In the summer the whole area was littered with combined harvesters ploughing along the road, causing difficult overtaking.
[/quote]
Didn’t they bale it before they ploughed it ?
Very good Kerbut
The road somtimes felt as if it had just been ploughed 
Regards Keith.
dessert driver:
Hi Colonel
Still can’t remember the bridge,I must have been asleep,I remember fording a river that was in flood but for the life of me cannot remember where exactly it was, maybe it will come back to me later.
Also did’nt see a convoy from Zakho to Bagdad, only on one trip we had to pay for a soldier to ride with us.Regards Keith
When I first started M/E in’75,the first 3 or 4 trips were to Baghdad.
On EVERY trip,we were met at the Kiziltepe crossroads by a squad of Turkish Soldiers.It was a coincidence that the same NCO was there every time I went.He spoke good German as do I,so he was in my cab and the other armed soldiers in the cabs of the other trucks to accompany us left at the crossroads,up through Mardin town,Midyat,Savur,Idil,Dicle, and a lot of other small vilages before leaving you on the Cizre road to ■■■■■■ another convoy going back.
hat was the only convoy I saw in those days,never had one in Iraq,although there were always a lot of squaddies in that area telling you not to stop between Zahko and Mosul,as there were a lot of Kurd bandits in that area,which was the same problem over Mardin.
On my first trip,While clearing customs at Zahko,the police called us European drivers outside and showed us a dead body in the back of a pick up truck.He was a Kurd who had tried to swim the river to get into Iraq and the border police shot him dead,no questions!
We could do with a bit of that here I think!.
Hi Ian, you have just remided me 
.
On a previous post about Diyarbakir I stated that there was Armenium unrest in the area, of course I should of said Kurdish unrest 
. I hope you will forgive me but like I said it was my first trip and there was such a lot to take in.
B.T.W. what was the name of the town where you drove through the tunnel underneath the Crusader castle and the kids would drop rocks on your cab if you didnt throw something out of the window for them ?.
I think it might of been south of Adana 
.
Best regards Steve.
sinbin31:
Hi BennyAre u saying Bob Headley is still alive if so some one has told me lies mind you I was dead as well before I came on here :
Roger Haywood
Hi Roger, Yes Bob is still alive to the best of my knowledge, at least he was between xmas and new year. He has lost some weight (not a lot) and looked pretty well, he doesn’t drive anymore but his wife Linda does apparently.
Regards Benny
mushroomman:
Hi Ian, you have just remided me
On a previous post about Diyarbakir I stated that there was Armenium unrest in the area, of course I should of said Kurdish unrest
B.T.W. what was the name of the town where you drove through the tunnel underneath the Crusader castle and the kids would drop rocks on your cab if you didnt throw something out of the window for them ?.
I think it might of been south of Adana
Best regards Steve.
Steve,
I don’t know if it was a crusader castle.
It was at Birecik, few hours East of Adana. Just after you passed over the long bridge over the Euphrates River.On the far side of the river was a cliff face with a tunnel through it,and a lot of houses carved into the cliff.
Here is a pic travelling over the bridge towards the cliff and tunnel.
I remember as you got into the tunnel,the road got very steep and even steeper as you left so you had no speed,making you an easy target for the kids.
If you go to the “Flash Earth” site and type in any of the town names I’ve mentioned into the “Search” box,you will find them all.
Hi Ian
Like I said we had no ■■■■■■ over Mardin in 1976 so mayby the unrest had settled down a bit by then, although I do remember them saying at Zahko that we must not stop becouse of Turdish bandits on the road to Mosil.I remember the customs at Zahko were very frendly towards us, inviting us in for chi while the turks were left outside. I did see an Iraci soldier on horseback get a Turkish tonker driver that had been que jumping out of his cab and give him a good horse wipping to within an inch of his life.I don’t think they liked their naighbour much, any one know what it’s like now a days? How are we truckers thought of now after the wars?
Regards Keith
Kieth, l;ike you I don’t remember any convoy over mardin in 76, however I do remember the iraqi army officers who did the customs at zahko being extremely polite and the paperwork was done very quickly but then you did have to have an iraqi soldier in the cab as far as mosul. more often than not he wanted you to stop at an army outpost along the way so he could have a drink and a snack with his mates. All very civilized in the mid seventies unlike the latter day 20km queues which could take a couple of days and a lot of pushing and shoving in the customs house.
charlie
Hi Charlie
Like you say it was mostly civilized. As i have said in the past I only did ME for a few months then got a better offer doing Europe for the next ten years but even that got into a rat race with every Tom,■■■■ and Harry doing it. Then eventually the French came and cut our rates by half,they were wellcome to it.Now home every night driving and fitting for someone else no rushing about trying to catch a ferry.
