Here We Go Again

Well now that I am back in the land of the living once again driving bendy´s I suppose that I had better resume my diary.
Starting back with my old company the first day had me running around Holland doing a couple of collections before having an early night off.
The Tuesday was load at the Phillips factory in Middelburg before completing the load at our yard in Rucphen and leaving for Spain, passing through Antwerp and Brussels I filled the DAF up with diesel in Luxembourg before entering France and I managed to get nearly as far as Lyon before the time was up and the DAF needed its sleep.
Wednesday I ran down through the middle of Lyon which is a fair bit shorter than going round


Heading towars centre of Lyon


The tunnels at Lyon

and managed to get through the town without any hold ups and proceeded down through France and entered Spain through the La Junquera border before cutting across country to Torello where I parked up for the night outside the 1st unloading address.
Thursday I unloaded the Torello and several others in the general Barcelona area before also managing to unload El Vendrell before they closed after which I had enough hours left to get my self as far as Valencia.
Friday I unloaded in the port of Valencia before going to my last unloading address in Alginet, eventually instructions were received to load in Aguilas near Murcia so off I set only to find out upon arrival that I would not be loading until the next day.
Saturday the load of Lettuces were loaded and I was away by 08.30 and decided to head north via Madrid and managed to just get past Vitoria before parking up for the night.
Sunday was a quiet run up through Basque country and through France as far as Orleans before the hours were up.
Leaving early Monday I was through Paris with no problems and managed to reach my unloading address in Venlo and get myself back in to the yard for the night.

Tuesday I loaded for Reims and off I set passing through Belgium amd entering France near Maubeuge and parked up for the night in Reims.
Wednesday I unloaded and loaded nearby before heading back to Holland where I dropped the trailer in the yard and picked up another that was loaded for Bremerhaven and set off through Holland and into Germany passing Oldenburg before cutting across and using the Weser tunnel


Weser Tunnel Entrance


Inside

to reach Bremerhaven where I parked up for the night.

Thursday morning the boat arrived and the lengthy unloading began, as this was quite an old boat everything had to be craned on






These were waiting in Bremerhaven for someone to collect them

before I was eventually left with an empty trailer and head towards my loading address in Osnabruck, here everything went tits up and 9 hours later I was loaded with a load of ice cream destined for Tilburg.
Friday before I could unload my boss,s dad arrived to unload the vehicle for me while I shot off to Rotterdam to get a visa for Turkey. Later when I returned to the yard a trailer was loaded for me and I could start heading south "homewards", passing Paris with no problems I was soon on the other side and parked up for the night at Blois.
Saturday was an uneventful run down through France and Northern Spain and I arrived home at 22.30 where I will remain until Tuesday morning.
Leaving home Tuesday morning and passing down past Burgos and over the Somosierra I was at my first unloading address in Alcobendas just before dinner time and the 10 items of garden furniture were soon unloaded and I was off skirting around Madrid on the M40 as far as the A4 on to which I turned and followed as far as Pinto where I had to unload at the Exel warehouse, imagine my surprise when after a short wait I was waved on to an unloading bay and promptly unloaded, well that was the end of the working day as the next address was not booked until tomorrow so I drove to Leganes and soon found the address and parked outside, later in the evening I walked 200 meters to the reataurant which was just around the corner and enjoyed my evening meal which was washed down with a couple of San Miguels before retiring for the night.
Wednesday morning got off to a good start as I was in, tipped and out again by 08.30 and at 09.15 I was at my loading address on the Mercamadrid where I was to load grapes for Holland. As soon as I saw the pallets the small hairs on the back ofmy neck began to prickle as there was no way that a pallet truck was going to get underneath them, they were American type pallets as the grapes had come from Chile. Once loaded I retraced my steps back up past Burgos towards the French border stopping to fill up at Araia on the way I eventually parked up just south of Bordeaux.
Thursday was an uneventful cruise up through France and through Paris in to Belgium and I parked up for the night just outside Gent. Today was also the day that I learnt that the trip to Istanbul had been cancelled.
An early start Friday saw an easy run to the unloading address in Deil as it was a Dutch bank holiday and traffic was scarce, upon arrival the customer took one look at the pallets and said "I can´t unload those" to which I replied "you had better get something sorted then", an hour later I was at a transport company nearby where the pallets were unloaded, now it was off to Cuijk where I had to load 10 pallets of deep freeze which I then took to Rotterdam and unloaded at Inter Supply before running round to the Waalhaven where I loaded a few pallets of groupage and then went to Vlaardingen to load one crate before heading off back to the yard, once in the yard the crate was transhipped and I swapped trailers before setting off once more through Belgium and in to France managing to get as far as Orleans before parking up for the night.
Saturday was another leisurely run through France and I crossed the border at Irun 15 minutes before the driving ban started and turned left on to the N121 towards Pamplona and managed to get just past Pamplona before parking up for the night.
Sunday morning I had just got up when a Scania from Europe Flyer parked up next to me and I saw that the driver was Rafa who I had not seen for several years since we used to work at Van Overvelds together, so we had a couple of coffees together before setting off south until Rafa turned off towards Zaragoza and I carried towards Madrid


