Johnny Chivers… snap to follow.
me in tangiers
rat alley casa 
hated loading down there rough end of town lol
I used to load down Rat Alley too! There was another Rat Alley that came on later, on the other side of Casa. LOL Robert
robert1952:
I used to load down Rat Alley too! There was another Rat Alley that came on later, on the other side of Casa. LOL Robert
its the smell ill never forget down there lol 
burnley-si:
robert1952:
I used to load down Rat Alley too! There was another Rat Alley that came on later, on the other side of Casa. LOL Robertits the smell ill never forget down there lol
I thought of something today I’d forgotten all about. Sometimes we’d get the Pride of Bilbao from Portsmouth to Bilbao on the way down to Morcocco. A lot of Manno lads used to get on it, and a few Breda and DTS. Dressed in best Manno polo-necks we’d then hit the Posh bar which had a grand piano it and seated about 200 or so punters. Now I’m not that terrible on the joanna before the first ten ton-and-ginnicks and they’d spoon me onto the piano to entertain the troops while they propped up the bar. Even the resident pianists used to stand and smile in the wings in their dicky-bows, glad to be a relieved of a shift. In theory, this should have raised the tone for North Africa drivers but after a glass or six I’m also capable of lowering it. Anyone remember those pleasant evenings? Robert 
Mate of mine was offered job on manns around 2001 ish time on the 7.5 tonners
Only thing stopped him was the double manning every week
gettin-on:
Mate of mine was offered job on manns around 2001 ish time on the 7.5 tonners
Only thing stopped him was the double manning every week
I don’t know how they stuck it. There were some good lads on those puddle-jumpers and boy could they fly! But they had to stop at every garage to fill up so that slowed them down a bit! They used to pick up 70-quid bras and get them to the European airports for rapid transit to needy parts. That’s what I was told anyway. Robert 
He said at time was one trip a week double manned every week
At time he was single manned doing reg spain portugal etc
And had the smallest cabs for puddle jumpers
We were chatting about it few months ago he regrets not taking job but in reality
Prob would of lasted only few weeks double manned
gettin-on:
He said at time was one trip a week double manned every week
At time he was single manned doing reg spain portugal etcAnd had the smallest cabs for puddle jumpers
We were chatting about it few months ago he regrets not taking job but in reality
Prob would of lasted only few weeks double manned
Tell him to regret nothing. Long-haul double-manning is crap even in a Super-space artic, unless the other driver’s your missus. And those journeys were double-whammies: you had to share the cab AND you were on a long-distance just-in-time delivery service. No good for me: I’d have cancelled and gone on the ■■■■ at the first sweetie shop! Robert
Never did it myself as od at time was earning more with a fridge
But use to see alot in spain some good lads and some idiots aswell
At ids at somme sierra one afternoon filling up mano driver on next oumos giving the big one he off to africa wtc
And im not a driver til done africa
Then other manno driver walked over who i knew before and was good bloke
Numpty one says we going in for coffee but only africa drivers
Indicating me when driver i knew said well thqts you not included then as on your first trip
And never been before
He went red and stayed in his cab whilst we went for coffee lol
Same as any job some good guys and some numptys to
But same every where
Met one other week in carisio big od then when took closer look at truck
Was rental scania with freind of mines o licence in window
Got to laugh
Cultured drivers on North Africa work didn’t stop at the Posh bar on the Pride of Bilbao: oh my word no! I remember one morning - it would have been in 1998 or 99 hitting the main road to Tangier having loaded in Sale. By sheer coincidence five drivers who had loaded in other cities like Fez, Meknes and Casablanca all converged on the same stretch. Furthermore we were all driving for Breda. Roger Barnard (‘big roger’) was at the front. The CB crackled: ‘Narrow in the rapids, five letters.’ He’d got a crossword spread out on his steering wheel. All the way to Tangiers port - a full morning’s shift - we unravelled that crossword between us by CB. It was fantastic. Robert
robert1952:
burnley-si:
robert1952:
I used to load down Rat Alley too! There was another Rat Alley that came on later, on the other side of Casa. LOL Robertits the smell ill never forget down there lol
I thought of something today I’d forgotten all about. Sometimes we’d get the Pride of Bilbao from Portsmouth to Bilbao on the way down to Morcocco. A lot of Manno lads used to get on it, and a few Breda and DTS. Dressed in best Manno polo-necks we’d then hit the Posh bar which had a grand piano it and seated about 200 or so punters. Now I’m not that terrible on the joanna before the first ten ton-and-ginnicks and they’d spoon me onto the piano to entertain the troops while they propped up the bar. Even the resident pianists used to stand and smile in the wings in their dicky-bows, glad to be a relieved of a shift. In theory, this should have raised the tone for North Africa drivers but after a glass or six I’m also capable of lowering it. Anyone remember those pleasant evenings? Robert