Regards Keith.
chazzer:
Kieth, l;ike you I don’t remember any convoy over mardin in 76, however I do remember the iraqi army officers who did the customs at zahko being extremely polite and the paperwork was done very quickly but then you did have to have an iraqi soldier in the cab as far as mosul. more often than not he wanted you to stop at an army outpost along the way so he could have a drink and a snack with his mates. All very civilized in the mid seventies unlike the latter day 20km queues which could take a couple of days and a lot of pushing and shoving in the customs house.
charlie
You took your chance on the queue when leaving Iraq.
If you were dead lucky,you could get to the filling station at Zhako,then join the queue just a couple of clicks to the border.
However,more often than not,you could queue for hours or days.On one trip,I was in the queue for 2 days and 2 nights,not daring to sleep or Turks would jump the queue and push you out.Just nap over the steering wheel waiting for the truck in front to move,but also checking that the driver in front had not fallen asleep,then it was your turn to do the queue jumping.
On one occasion,I heard that some English drivers had gone up to the border and the end of the queue was 100 kms from Zahko!
They did not hesitate,turned round,went back to Baghdad,out through Fallujah and Ramadi across the desert to Damascus.
Now that’s what you call a diversion.
That was the beauty of that job,you had to make your own decisions,it was not possible to phone the office for help,you were on the spot and the only one in a position to make a decision.
Happy days!
cmon bestbooties your not that gullable 100k from Zahko do me a favour me sides are hurting
Roger Haywood
Just to add to my last item 100k is equal to lets say a truck being 50 mtr long thats a 2000 standing trucks time 3 hrs say to clear each truck at the border if u were lucky is 250 days dam 1 year to get through Zahko what idiot started that story
Roger Haywood
sinbin31:
ah GavinNice of u to drop in yes i’m afraid snowy was a slow coach realy just like me what was the rush as u say the speedsteers are all dead its doddery old ■■■■■ like u and me who have servived I also could put the hammer down if I wanted I was doing a trip with Barnesy and was caught by A W Young at Birachek when we got into Arac we spotted AW Young going home in Mosel as much as I loved Andrew this is one reason why he is no longer with us are u coming to Bob Headleys wife’s reunion of ex ME drivers.
Roger Haywood
hi there roger this is benny i used to work for graham ball doing the middle east if there is a reunion will you please let me know as i would love to meet some of the old faces again my email address is paulonfair@hotmail.co.uk please pass on to bob hedley if you can thanks
[quote="bestbooties
You took your chance on the queue when leaving Iraq.
If you were dead lucky,you could get to the filling station at Zhako,then join the queue just a couple of clicks to the border.
However,more often than not,you could queue for hours or days.On one trip,I was in the queue for 2 days and 2 nights,not daring to sleep or Turks would jump the queue and push you out.Just nap over the steering wheel waiting for the truck in front to move,but also checking that the driver in front had not fallen asleep,then it was your turn to do the queue jumping.
On one occasion,I heard that some English drivers had gone up to the border and the end of the queue was 100 kms from Zahko!
They did not hesitate,turned round,went back to Baghdad,out through Fallujah and Ramadi across the desert to Damascus.
Now that’s what you call a diversion.
That was the beauty of that job,you had to make your own decisions,it was not possible to phone the office for help,you were on the spot and the only one in a position to make a decision.
Happy days![/quote]
Hi Guys
During the late 80’s and right up to the day that Iraq invaded Kuwait, I remember being in and jumping some very long queues, that started on occasions somewhere south of Dohuk on the flat part before the climb up slippery mountain ( approx 40km) . The queue was mostly Turkish tankers, and being empty you could just “fly” past and keep going until you couldnt physically go any further without being stoned and threatened by angry Turk drivers and/or Iraqi soldiers!!
Once you got over the mountain, and after the left turn at the roundabout where Zakho town started, you could sometimes get a soldier who was hitching a lift and this would enable you to jump the rest of the queue, right up to the entrance to the border without any problems. I did that a few times and it also saved me having to go to get my diesel pumped out, which was an absolute nightmare and could take all night. If I remember correctly, there was a 500 litre limit. It was like hell in that pumping compound with all kinds of trucks battling to get to the pump where you would watch the Iraqi guard mark your running tank and pump out the cheap squirt that you had just bought a couple of hundred metres along the road earlier on!! They would use a crude system of old galvanized pipe and a tank with a great big hole cut in the top for the diesel to go in. Once you got to this stage, no amount of Baksheesh could get you out, funny thing was though, I used to fill up three or four 200 litre drums and strap them down on the roll, in the trailer, right by the tailgate and when they looked in through the turned back part of the tilt, the trailer was empty and the drums were out of sight, so I had plenty of diesel and the turks never bothered either. I used to get the empty drums at the Hyundai camp near Baiji, where we used to stop.
Me and Nick King were the last Brits to get out of Iraq on the night when they invaded Kuwait, and we saw Snoddy and some of Brooks near Gaziantep on their way to Baghdad. They got to Baghdad and got held as " Human Shields" for ages. After that we had to start going Syria and Jordan, much more civilised and a ■■■■ sight more expensive!!
