the gob,but hes well trained, like me, and always keeps the latch side of the door[i still do now even with cars]
It is made clear,-unclear, that we must [allie]lots of arm movements ,interpreted in to follow me,ROAST BEEF.
know it was as easy ride going down lots of mud and gravel, however i was driving a twin steer 36 A.T.I DAF WITH A HEAVY Lambrey [not the correct spelling]trailer so i tried to tell them to wait for me at the top as the unit was prone to wheels spin even with the floating steer up, good job i had diff lock,eventually lots of weaving from side to side i got out and van waited for me ,as i was well versed in following FRENCH MANS VANS on wine collections the idea is ,they go like F— TO LOSE YOU and you do the same not to.
I had no idea[where to] as they say in somerset,but i knew i had to get the CMR and find out the mystery so do not loose site of the mad man in front, with his dog-end in his mouth ,i am sure they brought cigarettes like that ,half smoked, because they all had them.
we arrived at a small type transport yard, as soon as i drove in, i scanned the place for a turn around ,and thought this is going to be good,in and out the same way.[normal] being right hand drive just what you need…
Out i jump, yes remember we all used to jump out, 3 steps…and i was met with the worst dressed man in the world,trousers ■■■■■■■ with a bit of string, and wellies ,however he took my arm,in a nice way and propelled me to the back of the trailer the doors nearly on the road and he gave me a face mask and indicated me to put it on, before we opened them ,so mask on we opened them ,and the smell was worse than a baby s pram wow i can still smell know,it was overcoming ,and the floor of the trailer was covered with, wait for it, EMPTY SCALLOP SHELLS ,I had no comprehension what a load like that would need the maff etc.the CMR said 15 tons, yes and the rest plus the water ,and hundreds if plastic sacks ,so know it was clean up time ,they wheeled round a mobile small generator ,[like they use at washe] and brushes and shovels, and it was getting dark good job i carried my own wellies and a sow-wester type cape for just washing out ,yes i learned my lesson before washing out after a load of meat ,with cold water and a SCRAPPER FOR THE SIDES COVERED IN BEEF FAT, imagine the times a side of beef rubs on a trailer wall in transit then they put metal holed bars along the sides to hold a new thing [BARS] to stop loads falling all they where beef fat traps…
Once changed ,mask on,they have done this before, we start the clean up and it all goes out on to the floor.once the water starts build in in the front of the trailer because it is sloping the wrong way, no air controls then to lift them up or down,i n my pigeon french ,and hand and arm movements i explain that i need to either ,close up, back out, turn around and back in so the water runs out or get some planks under the driver axles,the twin steer was down, so it was decided to back out ,just what you need in the dark ,and thought ,no way,just my luck for a big F— UP call it a night, with the doors opened it might help the smell out ,they got my drift,and that was it ,so i asked any where i could have have wash, or douche. wee,wee,so that was me, i tried to ask what where all those scallop shells used for ,i thought they might grind them down for powder,that is me thinking,so they new what i was asking and they took me inside opened the freezer and they picked out this scallop shell with snails in butter packed in them, so that was it, they used them to display snails ready for grilling or whatever, oven cooking .mystery over but not the story…by the way this is 100%true.
Yes SORRy that was it,but the saga was not over ,after a nights sleep [made a change]i now with help had to back out of there drive gateway luckily the road was quite and the trailer wheels did not hit the other verge so once,it was easy to back back in with there assistance, well it never is easy ,clipping the odd gate post or evening knocking it down was ,i am sorry to say not hard for me to do…but with class if i did it.it was usual F—ED.
Once i was back in, it was straight back to the wash ,the smell was still just awful and my little french helpers were no longer around . i did have a thought that saving all the turning, i should have pushed all the meat hooks to the back of the trailer,lots of wight there over 350 on 5 rails it might have just worked ,i will never know.i had a C.B.A.moment cant -be- arsed.i now had got to the point i had washed enough ,and the smell was no going away just yet,so i started using the susque on the wall , to help dry off,and some old t shirts ,[yes you non fridge men this is the lengths we went to to get it correct]
however all the drips from the meat hooks were going to keep dripping to the deck,also as a old trailer floor .was checkered type plate but screwed on the ribs of the chassi in sheets ,not a full type floor that came later,yes! the trailer had a full chassis .also it was screwed down so after years of in and out with fork lift etc, it stated to get ribbed ,[difficult to push loaded pallets in when required flat head]screws would work loose.
Therefore once wet, some water wold be retained in the screw holes and seep under the floor plates with its smells, so the floor is now dry,i have put the fridge on +15 and closed the doors just to see how the smell was as do not forget the door rubbers all round have little pin etc and they retain the smells .so basically i know i have a problem as my return load is BISCUITS FROM RUNGIS PARIS.in fact the way fridge work went all though i worked for the company as a driver, after time you got to think ,act ,and be like a owner driver. to be honest looking back it was not my problem at all ,if it smelt it smelt, who gives a s—t however that was not the way it was,so it was now down to me to sort it.some in the office would have had absolutely no idea what we actually did.,
.
