Many a day was “lost” in Irun customs. I don’t have any old pictures but I will post a few “recent” (1999) or so ones.
Not the same as it was. Half of the customs compound was handed to a supermarket RDC, This half, a general warehousing area. The impounded cars were still “parked” there in the corner by the railway (to the right).
Anyone remember the day the Aduana gate as seen was shot up? ETA people?
Bars, booze and cigs…
The original Hendaye bridge that was closed off when the new bridge opened. It was a longer walk to the French Routiers, much better food.
I remember after Irun late on a Saturday night C.1990. In the Basque region Spanish army tanks were set up on the motorway in a stagger fashion. As you slowed down to a crawl to zig zag thru them there were squaddies on their knees with flashlights checking under the trailer.
That takes me back Gazzer,we were lucky we used to clear with Doman so parked in their yard. I wonder if Tony is still alive as he retired back to Irun after being a painter and decorator in Crawley,if he is he must be in his late 70,s,anyone remember Eddie in Zona Franca ,Barcelona who did similar to Tony ?.
i only started going abroad, just after clearing customs had finished.
my first trip too madrid, i ran down from bordeaux, with a guy called kevin, (i think) who worked for godwins, or goodwins, can’t remember.
he was gonna show me the route, and how too get too freds.
irun was our 1st stop, i never forgot it, handy for “shopping”
kevin also explained too me, over the cb, that, i would not neccessarily need, shoes, trousers, and a smart shirt, if i went into a club in spain after i said too him, as we ran down the n1 towards burgos, that the spanish, seemed too like a club!
Tony used to complain that his UK pension was always late .The reason for this is that the UK pays every 28 days because 52 weeks in the year so the payments are never on the same day of the month. The Swiss used to pay 12 months salary at the end of every month then at Xmas paid 2 months together to make up for all the lost days ; not many people know that.
Getting back to Irun ,whenever there was a football match on telly someone would always telephone the Guardia & report a bomb scare & the whole border closed down for the rest of the day. Ya gotta luv them Basques!
I remeber running the “blockade” in the early 90’s.
I used to stop at Benidorm sometimes and I used a fella who owned a cafe there to do tranlations for me over the phone if I couldn’t figure out what people were on about,anyway I flew out to Malaga as one of our drivers missus had been blue lighted into hospital.
Before I flew out I rang the cafe to get the latest on the blokade and he said it was clear as the strike had finished.I flew out and hired a car and met the truck near Gibralta just off a new motorway they were building.We made our way back to Malaga and dropped off the driver at the airport there was another driver (boss’s nephew if I remember right) on his first trip with him.I rang the cafe again and he said that it was definately clear the strike had been over for a couple of days.
So the other driver and myself head north fill up near Burgos and head on,when we left the filling station a sierra estate pulled on the motorway in front of us and carried on at the same speed, I didn’t think much of it at the time but it turns out he is key to this event.
I pulled onto the single track section of road at Bilbao and as I rounded the bend with the traffic lights and bridge on the apex I saw two coppers in red uniforms looking very pale and around 50 protesters.The coppers were frantically waving me through the red light and the protesters were shouting and waving their fists.
I turned to the other driver and said
“f… me that was close”
just as I was going round the right hand bend as soon as we were out of sight of the coppers the sierra estate slammed his brakes on in front of me and the motor was surrounded by blokes lobbing stones at the motor.I just dropped it a couple of cogs hit the horn and gas at the same time swereved round the sierra and basically shut my eyes.
They smashed every bit of glass on the motor plus a few dents in the doors but I got through without any injuriesother the a little peppering fron the glass cubes, the other driver had a cut on the side of his head where a rock hit him.
theres another instalment to this which I’ll put up later as I’ve gone on a bit and I’ve got to go out now
Saw this occurring in the Aduana truck park behind the Repsol. 1999.
