Jelliot:
Hi Jamie if remember right 68 was the phone, fax code for Tashkent anyway, so they might have been changing things at that time. I remember a lot of Muslim Turks getting about as well, they didn’t seem to have as much trouble getting places as Western Europeans. They used to come up from Iran and use the old silk routes. We used them on occasion if there was to much work for our permit location, Helen and Tuna ring a bell, and I have a feeling they were connected somehow. If remember they were all red with big white sign writing on both the trucks trailers. I didn’t see many Wily Betz, only the odd couple here and there, mainly south or east, west of Moscow, but none down towards Kaz. Rynart Trading ( the ones with peacock green and red graphics ) were quite a common site but must of them were Polish subbies, and I was told ( not confirmed ) that most of them were Muslim as well.
I was running containers to and from the Devonport docks last weekend and saw a mustard yellow FH with a red oxide chassis and my first thought was that it must be ex Peekes of Warsaw, pretty unlikely, but old habits die hard.
Were you running with Dave Mackie, Colin, Gilders, Nick Bull etc, or working at the mine?
Jeff…
Hi Jeff
The Rynart with the green trucks were a mix between Turkish and Estonian drivers in the mid nineties and the ones I met were very knowledgeable lads. They were running to Tengiz in Kazakhstan with food products and don’t know if it was along side Gilders or for a different contractor. There’s a few ex Gilders on here would know more. I went with Frank to price work for that region for a company called Kelvin catering but they seemed to expect us to undercut so never did go to Tengiz just by passed it on the way to Turkmenistan. In Nebit Dag Turkmenistan Rynart were also servicing the ex pats there at the gas plant but because they were on Dutch plates with Turkish drivers they were ok to run into Iran for a back load or anywhere else in the region. As far as the Betz goes they were always kicking about somewhere when I travelled out that way. They used to load regular in the UK and double man it to Bulgaria or closer with change overs with the big cabs then the drivers with the small Merc cabs would then hop on the somat ferry for Bourgas to Novorossiysk in Russia for delivery to most of Russia then if it was for Georgia or Azerbaijan they would sail in to Poti in Georgia.
Reg Colin
Hi Colin good to see you’re still looking in on us from time to time. The Rynart drivers I met were mainly Polish and sometime Czech or Turkish as you mentioned most of them knew their game inside out, backwards and in the dark. I can’t recall meeting any Estonians, but I never saw you or Dave either, but I know you were about.
I never went to Turkmenistan so I can’t comment on the place, but I know Nebit Dag has now been replaced with Balkabat. Some of the other guys that were running out east at the time I was doing it were Van Overvelt, Hinde Lang and the odd Firderici here and there ( they usually got around in 2’s and 3’s )
I had a mate called Sleggy that used to share a flat with Kim, and I and another international driver that was a regular on the ferries for destinations out of Baku, he was on for a traveling exhibition company that were operating out of Honiton or Exmouth.
Great article about the trip to Baku. I have never been to Turkey in a truck as every time I went further east the boss always gave me the pleasure of going the Russian route. On speaking to my mate Kevin Diamond the way through Russia to Baku was much quicker but only if all the borders were open without any hold ups. The only part that was a bit difficult was the area of Dagestan onto Azerbaijan because of the war that had been next door in Chechnya
Great article about the trip to Baku. I have never been to Turkey in a truck as every time I went further east the boss always gave me the pleasure of going the Russian route. On speaking to my mate Kevin Diamond the way through Russia to Baku was much quicker but only if all the borders were open without any hold ups. The only part that was a bit difficult was the area of Dagestan onto Azerbaijan because of the war that had been next door in Chechnya
Colin
Yes that’s right. The only reason we went the Turkey route was because they’d closed the Dagestan/Azeri border. Cheers mate. Robert:)
harry:
Don’t forget the knotted handkerchiefs-bah,gum!
White sox , and marine pumps?..
And the Union Jack vests, mind you it was an improvement on the string vests.
One of my most embarrassing moments was watching a bunch of Corkenies trying to get the waiters attention on a cross channel ferry from Dover to Dunkirk back in 1970. They were sticking their hands in the air and clicking their fingers shouting GARCON, GARCON.
