At an ‘Amtrak’ parcels do, I looked at a necklace that a lass in her twenties had on and translated it - her Dad, who had worked in Saudi and had brought it home, immediately corrected me and said her name.
Later, she quietly said to me that someone else had also told her that it wasn’t her name.
Sometimes it’s best not to try to be clever! 
John.
Hi Gavin, I think that could well be the place where we stopped as the hanging meat and that shed looks familiar.
For some reason I can picture a small white wall with a two inch piece of galvanised pipe sticking out of it which was coming out from the hill behind it. There was no tap on the pipe, the water just kept flowing out of it and I can remember a couple of locals washing their feet under it before I could fill up my water container. On my first stop there I was travelling with a lad called Tony Gibbons who had worked for Tanker Bill previously and I remember him telling me that it was always safer to fill up your water bottles at the top of any hills away from the populated areas where there is less chance of pollution. I can never remember anybody using Puratabs to sterilise their water but I met many a lad who had “The Runs” at one time or another.
Regards Steve.
John West:
Jelliot:
While I remember… what would be the translation for the Arabic on the Saudi transit plate■■?Jeff…
Hi,
Bit rusty on the Arabic now, Robert will be more up to date than me. Think it’s something like transfer transit.
The letters in English are something like nql balabor - the two a’s are different because one is a long a and the other is a short one.
Excuse me - you weren’t yawning and looking out of the window there were you!
John.
The first Arabic word is transport and the second word I looked up once and I seem to remember it was a Classical Arabic word meaning much the same as transit / traverse. The scramble of caligraphy in the middle appears to be the Shahada, or declaration of islamic faith - literally, bearing witness - which also forms part of the Saudi national flag. Here is a picture of the plate on my old Iveco. Robert 
robert1952:
John West:
Jelliot:
While I remember… what would be the translation for the Arabic on the Saudi transit plate■■?Jeff…
Hi,
Bit rusty on the Arabic now, Robert will be more up to date than me. Think it’s something like transfer transit.
The letters in English are something like nql balabor - the two a’s are different because one is a long a and the other is a short one.
Excuse me - you weren’t yawning and looking out of the window there were you!
John.
The first Arabic word is transport and the second word I looked up once and I seem to remember it was a Classical Arabic word meaning much the same as transit / traverse. The scramble of caligraphy in the middle appears to be the Shahada, or declaration of islamic faith - literally, bearing witness - which also forms part of the Saudi national flag. Here is a picture of the plate on my old Iveco. Robert
0
Hi Robert,
Seem to remember that nqliyat meant transport company, so as you say, nql would be transport. We used to use Sayarrah for either a car or a lorry.
I always found the collection of letters in the middle of the flag etc - well, beyond my comprehension!
John
John West:
robert1952:
John West:
Jelliot:
While I remember… what would be the translation for the Arabic on the Saudi transit plate■■?Jeff…
Hi,
Bit rusty on the Arabic now, Robert will be more up to date than me. Think it’s something like transfer transit.
The letters in English are something like nql balabor - the two a’s are different because one is a long a and the other is a short one.
Excuse me - you weren’t yawning and looking out of the window there were you!
John.
The first Arabic word is transport and the second word I looked up once and I seem to remember it was a Classical Arabic word meaning much the same as transit / traverse. The scramble of caligraphy in the middle appears to be the Shahada, or declaration of islamic faith - literally, bearing witness - which also forms part of the Saudi national flag. Here is a picture of the plate on my old Iveco. Robert
0
Hi Robert,
Seem to remember that nqliyat meant transport company, so as you say, nql would be transport. We used to use Sayarrah for either a car or a lorry.
I always found the collection of letters in the middle of the flag etc - well, beyond my comprehension!
John
You are right about the root: nql. Naqal is the word for transport in Arabic and naqalaat would be the plural; and the Turkish word Naklyat is derived from the Arabic. Robert
robert1952:
robert1952:
Hi Robert,Seem to remember that nqliyat meant transport company, so as you say, nql would be transport. We used to use Sayarrah for either a car or a lorry.
I always found the collection of letters in the middle of the flag etc - well, beyond my comprehension!
John
You are right about the root: nql. Naqal is the word for transport in Arabic and naqalaat would be the plural; and the Turkish word Naklyat is derived from the Arabic. Robert
While we’re on the subject, realising that this will be of limited interest to many!
If you bought an orange in Dammam it was a Bourtouaan.
If you bought one in Jeddah it was a Bourtougaal.