Rafa with his Scania

cutting through Agreda and passing Alamazora before joining the A2 at Medinacelli where I stopped to watch the Monaco Grand Prix before running down past Guadalajara, eventually skirting round Madrid using the M45 & M50 before taking the A4 down past Bailen just managing to park up in Cordoba before the hours ran out.

Monday morning the 1 pallet of labels was soon unloaded and the only set back was the idiot who decided to park right in the exit gate to the factory.


The idiot

Going down past Lucena and Antequera I was soon on the outskirts of Malaga unloading 5 pallets of cheese before heading off along the coast motorway passing Feungirola and Torremolinos before stopping for a 45 minute break and something to eat. After lunch I set off to Algeciras where as soon as they came back from lunch the crate that I had loaded in Vlaardingen was soon unloaded and I was away again running inland through the hills to Jerez De La Frontera where I parked up outside the shopping centre for the night.
Tuesday morning at 07.30 I was unloading 6 IBC´s at a warehouse in Jerez and was soon heading towards Dos Hermanas just outside Sevilla where at the 1st address I unloaded 4 boxes at the Nike Factory Shop before goiing to the Lidl RDC mentally prepared for a long wait so you can imagine my surprise when after 15 minutes I was called forward to unload and the 9 pallets were soon unloaded and I was off towards Danone in Sevilla to unload 2 containers of aromas but they were closed as it turned out that today was a local holiday. It was decided that I could go to Villamanrique de la Condesa and load potatoes as this would still leave enough space for the 2 containers and that I could then unload them in the morning, Upon arrival at Villamanrique I was met by one of the workers who took me out to the field where I would be loading and I settled down for a long wait as they were still getting the damn things out of the ground.


Potatoes being picked


While I wait

I was eventually loaded by 21.00 and made my way back to Sevilla and parked up for the night.
On Wednesday the 2 containers were out by 08.15 and I was soon mixing it with the Sevilla rush hour traffic as I made my way towards the A4 which I followed back up towards Madrid and began to retrace the same route north managing to get as far as Valverde before the tacho decided that the day was over.
Setting off Thursday morning I passed Pamplona and made my way towards the border at Irun where I filled up both the unit and the fridge trailer with diesel before entering France, once again an uneventful run was had as I steamed up past Bordeaux, Angouleme, Poitiers and Tours before parking up just south of Orleans.
Friday morning I was up early and flew through Paris with no problems and had a 45 minute break just south of Lille before negotiating the rush hour traffic which was building up, after getting a Eurovignette at the border I followed the motorway up as far as Antwerp where I turned off towards Eindhoven and carried on as far as Venlo where I turned off the motorway and followed the A road over the border into Germany and arrived at the unloading address in Weeze. The warehouse boss had a look at the potatoes and said "those are the wrong sort" while looking at me as if it is my fault so I said to him "nothing to do with me mate as far as I am concerned potatoes usually come roasted, boiled, mashed or cut up as chips". Two hours later he has decided that they will unoad them after all and by 14.30 I am back Holland battling with the Friday afternoon traffic as I make my way towards Poeldijk which is just above Rotterdam near the coast where I loaded 22 pallets of various vegetables destined for Gibraltar. Finally I set course for the yard where I dropped the trailer off and picked up another that is loaded for Valencia before going to bed for the night.
Leaving the yard Saturday morning the first stop was at the Shell garage on the border to get a Eurovignette. Following the usual route through Belgium I got to the French border without any problems although this was soon as to change as within 10 minutes there was an almighty tailback caused by a broken down bus on the hard shoulder, once past this obstacle it was plain sailing and I took a 45 minute break at Ressons before continuing on towards Paris where although the Matrix boards above the motorway were telling us that there were no problems we soon became embroiled in chaos as it seemed that half Paris was at a standstill and it took 2 1/2 hours to get through the bloody place, once through though it was plain sailing up the National 20 as far as Artenay where I rejoined the A10 motorway and managed to get as far as Tours before the hours were finished and duly parked up for the appropriate rest period.
Sunday morning well before sparrow fart the fridge gets switched on and I am away down the motorway as far as Poitiers where I turn on to the N10 and carry on down past Bordeaux before taking a 45 at Cestas, it was plain sailing all the way to the Spanish border with not a Gendarme in sight, once over the border I took the 1st tun off on to the N121a and filled up with diesel before carrying on as far as Sumbilla where I parked up for my 24 hours off, that evening a pleasant meal was enjoyed with several drivers from Van Heur who I used to work with.

Monday as soon as the 24 are up I head off via Pamplona, Tudela and Magallon taking the now repaired old road



Repaired Road

towards La Doña Almuñia from where I headed towards Cariñena and then Teruel a 45 minute break was taken at Calamocha after which I carried on towards Valencia, a pleasant surprise was in store for me as it seems the Spanish road building had not ground to a halt in my absence and the dual carriageway now goes all the way to the other side of Teruel



New Section Of Dual Carriageway




As you can see the earth here is predominantly red in colour

till just before the big descent where it appears that they still have a lot of work to do before they are finished there. On down past Viver and Sagunto and round Valencia I take the 13 out towards Madrid for about 20 kilometres and duly arrive in Chiva and park up outside until the morning.
Tuesday I started by unloading 19 pallets in Chiva before heading back along the A3 towards Valencia as the next drop was in Picanya, getting to this address was fun as the road/track leading to it was extremely tight with several tight bends




As you can imagine this was fun



but I eventually got there and the 10 pallets were soon unloaded. Now it was off along the N322 following the coast road along past Sueca, Cullera


Sueca


Cullera where the town name has been cut in to the hill side

and Gandia to a place called Oronda where the last 2 pallets were unloaded, as the fridge had been playing up it was now to time to head for a garage to get it sorted out and this was done just outside Gandia where a fan belt and two pulley wheels were replaced before I headed up the road to Xeraco to load 26 pallets of Oranges, once loaded it was follow the same road back and after climbing the long hill I just managed to get as far as Calamocha before the hours were up.
Leaving Calamocha I headed north passing Pamplona and down the N121a




Two shots of the N121a between Pamplona and Irun

having a 45 minute break at Sumbilla and filling up in Irun before entering France and a nice quiet run up as far as Poitiers where I parked up for the night.
Thursday started quite well till I reached Paris where it seemed that every way round the place was at a standstill and chaos reigned. After Paris I was heading up towards Arras when smoke from the rear end of the trailer told me that all was not well at mill and further investigation revealed that a tyre had decided that it didn´t want to play any more so it was time to sweat and change it, usually this is quite simple but this was to be one of those days and the operation turned out to be a tad more complicated than anticipated, but a bit of sweat and perseverance and eventually the job was done and I could continue my run north. Passing Lille I noticed that the traffic in the other direction was at a standstill for about 15 kilometers, entering Belgium and after passing Gent I saw that there was a tanker on fire on the other side of the motorway with the Belgian fire brigade in attendance and this also produced another tailback of 20 odd kilometers, luckily I was going the other way, upon reaching the Dutch border at Meer I decided to call it a day and parked up for the night.
Friday was a simple run in to the yard where another driver was waiting to tip the trailer that I had brought with me. By early evening the trailer that I was to be taking back to Spain had arrived and I began the run home but I had barely passed Antwerp when the telephone rang and the boss was telling me not to go anywhere Gent as the motorway was closed and that this was accompanied by a momentous tailback. So turning off at Sint Niklaas I headed through Temse and Bornem eventually turning on to the A12 and following this as far as the Brussels ring and then down to Mons and eventually crossed in to France using the border at Valenciennes. Taking a 45 minute break just before Paris I set out once more and followed the N20 as far as Artenay before rejoining the motorway and running past Orleans I managed to get as far as Tours before parking up.
A late start Saturday was accompanied by an intense heat as I made my way along the usual route via Poitiers, Angouleme, Bordeaux and in to Spain.
I left home Monday late afternoon and made way along the N1 via Burgos and had a 45 minute break near Aranda de Duero before leaving the N1 at kilometre point 50 to cut across past Torrelaguna to Guadalajara where I headed north once more for about 20 kilometres on the A2 and soon arrived at Torija and it did not take long to locate the warehouse at which I would be unloading in the morning.
Entering the warehouse which was being run by Aitena on behalf of Leroy Merlin at 07.45 I was kept waiting for 2 hours before I was allocated an unloading bay, I was unloaded by a Bangladeshi who could hardly speak Spanish or English and it took absolutely ages, once eventually unloaded I was told to wait 30 minutes while they counted it all and that I could then collect the signed paperwork. When I went to collect the CMR they told me that there were only 54 pallets instead of 55 and that they had counted it three times, I asked to be allowed in to the warehouse in order to count it myself and at first they refused until I told them I wasn´t going anywhere until I had the opportunity to count it myself, eventually they relented and I was allowed to check and lo and behold there were 55 pallets. Eventually leaving this shitehole at 13.00 I made my way towards and around Madrid and headed further south on the Toledo road before turning off for a small town called Griñon where I was to load 2 extremely large crates but they were at dinner when I arrived so I prepared myself for another wait, at 16.00 I reversed in to the shed and opened up the roof and loaded and secured the 2 crates and went and got the paperwork. Now it was head back towards and around Madrid to a place called Alcobendas where I had to pick up 5 pallets of reconditioned tachographs form VDO Siemens but as I arrived at 17.30 and they go home at 17.00 it would be in the morning so I found a restaurant and had an evening meal while watching the football before going to bed.
Wednesday morning the 5 pallets were soon loaded and I was flying north with 480 brake horse power and a load that weighed about 5000 kilos,making good time over the Somosierra I fuelled up and took a 45 minute break at Araia before dropping down the long hill at Etxegarrate and through San Sebastian in to France where I had another 45 break at the Centre Routier at Cestas before continuing up the RN 10 towards Bordeaux,once past Bordeaux the Matrix boards where telling me that the RN10 between Bordeaux and Poitiers was closed to trucks, this may have been because of an accident or they may have been connecting the new piece of ring road at Angouleme but either way I was obliged to use the toll motorway as I headed towards Paris and parked up for the night an hour south of Poitiers.