It was on a British Rail boat with an English speaking crew.
Talking of too hot for sox, have you noticed that some long-haul trailers are far more evocative of far-flung places than others. I’ve assembled a few pics to whet the appetite. Perhaps you have some to add… Robert
Some times you have a truck then sell it and never see it again, other times it just keeps showing up when it least expected.
We had this F16 Globetrotter on fridge work doing Spain which was bought by Meek who also pulled a fridge and sometimes a tilt. I airbrushed it for A and NA Meek, and here it is sitting in our yard in the Scottish Borders.
I went to Australia and America to a bit of driving and painting and when I got back I was running to Turkey. I was sitting in a TIR park one day taking photos of a rather interesting trailer, when An Irish fridge pulled and guess what was pulling it.
That’s right it was a guy with a Scania jacket, but he was driving …
A few months later I went to work for the Iveco man who used to buy a few trucks at auction and couldn’t resist it so he bought this…Somewhere along the way it had grown a big tank…
He sold it a year later as it was heavy on fuel…
But I was loading in West Wales for the Ukraine one day and guess what was ahead of me in the queue…
I heard it was written of in Portugal, but I was getting through Austria about a year later and …
One of the things that made me smile was seeing things in unusual places.
I was waiting to cross into Oman and coming the other way was Willie Betz Merc pulling an ASDA fridge. It was on AUE plates and the driver was local. There was a few Royal Mail box vans running round Riyadh for a while, which I think was some thing to with Paul Binns.
I was coming from Corgos back to Almaty and I saw a yucky green L reg Morris Marina on ■■■■■■■■ plates, again the the driver looked more local then a Carlisle bloke, but I had to ask myself what was the story about that car being there. ■■? One of the other drivers saw it in the same area on a different trip.
If you could have any car on the planet to drive from Carlisle to eastern Kazakhstan why would you go in an L reg Morris Marina. I keep on looking at Top Gear to see if Clarkson and his mate did anything in that area, which would be about the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.
Jelliot:
I used to run with Davie Doig, Bob’s son.
Great photos Robert.
One of the things that made me smile was seeing things in unusual places.
I was waiting to cross into Oman and coming the other way was Willie Betz Merc pulling an ASDA fridge. It was on AUE plates and the driver was local. There was a few Post Office box vans running round Riyadh for a while.
I was coming from Corgos back to Almaty and I saw a yucky green L reg Morris Marina on ■■■■■■■■ plates, again the the driver looked more local then a Carlisle bloke, but I had to ask myself what was the story about that car being there. ■■? One of the other drivers saw it in the same area on a different trip.
If you could have any car on the planet to drive from Carlisle to eastern Kazakhstan why would you go in an L reg Morris Marina. I keep on looking at Top Gear to see if Clarkson and his mate did anything in that area, which would be about the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.
Jeff…
I once owned an L-reg Morris Marina! And I can tell you now that the furthest part of the Middle-East I’d drive one to, is Ipswich. Robert
Jeff, following your story of the Volvo that kept popping up in unexpected places; I drove a DAF 95 Super-space on Morocco work for Ranjit Transport for a while (see North Africa thread). Some time later, I went for a slightly unusual winter holiday to Gaddafi’s Libya. It was Christmas morning and I was sitting in a mini-bus heading west out of Tripoli, when a Scottish bloke pipes up (more to himself than anyone one in particular), ‘That lorry’s got a Scottish number plate, look!’. And there, parked by the roadside was the DAF I used to drive with both Libyan and Scottish number-plates. A bit surreal, really! Robert
The last time I was in Libya I was pretty far south on my way to do a delivery and got high jacked by the local branch of the military police who were doing a bit of free enterprise.
That,s as far as I’m going on that… Not a good day…
Followers of this thread might be interested in a post on Biglorryblog this week, featuring Ferdy and a few brave souls who intend to take some vintage ‘Middle-Easters’ (Scanias mostly) on a nostalgic trip via Turkey to Iran and Azerbaijan and back (through Turkey). It’ll be interesting to see how they get round modern legislation, but good luck to them! Robert
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