i was on it ever week for about 3 months when on nina models N/I 
, got some fantastic pictures in a force 9/10 , just need to find the pictures
robert1952:
Cultured drivers on North Africa work didn’t stop at the Posh bar on the Pride of Bilbao: oh my word no! I remember one morning - it would have been in 1998 or 99 hitting the main road to Tangier having loaded in Sale. By sheer coincidence five drivers who had loaded in other cities like Fez, Meknes and Casablanca all converged on the same stretch. Furthermore we were all driving for Breda. Roger Barnard (‘big roger’) was at the front. The CB crackled: ‘Narrow in the rapids, five letters.’ He’d got a crossword spread out on his steering wheel. All the way to Tangiers port - a full morning’s shift - we unravelled that crossword between us by CB. It was fantastic. Robert
my record was casa to tangier 3hrs 35 minutes 1998 
, had some good laughs on that motorway
Appeal: a lot of you ex-North Africa drivers are enjoying this site. I know this because people keep emailing me! But do get your happy snaps and a few memories on here. I know some things don’t have to be said - so don’t say them. Also, I also know from experience that all that cowboys-and-indians stuff mixed in with a fair bit of James Bond driving at 2:00 in the morning on Takkadoum with herberts climbing up the side of your cab, hanging on the mirrors, cutting your air-lines on the move, smashing their way into the trailer; mobbing you with motorcyles and forcing you to drive up the wrong side of dual-carriageways and roundabouts to escape you; fights defending your back doors - every single trip, year after year - is met with disbelief. Like you lot, I don’t even attempt to recount these stories because no one believes them and thinks they are a load of bull. So we never tell them. Fine: the same happens in war. But we can tell the ordinary stuff. We are a generation of North Africa drivers for whom Tangier port with its character, its mafia, its civilised yacht club with beer and its marauding hoards of wannabe stowaways no longer exists. It’s gone forever chaps. So are the old routes we used to take to Casablanca, Fez and all points south before the motorways came. Peanut hill. Watermelons by the beach before you hit Larache. ‘Last basket…’ A sailing ship off the old shoulder in Tangier. The Marco Polo. Seamen’s mission, Casa. Think, boys, think. Drivers have already gone: Happy Dave, Stuart (‘the animal’), Billy King, Allain, Jogger John… Don’t leave it too late! Every driver is now a happily married grandfather so no need to rock any boats. The life-and-death adventures we can keep among ourselves - no body ever seems to understand those anyway. So let’s feed the punters with a diet of truth about the happy party side of that life, in which we all knew each other, no matter what nationality, because we were all regulars on the North Africa Run. Robert
You say Alain has passed? Alain Un or Deux? Un was the mustache Ex-Foreign Legion Military Police Sergeant,used to do Casa to Moscow regular.
well put robert
Happy Dave what happened 
,and animal didnt he run up the back of a bus at granada
burnley-si:
well put robertHappy Dave what happened
d t
Bloody Hell Si couldn’t remember at first when I got your pm
How are you must be a lot of water gone under the Bridge now.
Finished at the funny farm ten years nearly now after 20yrs to long.
Reading some of them new threads brings back more mems that have been lurking
around in me head.Speak more later you take care Si good hearing from you again.
GUESTY44
Guesty44:
burnley-si:
well put robertHappy Dave what happened
d t
Bloody Hell Si couldn’t remember at first when I got your pm
How are you must be a lot of water gone under the Bridge now.
Finished at the funny farm ten years nearly now after 20yrs to long.
Reading some of them new threads brings back more mems that have been lurking
around in me head.Speak more later you take care Si good hearing from you again.
GUESTY44
pm me your number fred and ill give you a call, “send it on” got 4 lads now fred , i think ive been around the world and back since smiffies
robert can you remember who it was that died in his flat in tangier after breaking his leg or arm or something like that, think he died of septicemia
burnley-si:
well put robertHappy Dave what happened
I think Dave was ill - it was about 2001 or 02 I think, one of the Manno lads’ll put us right. Stuart was in '98 or '99 because I was still on for Breda. And Allain was, I believe the ex-legionaire one but get a second opinion. I don’t remember the driver in the flat. Robert
Here’s Billy King’s Transcon - I think we were parked up in one of those routiers on the National 10 north of Bordeax, Les Minieres or somewhere. Going back to my wistful piece above, I spent a fortune one day buying up a load of those expensive plastic two-way plastic push-fit valves for fractured air-lines. Worth every penny. When the baddies used to cut my air-lines on Sale industrial zone in Morocco, I used to get out, lock the driver’s door climb on the back among all the herberts push the two ends of the broken lines into the valve, build up the air and be away. It was magic. One lunch time Terry ‘no-loads’ of Manno’s came into the Seamens in Casa to ask if anyone had a spare air-line as he was stranded across the junction outside, and I got him going with one of these little marvels. Robert
