great read
How do you view the photos 
i don’t know, time travel back to 2004… 
philgor:
i don’t know, time travel back to 2004…
I`ll upload the photos over the next day or so, they didnt come over when the server changed some years ago.
Brilliant read there Jon although maybe should be on the ‘old timethread’! How time flys eh.
Fantastic Jon, I thought that was a fantastic read and answered a lot of questions for me,loved the detail that you inserted,keep up the good work and I will hopefully enjoy your next installment,never ended up over the water myself (Don’t think I had the bottle really) but your piece has given me a great insight,
Regards Darren
DAY ONE
FEATHERSTONE TO TROYES
I start at our depot in Featherstone in west Yorkshire on Sunday; I arrive with my car laden with gear. Jump out to crank the unit up but he is dead as a dodo. I nip down to the garage to source some jump leads but to no joy, how can you have a transport company with no jump leads. I look in the other units for a pair and find a father flimsy pair and go fetch the shunter,an old FL10 to jump mine off, when the leads start smoking and melting I give up on that and ring my gaffer who arranges Volvo to come out.
while I wait I start sticking my stuff in the unit, my usual stead a DAF XF SSC takes all my rubbish with ease but this I am struggling to get everything in as it has plenty of lockers bur they are all small.
all the artics are named after BY`s other passion racehorses except my DAF, I suggested PEDIGREE CHUM to Bernie but he didn’t look impressed
Today’s steed is called BAGO
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bago_(horse
Arr the Volvo man is here from nearby Normanton with a more substanual pair of jump leads, bago roars in to life and I perform my checks before backing on to my trailer, the only box in the fleet which is usually used for a carpet job in the UK.
I check my load 24 pallets on the deck with 8 double stacked over the axles with a bar at each end, I replace a bulb and an indicator lens before setting off for Dover.
With the flat battery problem i decide to run down to Thurrock before stopping for a break. The ride down the A1,A14 ,M11 and onto the M25 is uneventful with BAGO pulling his load with ease and the I shift doing all the gear work.
I stop for a coffee with all the foreigners who have all their deck chairs out basking in the sun.
I slip out of Thurrock and across the bridge over the QE2 bridge into Kent, when ever I go to Dover I always opt for the A2 when possible because A the road and scenery are better and B as a child I lived in longfield for 2 years and rode down to see all the coaches and wagons on their travels to Europe some companies still around others taken over or long since gone, or look at the wagons parked in the park circle now replaced by the high speed rail link .every time I pass by here it reminds me of happy
Times down here
We drop down jubilee way into the port of Dover; I lift the suspension up on the unit so we don’t catch the steep ramp and straight on to the weighbridge
40520 kgs BAGO has pulled this with ease my DAF would have made a meal of that, but the Volvo has smoothly glided down with no fuss lurching or clunking as my daf does.
I board the 1930 boat the pride of Kent and make my way to the driver’s room with one of our other drivers with amuzur who just scrapes on
I have spag bol and a cheese cake followed by a coffee and a chat about the journey ahead. I am away on holiday the following week I intend to crack on so I make it back on Friday.
I am not sure on the fuel stop in Calais so I follow AMUZUR round to the ids stop on the dunes. fill up and have a quick coffee before following AMUZUR down to urvillers where we exchange waves and I continue into the night. my plan was to stop at reims champagne but I thought every tom,■■■■ and harry might be there so I opt to stop after the split with the A4.i glance over as we pass champagne to see it is quiet much to my annoyance, the first lay-by after the split takes me into a 10 so I decide to run my time out and pull in aire de villecetetif .I don’t quite have the time to go down to the services at troyes,but this is pleasant and quiet as I pull up at 0220(uk)
My bed is the only thing I look at at this time of night
9hrs 50 mins driving 797 kms
DAY 2 TROYES TO CARISIO
I have some cornflakes and coffee for breakfast; turn the fridge down as it is freezing the milk
The last driver of this was filthy how you can live in much like this is beyond me. I spend most of the morning cleaning and throwing rubbish in the bin, my duster now resembles an oily rag.
when my 9 hours are up I turn the key with hope as BAGO roars into life much to my relive ,I do all my checks before making a coffee for the journey.
