I recently had the good fortune to undertake a short tour, the first show being in Malta, and I thought it might make an
interesting read, so here goes…
DAY 1
Saturday 7th of July saw me at Park Royal, London, where I was to meet Tony, another of our drivers, who would be bringing
a loaded trailer to me and taking away the part-loaded one I already had.
I’d just got back from a 3 week tour of various European cities, and had done 2 drops in London, one either side of the river, leaving one in Liverpool for Tony to do on Sunday morning.
Tony arrived about 15mins after me, and we quickly swapped trailers and exchanged paperwork before Tony headed off to
Liverpool, where he would park outside the customers premises for the night.
DAY 2
As i’d got to London on my sixth shift, I now needed a 24hr break before setting off. Fortunately, our usual parking place
has all the facilities required close by:- toilets/shower, cafes, pubs, indian restaurant, 24hr ASDA, so after a night out, it was a late start to the day, with a stroll up to the local cafe, with another of our drivers who had arrived overnight.
We passed a couple of hours before he had to set off for a collection elsewhere in London, and I returned to my truck to get some
sleep before setting off later in the day.
Ready for the off.
16.00 hrs comes soon enough,and i’m on my way out of London, heading for the M25 and then the M20 to Dover. By 18.30, i’m on
the weighbridge. Its not a heavy load, so progress over the next few days shouldn’t be difficult.
Approaching the weighbridges at Dover.
A nice light one.
After leaving the weighbridge, I drive round to the ticket booths, and as there’s no queue, i’m straight to the window of the DFDS
booth, and booking on for the next available crossing to Calais.
The port seemed unusually quiet, and its certainly not like Sunday nights of old, when everyone was leaving to arrive just in time
for the lifting of the Sunday driving restrictions.
Most of the holding lanes were deserted, and in fact, there were only 2 trucks on the ferry.
DFDS are currently our prefered choice if we’re not time critical, so I guess they’re offering good deals on prices at the moment.
There’s no seperate drivers restaurant, but the food choice was far greater and imaginative than that offered by P&O.
Disappointingly, the foreign exchange was closed, although a sign did say facilities were available in Dover and Calais ports.
A lot easier said than done when arriving at either port, so I was straight out of Calais and on to the Autoroute.
Passing Arras, I was treated to a spectacular firework display, which I would imagine signalled the end of the annual Arras Festival.
6.30hrs after leaving Calais, I pulled into Dijon Brognon Service Area, having covered 758kms since leaving Park Royal.
It was 04.30 (UKTime) and 18C, so I switched on the air-con and went to bed.
DAY 3 (Monday)
There’s nothing worse than sitting watching the clock, waiting for your departure time to come round, so although I
knew I could afford to take an 11hr rest, after 9 I was itching to get going, so at 14.00hrs I pulled out of the services
and set off towards the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
I managed to get through to the Italien side, bang on 4.30hrs, having stopped at Valleiry Services, 250km from Dijon,
and topped-up with 790litres of diesel and 20litres of Adblue.
The “ski-slope” - leading towards the Mont Blanc.
Following one of Waberers climbing up the French side towards the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
My own replenishment was taken at the Autogrill on the exit from the tunnel, having paid 284Euros for going through it.
It’s just a short distance to the Autostrada after exiting the tunnel, and although easier and quicker, isn’t anywhere
near as interesting as the old route down to Aosta.
The ease of the Autostrada allowed me to cover enough mileage to reach Parma, and at exactly midnight I parked-up
and was straight to bed. Another good day, having covered 740kms.
DAY 4 (Tuesday)
It had been another warm night, even though i’d managed to park in the shade, and the aircon had been on all night again.
After a mug of Earl Grey and a bowl of porridge, I was off again, this time as far as Orte, where I stopped for a
break and to get the truck washed. I’ve used this place before, and although first appearances are perhaps a little
deceiving, the attendants attention to the truck is excellant, making sure all the nooks and crannies are as clean as
the easier bits.
