Would be good to go back as it really is a strange place to be in the middle of the night alone with only the truck stereo for company!! My 1st trip alone in winter of january 97 was a hair raising experience and my backside was clenched round the seat from finland to the south of Kazak where the temp started to rise again. I remember having a cuppa with dave wakefield(russanglia) in the middle of kazak on the road near a place called irgiz as he was heading north to russia and me to uzbek. We both sat there not really wanting to depart as the conditions were terrible but we had to get on with the job and reluctantly said our goodbyes. I dont think i will ever experience anything like that job again but its good to have memories 
Is that the dave wakefield from dover ■■? Worked for croomes for a short while . If so where is he now ■■ any idea what he is doing ■■
turnip:
Is that the dave wakefield from dover ■■? Worked for croomes for a short while . If so where is he now ■■ any idea what he is doing ■■
Could well be turnip, i dont no what he did after russanglia and had no idea where he stayed. Im sure there is a photo of him on dave mackies website where he is wearing a hard rock cafe top
Hi Colin If this is who you are referring to I knew him as Mark, He worked for Gilders.
Dave.
Hi dave you are right enough i just took another look as i hadnt properly before! Maybe need to go to spec savers 
Aye Colin we are all getting older, in my case older than you, nice to see you back on here.
Dave.
turnip:
Is that the dave wakefield from dover ■■? Worked for croomes for a short while . If so where is he now ■■ any idea what he is doing ■■
He spent many years after that on for Fleetwood Tspt, I believe he’s on EST now.
Fly sheet
fly sheet:
turnip:
Is that the dave wakefield from dover ■■? Worked for croomes for a short while . If so where is he now ■■ any idea what he is doing ■■He spent many years after that on for Fleetwood Tspt, I believe he’s on EST now.
Fly sheet
Ah right . Haven’t seen him since the 90’s (like many others) was just curious , thanks .
As stated, Dave Wakefield is on for EST at the mo.
Strangely enough, we have a trip to Kazakhstan coming up next year, an exhibition although I won’t be doing it myself.
davemackie:
Aye Colin we are all getting older, in my case older than you, nice to see you back on here.
Dave.
Hi Dave been busy lately but always look to see what i have missed. The other two in the photo being charlie and roly. Charlie i met in dover on for macburnie with the red dafs but would be nice to know if anyone knows what he is up to now??
Harry Monk:
As stated, Dave Wakefield is on for EST at the mo.Strangely enough, we have a trip to Kazakhstan coming up next year, an exhibition although I won’t be doing it myself.
Harry if speaking to dave give my regards please and if your lot are short of a driver i would bite your hand off for that run 
Worked with charlie at macburnies last time i saw him was about 6/7 years ago and he was working for pj white on his way back from poland. Top guy charlie.
straight on to Zarafshon
I passed the turning in Navoyi yesterday and thought of this thread…today passed 3 of Rynharts trucks in Samarkand, presumably heading for the place
Richardjw1:
straight on to ZarafshonI passed the turning in Navoyi yesterday and thought of this thread…today passed 3 of Rynharts trucks in Samarkand, presumably heading for the place
Hi Richard good to see you out and about again in uzbek. Hope you have many other photos of the area to show us what we are missing?? Do you know the situation at the gold mine at the moment? I had read its back in control of the uzbek goverment and neumont no longer have anything to do with it. How is the safety for driving out that way just now for foreigners?
Reg colin
Hiya Colin,
Yes, was a flying visit to the place, off back to Tmstan on Wed. evening. Got plenty of photos but they weren’t of trucks 
, didn’t get much chance for it to be honest…but I had the camera ready when we were travelling in the car and kicked myself when I missed the Rynart trucks…didn’t get chance to get behind the wheel because we have a driver now for this country - but I drive myself in Tm - no problem - standard of driving is about the same, folks going too fast on the ‘wash-board’ roads, bent cops, donkeys & camels on the roads with no lights e.t.d.
Reckon the gold mine has always has been under state control, as far as I can make out Newmont are only reclaiming the mine spoil, the other crew, Oxus is/was concerned with the actual extraction.
They are in the process of creating a customs-free zone now in Navoi airport, there were 2 or 3 Korean Airlines planes parked there on Wed. morning when w came past.
Sting was in concert here in Tashkent last night - didn’t go along, for one don’t like the enviro-botherer’s music & principles since he left The Police & also the tickets were neck end of 2 thou USD a piece 
Anyway wandered down around this morning in the hope of seeing the stage trucks but they’d cleared off.
Hi Richard
Thats a crazy amount of money even more so for some trantic messiah!! I once went drinking in the hotel uzbekistan with a frank ritter driver from east germany and later on that night we went walk about in tashkent and this would be in 1997. I dont know if you have been or heard of the street we were on but it was a crazy experience for me as every 20 or 30 yards on both sides of the street were people of all ages singing on karoke machines trying to out do each other with some of the worse singing you will ever hear!! I dont remember the name of the street but we had a great night before we headed back to the turk park on the ring road. Silvio the german was loaded with paper to make deutch marks which i found to be a strange back load at the time
Reg colin
colin.f.whitetrans:
Hi RichardThats a crazy amount of money even more so for some trantic messiah!! I once went drinking in the hotel uzbekistan with a frank ritter driver from east germany and later on that night we went walk about in tashkent and this would be in 1997. I dont know if you have been or heard of the street we were on but it was a crazy experience for me as every 20 or 30 yards on both sides of the street were people of all ages singing on karoke machines trying to out do each other with some of the worse singing you will ever hear!! I dont remember the name of the street but we had a great night before we headed back to the turk park on the ring road. Silvio the german was loaded with paper to make deutch marks which i found to be a strange back load at the time
Reg colin
In '97 I was living in Bukhara…occassionaly I used to drive up to Tashkent on Fridays and head back down on Monday mornings…with spare parts for the machines.
We had a few good nights in the Uzb Hotel too…beer on 16th floor, horizontal refreshment on the 15th - allegedly
We also used to slip in to the Malboro bar & the Red Sunset…then there was the Azia disco - the night life is a WHOLE lot different here now, new bars, restaurants, hotels etc…although the Uzb hotel still stands there - much the same as it was back then.
There sure was some very nice refreshment on floor 15 if i remember correctly but i didnt stop until i reached 16 
honest
Yeah.
Dave.
davemackie:
Yeah.
Dave.
in all its glory…Feb '08