The firebrigade were only interested in the fire. no one cordoned off the area, evacuated the street or petrol station (the otherside of the fence). Believe it or not, as in one of the photos…DID NOT PREVENT the petrol delivery tanker from pulling into the petrol station to deliver! Poor driver observation too! [/u]
I remember hearing how a driver got fined for leaving his sidelights on when filling up on a garage forecourt, best thing was that attendent was smoking a big fat cigar at the time.
On about my third trip down there in what must of been the late eighties, i was running down with a bunch of lads pulling for companies out of Poole. Amongst them was a big lad called Terry who i think came from the Isle of Wight. He was a big guy and had a bit of a stutter, great bloke though. About 10 k’s from Irun we hit the back of a queue. It turned out the customs were on strike and nothing was going to move that day. After managing to get on the hard shoulder we got a lift down to the border, after sussing out what was going on we started having a few drinks, and then a few more. Around midnight or so we were in the town and by this time there must of been twenty of us. I was never quite sure what started it but i understand someone pulled a knife. Big Terry didn’t hesitate, he hit the bloke, and his nose went everywhere. We never really thought any more of it until we walked out of the bar and found about 20 guardia civil waiting outside. We were all put in a couple of vans and taken to what i think were there barracks, it was certainly a very odd police station. We were all made to assume what these days is called a stress position, on tip toe and with your fingertips against the wall. Being a mouthy little git i came down off tip toes and said something along the lines of, sod this. I immediatley got about half a dozen wacks from rubber batons that they have, it hurt. To cut a long story short we were all fined the equivalent of about forty quid and let out the next morning. Then we had the nightmare of getting back to the trucks 10 k’s away. Great memory, something i will never forget and a really sound bunch of blokes wish i knew who they all were.
If you wanted fun n’ games the Poole crowd never disappointed ; One night running home in France one of the Poole drivers let his mate who had taken a trip with him have a go in the car park at driving the truck .Somehow the bloke turned the truck on its side ,full of tv’s. They lost the contract after that. You are right ,they were absolutely hilarious. LOL If you wanted trouble just hang around with that crowd. Green Scanias.
Ex Haulier Good tale Ex Haulier. The Terry you referred to was Terry Wright RIP who I’m sad to tell passed away in the mid to late nineties due to the big C. I shared many a laugh with him and took him on his first lorry trip to Italy from which he got the bug and ended up one of us. Regards GAZ
Thats sad to hear Gaz. He was a great lad, always seemed to be working for a different firm everytime i bumped into him. Shame the good ones always seem to go youngest.
Can anybody remember a guy called Roy (Big 01er IIRC) he drove a tag axle 111 or 141 cant mind, lived in Portugal, did groupage all the time. Always had a good electric pump for diesel…if seen you parked miles away.
Had many a good time in Irun, lots of memories, always looked forward to spending time there.
Anyone remember marigolds the bar / restaurant down the stairs where the two girls Itzia and Olatz worked.
The taxi ride into town if you were unlucky enough to have your clearing agent up there and Domans across the road from the customs.
Never used Tonys services myself but always bought him a coffee and brandy anyway and he was always about
if anything was ever needed from trailer for inspection.
Like many drivers i bought my sheepskin seat covers from the shop outside the compound on the right.
Embarrassed to admit it now but manys the time when after too many sherberts would head off into the
night over Pamplona hill to Zaragosa and beyond.Must,ve been mad.
There used to be a bar that had a trap door in the middle of the floor . The lady owner would entertain her short time guests down in the cellar & leave the bar to run itself whilst business was being conducted. She trusted everyone & was never let down. Her boy friend was an old English truck driver that would try to promote her business when quiet .Very proud of the fact that all his mates rated the goods.
mappo:
Embarrassed to admit it now but manys the time when after too many sherberts would head off into the
night over Pamplona hill to Zaragosa and beyond.Must,ve been mad.
Why be embarrassed Mappo ? it was the done thing up until a few years ago in Spain the police did not give a hoot unless you hit anything, half the Spanish drivers especially the ones doing the local deliveries were well under the weather every day after about 09.00
after i said too him, as we ran down the n1 towards burgos, that the spanish, seemed too like a club!
It was if they had the same speech for every photo.
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