Flat tyre during the desert crossing.That’s why you always carried a block of wood!
The palm leaves on the front of the truck were just a bit of posing gear for when you arrived in Zeebrugge and heard all the T form Charlies shooting the ■■■■ about what a tough trip they’d had to Italy!!!
A couple of hours out of Istanbul going East is a large freshwater lake at Addapazari.We would sometimes stop off for a couple of hours swimming.
My mate Barry Critchlow from Banbury and myself on our way down to the lake.
Cab up on my mate Bob Matthew’s 290 in the Tarsus mountains in Southern Turkey on the way home from Baghdad.
South East Turkey heading for Iraq.The road was just a dirt track with several rivers to be forded like this one.Truck in front is Big Rod on Pan Express.
Hi Bestbooties, I have just been admiring your piccies. You must have some great memories from back then. I have total respect for you mate to have done that kind of trucking. I am just starting a new class 1 job driving to gloucester and back but to see what you have experienced amazes me. I am a total newb at your mercy 
All the best mate, Nige
Hi Nige,
I’ve said before that I was one of the lucky ones that stumbled into the M/E job without realising what it was going to be like.Either you loved it or hated it.I took several guys on their first trip,but there’s only so much you could show them as things changed every trip.It didn’t take long to tell if a guy liked the job or not,and I would warn them that they would either never do a second trip,or never want to stop doing the job.I did it for 12 years and I am one of the few blokes who still has the same wife,she’s priceless.
It’s a great shame that things change as much as they do,that window in time will never be there again,if I can share my experiences by telling some tales and posting some pics,it’s my pleasure.
Good luck with the job mate.
Hi Bestbooties
Do you remember the lovely fresh cherries, plums and other fruit that you could buy on the side of the road at adapazari, and the Fizdik and Findik too. Oh and dont forget the honey…When I didnt have AC, I used to wet a towel and put it over my head while I was driving, with the windows open. It turned the hot desert air cool, just like an AC.
GS
Used to buy a sack of grapefruit and jaffas at the roadside.Had my ration of fresh fruit every day and enough left to fill the fruit bowls when I got home.
Turkey is such a fertile land, I remember seeing huge cabages for sale on the roadside down by Pozanti, just before the beginning of the climb up Tarsus.
One of those could feed a family for weeks. The Krauts could have used them well during WW II.
GS