It took me a while to realise that Bourtougaal was ‘Portugal.’ - obviously where they traditionally bought their oranges from!
Interesting that by the time it had moved 1,000 miles it had become corrupted to something that didn’t really resemble the original!
John
Thanks for clearing that up guys, I was told by someone the centre field was an expiry day, it never sat well with me as I looked at few over years and they all seemed to say the same. Surly they couldn’t all expire on the same day !!! but now I know…
Jeff…
John West:
robert1952:
robert1952:
Hi Robert,Seem to remember that nqliyat meant transport company, so as you say, nql would be transport. We used to use Sayarrah for either a car or a lorry.
I always found the collection of letters in the middle of the flag etc - well, beyond my comprehension!
John
You are right about the root: nql. Naqal is the word for transport in Arabic and naqalaat would be the plural; and the Turkish word Naklyat is derived from the Arabic. Robert
While we’re on the subject, realising that this will be of limited interest to many!
If you bought an orange in Dammam it was a Bourtouaan.
If you bought one in Jeddah it was a Bourtougaal.
It took me a while to realise that Bourtougaal was ‘Portugal.’ - obviously where they traditionally bought their oranges from!
Interesting that by the time it had moved 1,000 miles it had become corrupted to something that didn’t really resemble the original!
John
Correct again, John. Just to expand slightly: bourtouQaal (hard q) is often sounded with a virtual hard ‘g’ sound, especially in places like Sudan and Qatar - maybe Saudi as well as you have given it as a ‘g’. The variant ‘bourtouaan’ you heard in Dammam is normally associated with Egyptian Arabic. Sounds as if you picked up quite a bit while you were out there! Robert 
PS I think Portugal is a corruption of the Arabic word, not the other way round. A lot of place names in Spain and even Portugal are scarcely disguised Arabic names left over from hundreds of years of being Andalus and under Moorish (Arab) rule. Robert
robert1952:
John West:
robert1952:
robert1952:
Hi Robert,Seem to remember that nqliyat meant transport company, so as you say, nql would be transport. We used to use Sayarrah for either a car or a lorry.
I always found the collection of letters in the middle of the flag etc - well, beyond my comprehension!
John
You are right about the root: nql. Naqal is the word for transport in Arabic and naqalaat would be the plural; and the Turkish word Naklyat is derived from the Arabic. Robert
While we’re on the subject, realising that this will be of limited interest to many!
If you bought an orange in Dammam it was a Bourtouaan.
If you bought one in Jeddah it was a Bourtougaal.
It took me a while to realise that Bourtougaal was ‘Portugal.’ - obviously where they traditionally bought their oranges from!
Interesting that by the time it had moved 1,000 miles it had become corrupted to something that didn’t really resemble the original!
John
Correct again, John. Just to expand slightly: bourtouQaal (hard q) is often sounded with a virtual hard ‘g’ sound, especially in places like Sudan and Qatar - maybe Saudi as well as you have given it as a ‘g’. The variant ‘bourtouaan’ you heard in Dammam is normally associated with Egyptian Arabic. Sounds as if you picked up quite a bit while you were out there! Robert
PS I think Portugal is a corruption of the Arabic word, not the other way round. A lot of place names in Spain and even Portugal are scarcely disguised Arabic names left over from hundreds of years of being Andalus and under Moorish (Arab) rule. Robert
Hi,
I have to admit that it didn’t occur to me that it could be that way round, but what you say makes sense - Al Hamra being another more obvious example I suppose.
We delivered quite a few trailers which came off the barges at Yanbu. The agent there told me his name - Mr Serrfinty. This caused a smile from him and howls of laughter from any Arab present when I called him that. His name was Sebbaeen and he’d done a helpful translation!
John.
Hi
Does anybody have any pictures or info on white true?
Thanks Beau
Sorry that should have said White trux
beau:
Sorry that should have said White trux
There’s a lot of White Trux stuff on the Astran thread mate. Robert
beau:
Sorry that should have said White trux
Hi,
If you put white trux into the search bar at the top and press search, you get about 5 pages of entries.
I have worked my way through the Astran thread over the last couple of months and that’s very rewarding too.
John.
On a seasonal note, climate change is effecting the old routes. The first pic shows Jerusalem, which I know always did come in for a bit of snow, but the second is Egypt - much rarer (apart from the mountains)… robert
Someone asked about White Trux earlier. Robert
robert1952:
On a seasonal note, climate change is effecting the old routes. The first pic shows Jerusalem, which I know always did come in for a bit of snow, but the second is Egypt - much rarer (apart from the mountains)… robert10
C’mon Robert,
That second picture’s a frost!..