The restaurant on site is also to be recommended, although I prefer to eat after i’ve finished my shift, which was
still another 4.30hrs further down the road.
I was 717kms from the start of the day before I parked-up, south of Naples, and after pizza and Peroni for tea, it was time to get the aircon on again.
We have ancillary air-con fitted, but I find that by running the integral aircon for about 15mins first, it fetches the in-cab temperature down sufficiently to get 8 - 9 hours out it before the battery-guard kicks in.
DAY 5 (Wednesday)
As i’m well on schedule, it’s another lazy start to the day. An hour in the restaurant first, and i’m ready to go, heading
further South to Villa San Giovani, near Reggio Di Calabria, where i’ll get the ferry across to Messina on Sicily.
There’s lots of motorway construction going on, although it appears that the local attitude is that if they’re
building a new road, then there’s no point in looking after the old one, so consequently, the verges are overgrown,
reducing the useable width of the remaining road.
The road to Reggio.
Again, its very hot, and I note that the temperature guage is showing 38C.
There’s a lot of fires, both on the verges and in the distance, and I see several planes and helicopters doing
water-drops in an effort to extinguish them.
Lots of roadside fires.
There’s some spectacular views overlooking the beach and sea as I follow the coast road down to Villa San Giovani, although the beaches seem almost deserted.
Clear blue water on the way down to San Giovani.
I reach Villa San Giovani just after midday, but as I head off the dual-carriageway towards the ferry terminal, I come
to a line of trucks waiting to get into the dock. There’s Carabinieri trying to direct non-commercial traffic, and I see
a group of people carrying placards and handing out leaflets.
Eventually, one of the guys reaches my truck, and after spending time trying to get my attention on the passenger-side,
realises that it’s a right-hand-drive vehicle, and makes his way round to me.
In broken English, he explains that they’re demonstrating against the goverments apparent indifference to local
poverty, but assures me that I should be moving in about 20minutes, as all the protesters are going for dinner shortly.
Sure enough, the placards are leant against a fence, the police get in their cars, and everyone disappears, leaving a
free-for-all as the 20 or so trucks all dash for the ticket office.
After joining the queue, I eventually get to the front, where i’m relieved of 251.50 Euros for the return 2.5km crossing.
That’s a lot of dosh for a 5km round trip!
Boarding is swift though, and it’s a pleasent crossing, giving good views of both San Giovani and Messina.
Disembarking is equally as swift, and I liked the way the marshalls held the cars back to give me room to manouvre off.
Its a short drive through Messina before joining the Southbound Autostrada.
Coming into Messina harbour.
The route out through Messina.
Its only about 190kms to Pozzallo in the South of Sicily, and its a pleasent drive, passing Mount Etna after an hour or so.
Pozzallo port isn’t a particularly busy place, but there’s a couple of restaurants on site, so I take advantage of the
opportunity and have a good meal. I wait for the ticket office to open, just to make sure my crossing is
booked and confirmed, but being as i’m not due to sail till the following nights crossing, I have to leave the port, as
parking isn’t allowed. There’s an area just 1km up the road, where i’d spotted a few trucks and coaches earlier, so I
head there for the night.
The ticket office at Pozzallo.
A couple of Maltese drivers come over for a chat, and we have a couple of beers before turning-in for the night. They tell me that
they don’t often see British registered vehicles down here, so they’re inquisitive to know what i’m doing.
They also told me that they’d both been bus drivers in London for a few years before returning to Malta.
DAY 6 (Thursday)
A leisurely day today. Ok, I still have work to do, but not until later, as the ferry does’nt go till 21.30.