I pull out towards the autoroute as AMUZUR flies past in front,I know from yesterday that my stallion has the legs on his nag and set about closing the gap,I catch up to him unnoticed so when the autoroute is clear I make my presence known in his mirrors and follow on in convoy, not only does BAGO have the speed advantage on amuzur despite weighing in 2500kgs more I easily outdrag him on the hills too,
AMUZUR pulls at Dijon in for his break so I follow him in for a coffee and a natter,
we move a carpet on his load that has started to bulge on the curtain, any bulges in the curtain and you cannot enter the mont blanc tunnel,mike is surprised by the way I catch him on the hills given the higher weight on mine,both the wagons are identical in everyway .I take 30 mins break here and save the other 15 till my hours are up,we part company and arrange to meet at ids at chamonix for a coffee and I head back out on the A31 before taking the A39 towards borg then follow the A40 ,the autoroute gets interesting at this point with some big drags and fantastic scenery, the big drag has BAGO down to 40 kph as he slogs his way up the hill in 8th at the top I pull into the services for a sandwich and a coffee before continuing on towards geneve in spectacular scenery,the autoroute skirts round the swiss city and we come to a grinding halt in roadworks,just 4 wagons in front is AMUZUR again,it it takes us half an hour to crawl through the controflow and AMUZUR disappears from sight,as I pass bonneville services I notice mike has pulled in for a break,I continue along the “white motorway”which is looking more green at this time of year towards the tunnel,at the end of the motorway lorries and coaches have to pull in to get a ticket to show they have complied and meet the criteria that allows you to transit the tunnel.
I pull in to top the tanks up and there is no sign of mike so I need to press on if I am to reach carisio tonight.after twisting and turning up to the tunnel I pass through the heat sensor and up to the toll booths pass him the ticket and mt blanc payment card, wait for the green light and set off into the small dirty bore, I it keep to 65ksand plod through passing only a few wagons in this tight tunnel. when I emerge from the tunnel I pass through the Italian customs and get a “safe jouney”from the local plod,this makes me suspicious so I watch my speed all the way down to the tunnels in the valley floor, we past through courmayeur looking totally different from how I normally see it, on to the autostrada and though a series of tunnels taking us down to aosta,I am in a rush so I push on making full use of the hills at close to 100kphkeeping one eye out for the cops as the speed limit for wagons on the autosrtadas is 80.as darkness starts to fall I ghost past aosta and under the gondola s going up to the ski resort of pila.at the end of the aosta valley the road forks for Milan and turin,I take the Milan fork as we are treated to a fantastic lightning show and the heavens start to open. pulling off the A4 at carisio I head towards the truckstop which is heaving with trucks from all over Europe, I park next to a uk rigid and head for the restaurant which looks like its nearly ready to shut, the pizza ovens are still well lit so I opt for a margarita pizza and a large beer, the place is impressive and clean nothing like a greasy spoon truckstop you get over here. I settle down to read my book chubby browns autobiograhy
8hrs 45 mins driving 664 km`s
DAY 3 CARISIO TO CAMPODARSEGO
I wake to find the truckstop deserted apart from the uk rigid at the side of me. I go in for a shower which costs 2.50 euros bit expensive but welcome, as I ate late last night I just have a cappuccino for breakfast at a very reasonable 1 euro. after my 11 hours are up I head back to the autostrada but due to the roadwork’s for the high speed rail link they have shut the entrance to the autostrada, so it’s a quicktrak across country down to balocco and on to the autostrada, we have telepasses so I don’t even stop a the toll booth, I have always used the via card before so I miss the “arrivaderci” from the machine.