Now the smell was the thing to overcome, believe it or not BURNING CARDBOARD INSIDE A FRIDGE would help to overpower any obnoxious smell ,trouble was if the doors where shut to long it went out [no air]if you put the fridge on ,it went out if the fridge was on it would blow all the ash around so you had another problem…the only way i knew and had done it before,ie, you have a load of SOWmeat [casleed ■■■■■■ pork] you had a pungent aroma ,also boar meat, never carried on the same trailer together,well i never did. like bull beef also on its own…back to the cure ,well as near as you can get,the traier must be bone dry, and you sprinkle over the floor CUSTARD POWDER,SWEEP IT AROUND job done …however how was i going to explain to the FRENCH MAN OR WOMEN . i want some birds custard powder yes i know the supermarket ,none around, the local bakery ,no so i gave up rang the office a told them no way ,the trailer could load dry goods,please change the load ,that they did frozen from our regular loads in Belgium .
Maybe now non fridge men might just take a minute and think, hang on the fridge is running for a purpose not the driver being a tw–.
Bibles to Saudi
About 1975 on a regular run to the New Jeddah Airport with mixed, mainly electrical fittings & gear, had a crate marked books on the manifest.
After the usual 4 or 5 day rest up as the clearance dragged on, my agent turns up looking worried “Mr Geoff the librarian wants to see the books”
We get a fork lift, offload the offending case and take it to the librarian, it was my first visit to the librarian, he worked in surprising style for Halat Ammar, he sat Saudi Style at the far end of a big long room covered with a similar size Persian rug.
When we go the lid off and saw the bibles I reckoned I was in for a bigger challenge than usual, Librarian asks for a look, I put on my best polite look and opened one at the first page where there was a picture of the last supper,
He asks “What’s that”, I must have given the right answer when I said “looks like a bunch of Arabs having dinner” – Yes he said and winked “I think you’re right, Mafi problem”
The Saudis can get a bad press, but I found most of them pretty OK if you were OK with them
Once took a load for Rooksdale International out of East London to an exhibition at a posh restaurant called Le Pre Catelan in the Bois De Boulogne Paris, the load consisted of a full load of grass growing in trays ( no, no not the smoking kind ) this was for feeding animals or playing football on and was in trays spread over the trailer floor weighed about half a ton the lot, had to take a boffin with me in the cab who wanted to stop every hour to check the fridge temperature which was set at plus something and had to be exact, cleared customs at Garanor Paris where the boffin said I was expected to get up and check the temperature all through the night, he was politely told to (zb) off and find a hotel, as soon as he was gone the fridge went off….Happy, happy days
Ossie
One day on my return from loading in Italy I was approached by an Irish driver on for Shannahans (any one remember them) any way he was pulling a two axle step frame trailer and made out he did not know the way up and down Mt. Blanc through the tunnel. Smelling a rat I said I had to have a break so he carried on following another UK lorry, when I got down the other side I saw this paddy and then it was when he told me he only wanted to follow me as an emergency braking device as all the shoes on his trailer were on the rivets, he had 22ton of sheet steel on the floor topped out with 4 ton of shoes, how he got home I will never know but they did not seem to give a dam, Buzzer.
Well Ive hauled lots of unusual stuff in my day, Starting off in my young days as a driver, I did loads of pig swill, Chicken ■■■■,Dead pigs,Tobbaco waste, Pure American Lard made in Widnes Ha Ha, And this missile which of course was defused, It attracted a lot of attention driving up the M 1 from the RAF Base at Cardington to its final resting place in the Air Museum at Sunderland, Happy Days, Regards Larry.
took some fish on a flat today ,the 2.5 tonne lump was lift off by a Atlas 360 with Tico crane on a barge in the sheffield and South yorks navigation at sprotborough .
Hi Dan what was the fish plaque in aid of,is it to commemorate the return of fish .
Lawrence, yes that load would have turned heads,i like the sheets nicely rolled, ready for use, by the headboard ,in fact interesting reading about all the loads.
deckboypeggy:
Hi Dan what was the fish plaque in aid of,is it to commemorate the return of fish .
I was in such a rush for the next load as normal I didn’t ask ,but I’ll ask tomorrow .
HI Dan ,have you found out about the fish. or has it been batterd.
Surely that’s not the Sole thing on your mind, dbp? You ought to be too busy getting your Skates on.
no i have been having a whale of time with a old mate squidi-goldfish, he sits on his perch at the end of the bar,with minow mackerel from crabster, he caught the sun and is as red as a lobster,also caught crabs from a monk-fish not to com"place"nt about it im just going to the dolphin for a======
I’m sorry I started that now!!! 
deckboypeggy:
HI Dan ,have you found out about the fish. or has it been batterd.
Just because British Waterways thought it would be nice apparently ,may be they wanted a play on the crane boat .
ok thanks Dan .RETIRED OLD ■■■■ yes i give up to. you must have a lot of time on your hands like me,still it is better than pushing trucks up the road .