As i’ve already checked that i’m booked on the boat, I reckon a walk into Pozzallo town centre is in order. I’m in need of some Euro’s, as I still have’nt had chance to get any changed, so I start looking for a bank. Within minutes i’ve found one, but gaining access is more of a problem. There appears to be a keypad on the revolving door, so as I don’t know the code, I wait until
someone’s on their way out, then quickly enter into to ‘airlock’. Unfortunately, theres another keypad to escape the airlock and
enter the bank proper. After what seemed likes hours of being stared at by all the customers inside the bank, the security guard
activated the door, which saw me back out on the street. This wasn’t going too well! Luckily, as I was about to have another go,
a young female customer came out of the bank, so I asked her in my best Italian, how to get in, as I needed to change money.
She replied in far better English that the bank didn’t do currency exchange, but she’d take me to another bank, just down the road
that did. This time I actually got to the counter, but was told that as I wasn’t a member of the bank, they couldn’t change my
money, unless it was U.S. Dollers. Um, wonder what the thinking behind that was!?
So, my efforts were wasted, and after a look round the small town, made my way back to the truck, reckoning i’d get money changed in Malta.
I wasted a couple of hours over a light lunch whilst on the way back, then spent a couple more looking at the various boats in
the small harbour. This was all followed by a nap, stretched out in my deck-chair.
At 20.00, I returned back to the ticket office, collected the tickets, and was then told to proceed to another area of the dock where I would await loading.
On arrival, two chaps walked over, checked the ticket, then began to measure my truck. Problem! It measured 60cm more than the booking said, so i’d got to report to the embarkation office to resolve the problem. Resolving the problem required a
payment of another 130 Euros. As the ticket had been booked by our agent in Malta, a quick phonecall by the very nice lady
confirmed that payment would be made, and I was told to return to the truck and await being called forward. 5minutes later, and
I was driving onto the vehicle-deck of the Catamaran ‘Jean de la Vallette’.
The Jean de la Vallette, showing the side-loading door.
I’ve used the Cat on the Irish Sea crossing, but this one was smaller. It’s only a year old, but still immaculate. The attentive crew
guided me into position, then it was upstairs to the passenger facilities.
It set off right on time, and once it had left the harbour, I settled down in one of the reclining chairs to watch the on-board film.
There was only just enough time to watch it though, as the Cat covers the 65mile crossing in 1.30hrs. That’s going some!
On arrival in Valletta, drivers are called down first, and within 5minutes of docking, the six trucks and 30 or so cars are on their
way off the boat into the small compound that comprises Valletta ferry terminal.
Our man in Malta, Nikki, is waiting for me, and for a big chap, moves quite quickly towards me, waving his arms to attract my attention. All the paperwork’s already been sorted, so he tells me to turn left out of the dock gate, where he’ll meet me with his car, and take me to the venue. There’s some tiny streets in Valletta, but we stick to reasonable sized roads, and within 15minutes
we’re on the main road at the back of the festival site, where we find the local promoter waiting for us. I decide that a blind-side
reverse off the dual-carriageway up to the side of the stage will be favourite, so with Nikki and the promoter stopping what little traffic there was, I back up the side street, position the truck, and call it a day.
But first, i’ve got to have a beer with the promoter, which was a nice way to end a nice day.
As Friday was officially a day off in my itinerary, needless to say, we had more than one!
In the shade - with en-suite facilities!
DAY 7 (Friday)
A proper day-off. Absolutely no work to do today, so i’m off into town to have a good look round. You’ve got to make the most
of the opportunity.
The view from my “bedroom window”
Valletta has a very busy port, and amongst other ships was HMS Echo, on a short stop-over.
Valletta’s streets can be quite tight, as shown with this ex Blue Circle Cement DAF that was trying to deliver a container.
DAY 8 (Saturday)
Today is load-in day, so i’m up early-ish to make sure there’s been no change of plans to the load-in position before the crew arrive.
Everything appears to be in order, although the promoter has now decided that i’ll have to move the truck after unloading, as i’m
parked on the emergency access route.
The venue at Il Fosos, Valletta.
I conclude that unless the fire-engines are over 11ft wide and only have 10ft hoses, it shouldn’t be a problem, but i’ll sort that one later, as we have a more immediate problem to deal with.