John
Climate change doesn’t seem to have reached here yet 
John West:
robert1952:
On a seasonal note, climate change is effecting the old routes. The first pic shows Jerusalem, which I know always did come in for a bit of snow, but the second is Egypt - much rarer (apart from the mountains)… robert10
C’mon Robert,
That second picture’s a frost!..
John
Well, it was taken about this time last year and I was living in the middle of Cairo then. It didn’t snow in the city itself, only on the outskirts (on sphinxes and pyramids and stuff), but it was blinking brass monkeys (or were they camels?) I can tell you!
Anyway, I’m just settling down to hear Val Doonican sing ‘Frosty the Sphinctus’ on my gramophone. Season greetings!
Robert
robert1952:
John West:
robert1952:
On a seasonal note, climate change is effecting the old routes. The first pic shows Jerusalem, which I know always did come in for a bit of snow, but the second is Egypt - much rarer (apart from the mountains)… robert10
C’mon Robert,
That second picture’s a frost!..
John
Well, it was taken about this time last year and I was living in the middle of Cairo then. It didn’t snow in the city itself, only on the outskirts (on sphinxes and pyramids and stuff), but it was blinking brass monkeys (or were they camels?) I can tell you!
Anyway, I’m just settling down to hear Val Doonican sing ‘Frosty the Sphinctus’ on my gramophone. Season greetings!
Robert
Ok Robert, I’ll take your word it wasn’t a mock up. Seasons greetings to you too!
Made me think of latitudes and temperatures.
Jeddah always seemed hot, even in winter, I was there and up and down to Yanbu for about a year and don’t remember much rain at all. But of course Jeddah is inside the tropics.
Dammam/Khobar was very hot in summer, and suffered from appalling humidity. Sleeping in your cab there could be misery, we usually tried to get past at least Abqaiq, or preferably ’ Hofuf corner’, where it was still hot, but at least your sweat evaporated.
It always amused me on ‘Destination Doha’ where one of them says ‘it’s cold in the desert at night’ . Well it would be, it was the middle of winter! It wasn’t cold in summer, even towards the top of the tap line, as I’m sure you know.
Winter in Dammam was mainly pleasant high sixties or low seventies, but sometimes torrential rain.
Riyadh was probably the best of both worlds, dry air, so bearable in summer. Little or no rain. I do remember one or two light frosts early morning in winter there.
John
John West:
robert1952:
John West:
robert1952:
On a seasonal note, climate change is effecting the old routes. The first pic shows Jerusalem, which I know always did come in for a bit of snow, but the second is Egypt - much rarer (apart from the mountains)… robert10
C’mon Robert,
That second picture’s a frost!..
John
Well, it was taken about this time last year and I was living in the middle of Cairo then. It didn’t snow in the city itself, only on the outskirts (on sphinxes and pyramids and stuff), but it was blinking brass monkeys (or were they camels?) I can tell you!
Anyway, I’m just settling down to hear Val Doonican sing ‘Frosty the Sphinctus’ on my gramophone. Season greetings!
Robert
Ok Robert, I’ll take your word it wasn’t a mock up. Seasons greetings to you too!
Made me think of latitudes and temperatures.
Jeddah always seemed hot, even in winter, I was there and up and down to Yanbu for about a year and don’t remember much rain at all. But of course Jeddah is inside the tropics.
Dammam/Khobar was very hot in summer, and suffered from appalling humidity. Sleeping in your cab there could be misery, we usually tried to get past at least Abqaiq, or preferably ’ Hofuf corner’, where it was still hot, but at least your sweat evaporated.
It always amused me on ‘Destination Doha’ where one of them says ‘it’s cold in the desert at night’ . Well it would be, it was the middle of winter! It wasn’t cold in summer, even towards the top of the tap line, as I’m sure you know.
Winter in Dammam was mainly pleasant high sixties or low seventies, but sometimes torrential rain.
Riyadh was probably the best of both worlds, dry air, so bearable in summer. Little or no rain. I do remember one or two light frosts early morning in winter there.
John
From what I remember, Hofuf area was even mild in the winter. As for ‘cold in the desert at night’: on Sinai it could be freezing in winter and hot in summer. I’ve sat huddled in blankets in December and lain out nearly starkers under the stars at night in the Egypian deserts (that’s when I’ve been camel-trekking, not lorrying you understand - I did lorrying in Saudi!). Robert
