My longest ever trip so far. a (big) diary

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

ok, so this is a mix of a video diary i have prepared and also photos, both trucks and non trucks. ill start with the video links as they sort of explain where and what etc.they are all quite long (except part 3) ill admit im no luke vernon, im not very good at them.

part one

part 2

part 3 (i had a 9 hour break where im stationary to give you an idea of time!)

part 4

part 5

part 6

part 7

part 8

part 9

ok, so once we got to the border this was the route. it was kazan, samara, chelyabinsk, ekaterinburg, then back via the same way…

however, from kazan to samara, the route we actually went was like this. the direct ‘road’ was pretty much unpassable apparently so we went round!

en route to switzerland to load

this was about 3am on a sunday morning in poland, couldnt believe how busy it was that time on a sunday!

thats more like it

last roundabout in europe. turn left for the border

waiting

what a hand drier!!

in cab cuisine (im not much better at that ha ha!!)

were in…

bit tight

making more lanes

looks like a daf first thing in the morning…

umm ok!

wonder what vosa would say…

when you cant wait, drive through the dirt and the actual roadworks!!

beer, or fish?!!

last time i crossed here there was a bloke in the middle on the ice and his car parked on the ice near to the bank!

parked at the first gig

oilfield

more roadworks

which garden ornament would you choose?!!..

what was even wierder was when a family stopped and all had their photos taken posing amongst this lot!

nice diesel tank

brew time

samara

in and around samara…

heading east again

actually, THIS is more like a daf!!

another different dialect on the signs

for sale

one of my personal favourite photos, at the euro/asia border in russia. shame it was pitch black!

i picked this up in a cafe, how bizarre!!

in chelyabinsk. it used to be the tank capital of russia, and once was considered by western scientists to be the most radioactively polluted cities in the world!

last stop, ekaterinburg

at the ‘gig’

heading west again

where we had a 9 hour break

tea break! we actually headed back to the border a different way too, down towards smolensk then through the forest to ostrov and back to the same border. it was longer KM wise but saved us a lot of time because of the roadworks

as i did the video diary i didnt prepare a written one, so heres just a couple of stats i noted down:

odometer was reading 334046 in samara, 334947 in chelyabinsk, 335188 ekaterinburg, and 338131 back at the border, so a shade under 3000kms back to the border alone!

and this is my pick of some of the photos i took of the trucks

im sure some will recognise this livery!!

this one had belly tanks on the trailer!

old dutchman

old friderici kenworth, now in poland, and with an iveco air kit?!!

all the photos of the trucks i took are at this link if you would like to see more

flickr.com/photos/68642454@N02/

hope you enjoy!

2

Nice trip and photos!
Point “E” on google maps printscreen is my origin country!
Just curious. You are able to speak in Russian?

3

One day I will pull my finger out and get onto this work.

4

Did you follow M016KP all the way?!

Looks like a handball job at Ekaterinberg?

Say what you like, those Russians do a good monument!

Great diary, many thanks.

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Yeah it’s ok I suppose, but it aint Cleethorpes is it?

Seriously though Mat, another quality diary and insight into the world of concert trucking. Keep 'em coming.

6

Brilliant Diary Matt thanks for sharing :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

7

Excellent stuff!

They do like those huge great town names out there don’t they?

8

Excellent post chap , I am working my way though videos . :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Excellent post :slight_smile: have had a read through and a look at the pics, now slowly working my way through the videos :slight_smile:

Makes me want to get on the road sooner

10

Awesome diary, Is that the furthest East youve gone with work?

Got Russia high on my list to visit, further east than Moscow too.

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Very,very good.As others,haven’t gone through all the videos… yet.Good commentary,Luke had better look to his laurels pretty soon.‘I’m a fridge magnet’ cracked me up :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: .Keep your powder dry,there could be a good book just waiting to come out.Thanks for posting.

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Just watched parts 1 to 4…

Excellent stuff so far…

I’ll check In tomorrow for the rest…

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I started watching at half 8 tonight and have just finished watching them all. I’ll not comment on your shirt but your sunglasses are ‘interesting’.

14

Brilliant! Haven’t watched the videos yet but will do tomorrow. The Premium with 207 in the plate looks very familiar.

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Fantastic diary. Haven’t had chance to look through the videos yet… great pics. I don’t know how you navigate with some of those road signs in gibberish! :laughing: Give me English any day. Thanks for posting. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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brilliant vidioe spent hours watching this really interesting well done loved it regards Rowland ward

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An excellent diary mat, seeing the Rynart trucks brought back memories, they used to do a lot of middle east work, as did Centrum, knew a lot of their drivers. Tell me mat, if you know, are the USA spec Volvos imported from there, or do they get them from somewhere else. I did hear that Volvo u/s are an independent company, separated from Volvo Sweden. I like to do a few translations when looking at your diarys, as the Bulgarian language is similar to Russian, and i speak some BG.
Cant wait for the next one.

18

Fantastic diary matt,a lot of hard work gone into it thanks very much.
regards dave.

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Scanner:
Brilliant! Haven’t watched the videos yet but will do tomorrow. The Premium with 207 in the plate looks very familiar.

im guessing ex securior omega?

thanks for the replies one and all, yup its the furthest i have been (so far), i can string a sentence together in russian but thats about it so far (if they reply im stumped ha ha, but you have to learn somehow!)

truckyboy as far as i know all the american looking stuff is directly imported from the states, from what i can gather its stuff no one wants second hand (theres no nice old peterbilts/kenworths that were owner drivers, just cheap fleet stuff)

cargocargocargo its handball everywhere for me, but its not too bad

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them signs look a ■■■■■ to follow,that one with the no hgv sign would of screwed me and that would of been it :open_mouth: