'We made it despite bandits, bends and border snags'
Page 35
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From lain Sherriff, Tehran, April 5 WELL, WE MADE IT. Our depleted convoy arrived here in Iran's capital at 19.30 hours today-18 days after the start and six days late.
On this route, to arrive is better than to travel—and to arrive at all is no mean achievement. The worst stretch was through and over the Turkish mountains, where the S bends on the infamous Tahir section have recently claimed at least 40 trucks, mainly British, and where some drivers have died. But we also learned of one driver who had sat for five days frozen up in his Ford artic and suffered only a burst header tank on the vehicle.
I have also had first-hand experience of hill bandits— I lost many personal possessions during a night raid, and this is apparently a regular occurrence.
The Scammell Crusaders have stood up well to the task, and our only troubles after leaving Austria were two punctures, but in my view these trucks are not comfortable enough for such a long journey.
We apparently established some kind of record in being fined only twice en route— once for passing a police control (20 cigarettes) and once for staying beyond the visa expiry time (120 Turkish lira). But the latter was easy money because they had closed the border and there were 460 vehicles in the queue.
Men who cover this route for a living all round the year must be driven by some special dalication; they have precious little comfort and maximum aggravation, notably in the interminable queues at frontiers.
We lost 36 hours at the border between Turkey and Iran and earlier in the trip had suffered a queue of vehicles two miles long.
We have experienced every possible kind of weather but have been unable to enjoy any of it, either sitting frustrated in queues or flying on to catch up time.
I finished the journey from Ankara in an MAN, as there was no longer room for me in one of the Crusaders. The MAN was also an Eastern British Road Services vehicle but not part of our original convoy. The two Crusaders and the Scania in which we left Britain have been driven by Eastern BRS drivers but they were on rental to U. and B. Transport Ltd, of Cambridge, hauling hired semi-trailers pre-loaded and sealed on behalf of the hiring company, so the traffic and the load documentation have not been a BRS responsibility.
Our route after crossing the Bosporus at Istanbul (see CM last week) was via Ankara, Sivas, Erzurum and Tabriz. Arrived in Tehran, one of the first people I met Was Midlands BRS managing director Ken Cook, who has been appointed resident chief exe cutive for the National Freight Corporation in Iran. As CM readers will know, the NFC is closely involved in development plans for the country's transport and distribution.
There is a lot to be learned from a journey such as this and, if my return to Britain is on schedule, I shall be passing on advice based on hard (and I mean hard) experiences in forthcoming issues.