as this trailer does come to Italy normally it has no 70/80 stickers on the back so I pull into novara services and sort that out and have a quick coffee before heading towards Milan, as I don’t have that much driving to do I decide to keep to the Italian limit of 80 ks and most wagon seem to be doing the same. just though the toll both we come to a grinding halt on the tangenziale and crawl across Milan whilst sat in the traffic a British family are at the side of me with a young lad looking out at me, I give him a wave which puts a smile on his face, I notice his dad has not got his headlights on so I gesture to him to wind his window down, and remind him he needs his lights on, he was surprised to hear an English voice in a left ■■■■■■, I wish him a happy holiday and carry on with my good deed done for the day.3 years ago I did the same trip in our car all the way over to lido de jesolo I wondered were they where going.
the traffic was stood still beyond the next toll so I go for plan b and nip down the sud tangenziale and cut across pass linate airport towards my destination of fornova san Giovanni.when I arrive I have to produce my passport by the friendly security guard who points out where to go to unload and the loo .they are on their dinner break so I make a ham and mozzarella sandwich while I wait.there are 2 wagons in front of me but it doesnt take the guys long when they return bang on time from lunch to get to me.although I sweat like a pig in the 30c heat the guys even jump on to help me balance the double stacked pallets off the truck…i wish it was like this at home all the guys here seem great.mike turns up from his Milan delivy produces a very welcome cold can of coke for me.the early problem on the A4 happened just behind him and he avoided the tailbacks I got stuck in.i ring the office after changing my tee shirt to see and puts the phone down, on my paperwork it states it will be ready tomorrow It sounded like it was ready to collect now, but I did get chance to ask him before he put the phone down. I worked my way over to the A4 and stopped at the first services for an ice cream and ponder whether to stop for the night at limemella or risk going to the reload and hope it’s ready or that I can park for the night with some facilities to hand. I risk going straight there and head off down the A4 towards padova,I start to lose interest in keeping to the 80 limit and soon let BAGO run on the limiter when the overtaking bans are lifted,just after I pull off at padova west the phone rings to remind me I have 2 collections from the same place and I need the hull drop on the back,I ask him when will it be ready,by the time you get there tomorrow,im 10 mins away now I reply, sensing ive been stitched up I consider going back to limenella but risk going straight there, I have not been very impressed with my Italian maps on tom tom it does not seem very up to date and seems not to have half the roads on I have been this week even though none of them are that new. So I stick to my “atlante stradale d`Italia” map which is 3 years old and still up to date!!as the street is not on the tom-tom I head for the industrial area of the town and fall straight on to my destination, that’s where my luck finishes as the load is not ready while 8 no showers or food available just some quiet parking spaces down the road. Ravioli and rice pudding out of my emergency kit I wish I had stayed at limenella
6 hrs driving 355kms
DAY 4 CAMPODARSEGO TO HOHENSTADT
I pull round into the factory for 0750 have a coffee from there machine while I wait for a bay it takes the guys to hand ball the load on the trailer, once again everyone is friendly and polite, I padlock and seal the trailer and head back towards the autostrada be fore cutting across the sp/ss 47 towards trento,the sat nav refuses to route me up here and when it eventually allows me that way I’m not even on the road, I have had enough of it so I turn it off. as the road climbs towards the dolomites the scenery improves and the road gets very bottom clinching tight in places as BAGOs load is only about 6,000 kgs he his not going to be slowed by any of the hills. Although the 47 has lots of duel bits with a no overtaking ban on it not surprising they are too tight to overtake on anyway. we join the A22 north of trento,I pull in at the first services to grab a bite to eat but there is no room to park so I slip back on the A22 and head for the next services and manage to get parked .I pop in for 2 hot ham and mozzarella pannis washed down with a coffee and a cappuccino cornetto.after my break I return to the autostrada which is all no overtaking. Although I did blast pass a couple of slow movers when it is quiet. Part of the motorway has a 60k limit when it is nether particularly hilly or twisty and causes a massive q of wagons. we arrive at the Austrian border and go through unchecked, the go box in the window beeps once every time I go under a gantry signalling everything is ok, we drown down hill with a couple of 40 kph speed limits which everybody is obeying down to the europa bridge, the cops have a victim at the tolls which we pass straight through as it is all charged on the go box. we pass round Innsbruck and up the inn valley towards kufstein ,this area the tirol I know very well from my coaching days ,and is one of my favourite destinations. I pull into vogel services for my first taste of the German maut.i join the q of drivers waiting to pay the toll.i watch with interest as the other drivers struggle with it.mike told me to book straight through to landau as it gives you enough time to have a night out on route, it even says night on the ticket.i had no problems with the machine we have a toll collect card which all the charges go on and I find the system easy to use .this still takes 30 mins!!
I push on into Germany and round Munich past the football stadium and pull into 2 lay-bys which are full and have to stop just outside of one for my last 15 mins.i am still full from my dinner so I have some vegetable soup for dinner and a coffee for the jouney.i push on until after ulm before looking for a place to stop I try a service station as I want a shower but this is choker so I try the next lay-by full again, third time lucky I pull up on an old cobbled lay-by half way between ulm and Stuttgart with 9 hours driving on the clock.
633 kms driven
DAY 5 HOHENSTADT TO WAVRE
Today’s objectives are a shower and the ferry at zeebrugge, I do all my checks this wet German morning. after an hours driving I pull into pforsteim services for a much needed shower (2.50 euros) and the maut ticket I will need for this morning trip from pirmasons to the lux border, there is no q and it takes 2 mins to get my ticket the touch screen machine is quick and easy to use and I am quite impressed by it, the cost is reasonable too.i have had 30 mins break but I will get nearer lux before I take the rest
the inside lane is slow moving due to the overtaking ban with the speeds averaging about 75kph.it gives me chance to admire the German scenery it reminds me of parts of England go towards karlsruhr over the Rhine and on towards landau ,at this point we cut across on the scenic B10 which the locals have put signs up asking for an hgv ban, although it is scenic I see no reason to stop hgvs using this road as the autobahn alterative is a long way round .we get diverted through pirmasens itself we go up a steep hill in the town as I go to set of he just spins his wheels and starts rolling back, I stamp on the break and he stalls, I lift the suspension up as we might be touching the floor and engage the diff lock and try again to much relive we move ,I disengage the diff but push my way out at the top with out stopping as I don’t fancy sliding back, the cars senses my problem and keep clear as we clear no problems. on to the A8 again at last an autobahn without hardly any ban on it so I dig my spurs into BAGOs side a push on without delay passing the big ford factory at saarlouis before swinging right and following the river saar towards Luxembourg. I hope to find a lay-by in lux but to no avail, only a diversion pushes round to a service station where I stop 7 mins over time.sandwhich and a coffee dealt with and I turn round towards the ids fuel stop near the French/Belgium border,469 lts are added before I set off, as I leave I remember I forgot to get the vignette for Belgium’s I stop at a garage just over the Belgium border, and pull in by the truck pumps to pop in and get my vignette. no is the answer I need to go back to lux to get it, I don’t have time to turn round so I push on to try the next services, I come to a halt at the long standing roadwork’s on the 411 but as I have a ferry to catch I push in near the cones as the ferry is getting tight much to one drivers annoyance. we come to a stop in the roadwork’s for 15 mins I think its getting tight so I ring BY to inform him of the position he says he will ring me back to confirm the check in times, that call never came !I stopped at the next 3 services to try and obtain the vignette, I am losing patience on this issue and think sod em I put the sat nav on to see how long it will take to get to zeebee with the speed reading 91-2kph this stallion is hot to the trot passing wagon after wagon..The matrix signs are saying E411 FERME the chances of get the ferry are very remote. we grind to a holt38 ks south of Brussels I ring BY again to give him the good news. head for Calais is the reply, we use e m Rogers account for the Dover Calais ferry which surprised me also I hadn’t seen any of their wagons abroad if fact I don’t see as many of them as I used to see when I was on the coaches times might not be good there either !after half an hour I decide to sneak down to the inside to the lay-by 800 meters down the road and park up And make some tea and watch what’s happening, BY wants me to go over my time to get to England and not to stop over here but noting is moving, I decide to call it a day and send him a text telling him what I want to do and it is safe here some 3 hours from Calais, if I stop now I can be on an early boat in the morning’s get no reply so I take it as a yes and read a bit more of my book before turning in
7 hours driving 552 km
DAY 6 WAVRE TO FEATHERSTONE
I get up at 0245(uk) and make a coffee and check the trailer for passengers before setting off at 0310.even if I had got a vignette in lux yesterday I would be unable to buy one today so I lose no sleep running non stop to Calais straight into heartbeat monitor 2i followed the sign and turned him off and started to get out of the cab, right o drive off you go was the call as I got to the first step, that was quick! I drove towards immigration but was waved away round to the ferry both, she booked me on the 0620(uk) boat to Dover .I had parked in lane 116 for 5 mins before being sent up to deck 5 on the pride of Canterbury. a full brekie was a welcome addition before relaxing in the lounge.we had no hold ups at Dover a bago was soon galloping up jubilee way towards the A2, we hit no traffic at all and stopped at Peterborough services for a macD`s .for a Friday I had no trouble on the A1and pulled into the yard at 1400.apart from the dead battery BAGO had been a joy to drive, smooth powerful and quickie washed the unit and trailer before dropping the trailer and parking BAGO up. With some regret I turned the key to shut him down for the last time!!!
8 hours 10 mins driving 656km
Total trip from the trip computer
1206 litres fuel used
3 l/km 8.6 mpg
3657 kms
Bago
my usual steed
Catching up to Mike
climbing up the drag on the A40
A40 near nantua
The big Hill !
Taking on fuel just by the tunnel
Nearly there
Inside the Mont Blanc
basking in the sun at carisio
Morning world
carisio truckstop
Reloading, waiting for the lads to handball it on
The Office
our suzies are always getting funny looks from drivers
Full air suspension for the unit
the ss47 heading up to trento
more of the ss47
My Arty pic
peage italian style
Heading up the A22
the austrian Go box
The Austrian border
droping down at 40k from the brenner
glad theres an L in this
the B10 bewteen landau and pirmasens
my german maut tickets
Munich football ground
Sleeping on the cobbles
The mighty Rhine
The Ford factory
Time for Breakfast
Storming up Jubilee way
Many a happy spent hour watching the wagons and coaches here as a kid
Pimp my truck or what, you could double up as a snow plough with that FH
jonboy100, that was a nice read and great pictures
my only complaint,is can you not make the
written word a little smaller please as i had to keep
on shiftingotherwise fantastic read,
it does drive quite that low it is about 2 inches higher normally
jon
brit pete:
jonboy100, that was a nice read and great pictures
my only complaint,is can you not make the
written word a little smaller please as i had to keep
on shiftingotherwise fantastic read,
sorry pete its the pics their 2 big,i have 20 pics to put on but upload it is slow at min .
have an otherlook later when i get them all on
cheers for all the help with the maut
one of the pics is my maut tickets
jon
Jonboy100 no problems glad that i could help you as
thats how it should be,becuse sure as god made little
green apples i wil need help one day as well,
did i not give you this site http://www.ages.de
here you can get all the locations where to get the
EURO-VINGETTE; HAS a english side as well, any
more questions ask as some one will answer for you,
Jon as for the Jump leads try to get your workshop to
make you a set up as its worth haveing ,and get them
extra long so that no one has to drop there trailer,
another tip if you do not have one get a air line
it may come in handy as well ,
yes i looked at the site but i presumed you could buy the at most motorway sevices
all the trucks carry spare air lines bulbs fuses etc just some one had nicked bagos jump leads
jon
Jon can you sort the pics out mate, as we don’t have wide screen VDUs…
They need to be 640x480 for best viewing.
Twas good to read a good diary and very interesting, Jon!! I have not too fond memories of Nuntua lol
Don’t know why but I always thought you worked for Eddiebut BY does run a smart outfit too. I enjoy seeing a clean truck on the road especially over the water.
Jon, you need to resize the pics to 640 x 480 before uploading and that sorts out the ‘having to scroll’ problem
Good read and pics, despite the eye-knacking scrolling!! 
Great read fantastic pics
Great Diary and Awesome Photos!!! 
nice un jon, c ya at bradford poss next week lol 
daz