Hi all you Ex-Pats out there
I have been an Ex-pat for the last five years, I moved out to Barbados after a serious motorcycle accident in the UK. What a great decision. I own the leading Scuba diving and Watersports centre on the island now, running a fleet of boats five or so miles from HQ seems alot easier than running trucks five thousand miles from HQ. I used to be an owner driver until the mid nineties. I used to pull for ASTRAN ( me and Gary Glass were known as the injection of youth at Astran because we were only in our early 20’s and all the rest were old geezers) round trips on the Doha run, and before that I used to pull for Roy Bradford( Tanker international & Lawrabian) from the early eighties.
I had enough of transport when they started to pay the container rate for an overland run to Doha, but you still had to get there in two weeks. When I started to see Hungarocamion trucks on the TAP Line in Saudi, that was the icing on the cake. So I sold my truck and trailer to a Turk and waved goodbye to endless weeks away. And here I am in Sunny Barbados, married with a beautiful 1 yr old baby daughter, going diving and fishing when I feel like it. The weather is always 31 or 32 degrees C, and I hardly ever where long trousers or shoes. Not bad eh. Im only 43 so theres a bit of life left in me yet.
I do miss the road some times and only last week I happened across this website, I read a couple of old mates names, Chris Hooper (Hooper Man) was one of them so I decided to register and here I am. There are a couple of other ex truck drivers here too, so we kick a bit of dust about and burn a bit of deisel from time to time ( Red of course, 2000 Litres in a belly tank ).while drinking loads of Extra Old Mount Gay and eating grilled fish.
Any of you ex middle east boys out there?? EFES Control in the Londra and at Oktays, freezing your nuts off in the parking at the Telex, Snow chains over Tarsus and lets not forget Iskenderun!! Nasser at Derraa and Deaf and Dumb boy at Ramtha, he could nearly always get you on the convoy that afternoon. Oh the good old days. Each trip was a story, not at the time, but now when I think back. I often go on Google earth and retrace my old routes down, its funny to see the old places where we used to stop.
Anyway thats all for now, must dash because I ahve to pull out my ski boats and make sure that the scuba tanks are all filled for tomorroews diving.
Best regards from Bim…
Welcome to TN GS, you’ll find plenty of your old mates in here.
Hi GS, if you pulled for Roy Bradford then you will probably know a couple of chaps on here…Truckyboy (Bob White i think his name is, an old ASTRAN driver) and Egg-on-Legs (Kenny) also an ex Astran chap I think.
If you get a chance to take a break from the sunshine and rum maybe you post up some old pics and tales from the run…theres plenty of interest in the M/E runs still.
Cheers, bullitt.
Hi Guys
Thanks for the replies, I remember Bobby and Kenny, I remember Egg on Legs used to sit in his drivers seat in the Londra and eat a whole tray of grilled chickens. I will get some of the old photos out and post them soon.
Anyone know where Bob Hedley is these days??( my names Animal and I eat people…) thats what he used to say. What about Jimmy Ellis and Roy Haxell, where are they now?? Jimmy used to live in Penge near Bobby Butler.
Catch you all next time.
Regards…
GS OVERLAND:
I used to pull for ASTRAN ( me and Gary Glass were known as the injection of youth at Astran because we were only in our early 20’s and all the rest were old geezers) round trips on the Doha run, and before that I used to pull for Roy Bradford( Tanker international & Lawrabian) from the early eighties.
I had enough of transport when they started to pay the container rate for an overland run to Doha, but you still had to get there in two weeks. When I started to see Hungarocamion trucks on the TAP Line in Saudi, that was the icing on the cake. So I sold my truck and trailer to a Turk and waved goodbye to endless weeks away. … Any of you ex middle east boys out there?? EFES Control in the Londra and at Oktays, freezing your nuts off in the parking at the Telex, Snow chains over Tarsus and lets not forget Iskenderun!! Nasser at Derraa and Deaf and Dumb boy at Ramtha, he could nearly always get you on the convoy that afternoon. Oh the good old days. Each trip was a story, not at the time, but now when I think back.
Ever think of writing a book about your Middle East runs? I suspect not (you are having too much fun now) but thought I’d ask.