GS
Hi,on Gerry Weelan’s last trip for astrans which was to Qatar petroleum’s with a load of pipes for a collapsed well. Three of us left qatar empty on the return trip,when we came through the border from saudi, at Arrar we stopped for a fix!! (Rick Ellis and his Earl Grey). Gerry decided that he was going on as he would be able to reach the tank dip before Zacko around five am he recond that he had found that to be the best time as the iraqi’s were ready to go off shift.
Rick and i agreed that we had done enough that day and said our good byes and went to bed. The next evening as we approached the filling station at Dahook
Rick who was in front pulled out to overtake a line of tonkas, i thought that they were queing for the filling station, but when we turned right opposite the garage the line of trucks went on as far as the eye could see. Rick followed by me crossed over the center reservation onto the southbound carriageway and put the boot down we were both going flat out and all we could see were stationery trucks on the other side. Some of the turks started throwing rocks and whatever they could find at us. One oil can hit the bed panel behind my drivers window and gave me a scare,we must have travelled at least ten or twelve K’s when we saw a break in the line where they were moving up and dived across onto the other carriageway, where when the trucks stopped so did we. It took us another two days to reach the border. When we reached the Telex at ankara there was a message for gerries reload but i dont think he ever collected it as it did not suit him. The next time i saw Gerry after that trip was when he returned from south america and drove for JJ Smith running to rumo and bulgi.
PS Rita, the reason why we used the Arrar border was because ther was no convoy to or from Qatar if you went that way, also as there was no bank on the iraqi side which allowed a certain few (who shall remain nameless) to fiddle the transit tax when they loaded back from Doha.
Regards Jamie.
PPS Bob Headley the Animal is still alive and kicking and same as ever.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s
Hi Ian, it probably was Birecik that I was thinking about, as you said the road did start getting steeper as you got to the tunnel.
I am sure that there was a very big Crusader Castle or a fort somewhere east of Adana set back on the right hand side going south but I can’t remember if it was before Zacho or just after you crossed into Iraq . It was one of those places that I thought looked really interesting and the next time that I was passing I would go and have a look but of course like a lot of places I never did 
.
Best regards Steve.
HI MC Jamie
Yes mate I do know about the Border from Saudi to Arac Barry Barnes and I were one of the first Drivers to use it I put a story somewhere about barry and I doing a runner at Zacho and not paying but if my memory serves me right of course I might be wrong I thought the road joined the Tap Line at Raffa 
Roger Haywood
Hi Again MC Jamie
Sorry Mate your Quite right u know the brain cells are going now had a flick though my Pasport and the Border was AL-Judaidah and it was from Arar dont know why I thought it was Raffa most likley because of the resturant run by the Lebenese guy at Raffa where a gang of us including ■■■■ Snow ,Dave Poulton,Trevor Long stuffed ourselves on lamb and rice , when I asked where the bog was he took me to the door going out of the resturant and said there pointing two arms in the direction of nowhere and said Saudi arabia one big Toilet After we left we had done about 100k when I discovered I had left my wallet on the table I pulled over the boys all waited as I droped my trailer and went back ,my wallet was still on the table but it was covered in rice and bones from the Arabs eating there , now that was lucky.
Roger Haywood
Hi all- mushrooman - did you mean this crusader castle It was south of Adana IIRC you went to the left for Iraq & to the right for Syria. IIRC when you climbed the hill and went through the tunnel that was Biracek and above the tunnel in caves were houses.
Gavin
Hi mr141, the the cheerful chappie in the second photo, holding the blue mug, looks very much like the young George Scott from Musselburgh who worked for Eskside International and later Frank White. I could be mistaken as it was a long time ago but he looks familiar.
On another subject but still related to astrans. Whilst chatting to Royston Day at Zahko customs one trip, he told me that he had just been called in front of the chief of customs and asked to inform Bob Paul about his drivers importing goods into Iraq and not transiting the goods. As they had records of goods entering at the Arrar border from saudi but no record of them leaving. Little did he know that a certain few drivers who were always very keen to load back out of Qatar were declaring their load at the entry point to Iraq but as there was no bank there they were supposed to pay at Zahko. Instead they pocketed the transit tax and declared themselves empty at zahko. They had not taken into account that the paper work was all co-lated in Baghdad and showed up the discrepancy of transit goods in and not out. The customs chief told Royston that he had a list of names and registration numbers and if astrans didnt sort it out he would. It wasn’t until Rita mentioned him and fiddler Barry having done it that i remembered.
Another trick of which Rick Ellis was caught at and was very lucky not to have been jailed over was changeing the bank exchange receipt for his transit tax and paying with black market money. If you guy’s remember the bank used to change the denomination of the notes they issued when you changed your hard currencey for dinnars to pay your transit tax. Rick was to excited about how much money he had fiddled with his black market deal that he didnt check on what denomination the bank were issueing that day and so when he payed his transit tax with the wrong denomination of notes the jobbies hit the fan and he was very lucky not to have been locked up. Regards Jamie.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s