The promoter has apparently forgotten to arrange for any local crew to unload the truck, and after much heated discussion between him and our production manager, we see no alternative but to unload the equipment ourselves. This done, there’s then the task of setting it all up, but it’s done quickly and efficiently with all ou own crew mucking in to help all depatments.
I’m back at the truck when the fire-brigade arrive, and after a friendly chat between myself and their crew, it’s agreed that my
truck can stay in position, as there’s more than enough room for them and the 3 ambulances that need to be on site.
By 23.30hrs the shows over, and 5000 punters are walking/staggering away as we then reverse the operation and start dismantling
the gear.
Again there’s no sign of any local crew, and after some threats of legal action, the promoter agrees to pay all the band crew (including me) to de-rig and load the truck.
Two hours later, and i’m locking the doors, job done, and we all head off to the production office for a cool CISK, the local beer.
After the usual round of back-slapping and hand-shakes, the crew head back to their hotel, and I return to the truck. They will
all be flying back to the UK on Sunday, whereas I have another day to kill before getting the ferry back to Sicily.
DAY 9 (Sunday)
I’m not much of a tourist as a rule, but i’ve found Valletta to be a great place, with an interesting history with lots of varied
international influences. Therefore, I make the most of the day and spend most of it sightseeing before returning back to the truck, where I have to wait for our ‘Man in Malta’.
Nikki arrives on time at 16.30, and escorts me back to the ferry terminal. We sit and chat for a short while before i’m called
forward to board the Catamaran, which this time has about half as much tourist traffic as before and only one other truck, an Italien registered Volvo pulling a TNT trailer.
1.30hrs later, and we arrive in Pozzallo, and being as I don’t have an Italien weekend driving permit, I head back to the same
parking area, and settle down for a night with the sea-breeze blowing gently against the cab.
DAY 10 (Monday)
Having had far too much time hanging around, it had been a restless nights sleep for me, so after a 9hr break, I set off North for
Messina, and the ferry over to Italy.
This time, as I was coming from the South, I should have had a better view of Mt. Etna, but unfortunately it was shrouded by
an early morning mist. It’s still a formidable feature to have at the bottom of your back garden though, and I wonder how the locals live with the constant threat of it erupting.
Mount Etna
On arrival at Messina, I was confronted by a multitude of weight restriction signs, but nobody else seemed to be taking the
slightest notice of them, so I decided to chance it by following them. I tuck in behind an old F12, which looks to be heavily loaded and is belching out black smoke as it thunders through town. If he can get away with it then surely I will too. We’re overtaken by an even older MAN 6-wheel rigid, the driver having completely ignored the no-overtaking signs, so I relax even more. I arrived at the port without any problem, and as I had purchased a return ticket on the outbound journey, I avoided the queue at the ticket office and drove straight to the boat, where after no more than 30 seconds, I was driving onto it for the short voyage across to San Giovani.
On the ferry back to San Giovani.
50mins later I was disembarking and heading North again, with the aim of reaching Naples by the end of my shift.
DAY 11 (Tuesday)
I’d managed to cover 752kms the previous day and reached my planned stopping point. I started the day with some good, strong,
Italien coffee and a couple of brioche before getting back onto the Autostrada and heading North again towards Firenze. At
Firenze I then headed West towards Lucca and the coast.
The area around Lucca has a large marble producing industry, and the Autostrada passes lots of yards, filled with large pieces of both cut and uncut marble. It’s also a good opportunity to see some real heavy-duty tippers, mostly Astra’s, Iveco’s, and Volvo’s.
From Lucca, I follow the coast up to Genova, then head towards Allesandria, before finally calling it a day at Asti.
As the sun’s still shining, I get the deck-chair out and have a pleasent hour snoozing.
Around 19.00hrs I spot a British truck pull into the parking area, so eventually make my way over, hoping for a chat, maybe a recent newspaper, and perhaps even some company over dinner, but as I get nearer, the passenger door opens and the Polish driver swills out his saucepan. Another quiet night then!
DAY 12 (Wednesday)
The sun’s trying to burn it’s way through the curtains before I get out of bed, and its not long before the heat becomes
unbearable and I decide to get up.
A quick coffee and morning wash, and i’m off again, heading for Torino and the Frejus Tunnel beyond, that will take me through
into France.
The Frejus Tunnel is newer than the Mont Blanc Tunnel, and it shows in it’s construction with its smooth, clean walls. I’m quickly through, and heading onwards towards my destination, St. Malo du Bois, in the Pays De La Loire region.
Running in to France from the Frejus Tunnel.
After a while I stop to fill with diesel and Adblue, my handbook telling me that this particular station has everything I need.
Unfortunately, the Adblue isn’t on draught, so I have the tedious task of pouring 20lts from barrels into the tank. That should be
enough to get me to my next planned refuelling point, which I know has a pump.
Shortly after refuelling I leave the Autoroute, opting to take the national roads, which should be more interesting and also give me
the chance to stop for my break at a traditional routiers. Progress was delayed at the peage as the driver of a car in front of me counted out the toll money, which all looked to be in small change, then dropped it as he handed it to the attendant. Most of the change dissappeared under the car, but as the attendant wouldn’t lift the barrier so the driver could move his car to retrieve it, the queue of vehicles behind all had to reverse instead. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all!
After a while I started to think i’d cocked-up big-time. A route i’d used before, many years ago, now had a weight-limit on it, and I thought I might even end up having to turn round and go back to the Autoroute. Fortunately, there was an alternative route for heavy vehicles, although it took me on to unfamilier territory. I knew there was a Centre Routier at Bourges, but time was getting short and I felt sure I wouldn’t make it that far without doing a 10hr drive.
I knew I was heading in the right direction, but wasn’t sure of my exact location, but after 4.25hrs driving, I came to a crossroads,
where low and behold, there was a Routiers on the opposite corn
The routiers at Charenton.
That was pure luck, rather than planning, but I happily parked-up in the dusty lorry-park, next to 2 other trucks.
We were the only vehicles that stayed there overnight, and that’s a sign of why the traditional truckstops are dissappearing
throughout France.
With a mixture of tighter schedules requiring faster motorway driving, increased restrictions on National roads, and the influx of
less affluent Eastern European hauliers, the routiers are struggling to survive, and many well known haunts have closed down due
to lack of trade.
It’s a shame, because for 15Euros the menu was excellant value, consisting of a salad entree, beef stew and boiled potatos, cheeseboard, creme caramel, 50cl of rouge, and 2 large beers. Oh, and the shower and parking were free.
I sat and ate with a driver from Luxembourg, and with a mix of English, French and German we managed to converse for an hour or so before I went to sit on the restaurants veranda and watch the world go by.
As I was further North, the temperature was cooler, and this became the first night that I didn’t need the aircon.
DAY 13 (Thursday)
I reckoned I had about a further 380-400kms to do to reach my destination, and with a decent start to the day, I should be on site
by lunchtime, giving me the chance to take a full 45hr weekly rest period.
Its important to plan ahead for rest periods, and as we normally have an itinerary that covers the whole tour, we can usually
organise breaks to fit the schedule, even if it sometimes means re-arranging load-in times. This job presented no hurdles in
that respect, so when I set off I stayed on the National roads as I reckoned I could cover the shorter distance in about the same
time as it would take if I used the longer Autoroute route.
As it was, I took about 15mins longer, but I still covered 378kms in 5.30hrs driving, arriving at the Festival Poupet, near St. Malo du Bois just in time for lunch.
The festival is held in a country leisure park, nestling in a beautiful wooded valley with a river running right through the middle of
it. The sun was shining, there’s an Auberge just 5mins walk from the truck, and the promoter has organised someone to stay on site so I can get in to use the shower. The crew won’t arrive until Saturday, so it’s time to relax again.
The auberge at Poupet - base for a few days.
If only all tours were like this!!