I was away again at 05.00 on Thursday morning and passing Poitiers and Orleans before turning on to the RN20 at Artenay where I stopped at one of the routiers for a 45 minute break and a shower before continuing on towards Paris where although the traffic was heavy there were no major hold ups and I was soon having another break just short of Lille where I also bought a Eurovignette for today and tomorrow, passing Lille and crossing in to Belgium once again there were no major problems as I passes Gent until just before Antwerp where everything was at a standstill so I decided to use the toll tunnel and going via Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal I managed to get in to the yard with 10 hours and 5 minutes driving on the tacho.
Friday I changed trailers and did collections in Antwerp, Bergen op Zoom and Etten Leur before returning to the yard where I helped load and unload a couple of trailers while waiting for a trailer loaded for Italy to be come back from Rotterdam. When the trailer arrived I set off through an empty Holland as their national team were playing football and via Tilburg and Eindhoven I was soon on the border at Venlo - Schwanenhaus where I got my maut ticket and headed south past Moenchengladbach and Koblenz on the A61 before parking up for the night near Alzey.
The sun was shining as I started the engine Saturday morning and continued heading south on the A61 past Ludwigshafen and turning on the A6 and then on to the A5 near Speyer all was still going well until just before Karlsruhe where everything ground to a halt because of roadworks. At Karlsruhe I turned on to the A8 and passing Stuttgart I got as far as Ulm before a 45 minute break had to be taken. Setting off once more although it was still quite warm the skies were turning dark and it started to rain as I rounded Munich before turning off of the Munich ring road and headed off towards Salzburg where there was an almighty traffic jam going the other way,


I was glad that this lot was going the other way

just before Rosenheim I turned on to the A93 which took me down towards Austria where I crossed the border at Kiefersfelden with no problems and was soon at Innsbrueck where I turned on the Brenner motorway and the climb started, the pleasure was soon to come to an end as the roadworks began and the lane that they had created for trucks was found to be very very narrow indeed making life extremely difficult for about 10 kilometres, once past this Austrian obstacle it was plain sailing all the way to the top and across the border in to Italy as well as down the other side and I parked up for the night just outside Bolzano.


The Brenner motorway winding its way through the Alps towards Austria


Parked up just outside Bolzano

Leaving early Sunday morning so as to avoid the hordes of Italians who would be heading for the coast I headed south down past Trento, Verona, Modena before turning on to the A1 which took me past Bologna and ovr the hills to Firenze where once again I changed motorways and headed towards to the coast passing Prato until the turn off for Pisa and Livorno took me along the coast, the leaning tower of Pisa can be seen from the motorway but unfortunately not clear enough for a foto. Entering Livorno I headed for the main port entrance and parked up there to wait until morning.
At 08.00 the boats agent arrived and initiated the paperwork war with the Italian customs and then returned to take myself and two German vehicles to where the boat was berthed. While waiting for customs permission to unload an Italian Navy officer cadet training ship berthed next to us, eventually getting permission to unload the trailer was soon empty and I wound my way back through the town to what was supposed to be my 1st loading address only to be told that the goods would not be ready until tomorrow, after confirming this I settled down to enjoy another afternoon in the sun.


Entrance to Porto Mediceo in Livorno


This one was parked over on the other side


This was my one


Then this one turned up







Tuesday morning it was back to collect the 5 crates which by now had multiplied itself to nine but by 11.30 I was on my way to Prato to a transport company called Albini & Pitigliani where after dinner I was given the rest of my loading instructions. The first one was about 3 kilometres away where I had to load 219 rolls of textiles as you can imagine this took the italian workers some time and it was 16.00 before I left there and headed towards my final collection in Calenzano which was only about 15 kilometeres away and upon arrival the first 10 rolls of textile were soon loaded before the problems began, the computer that controlled the bar scanner decided it did not want to play so the remaining 70 rolls took till 19.00 to be loaded and for the paperwork to be completed as no one was used to doing this by hand. Eventually I was loaded and started heading back along the same route towards Bologna where I encountered quite a long traffic jam


This went for miles

which meant that I got no further than just under Bolzano before parking up for the night even though I still had plenty of driving hours left, the reason for stopping was that after Bolzano parking spaces get scarce as everyone parks up to wait for the night time driving ban to finish in Austria.
Wednesday saw me negotiate my way back over the Brenner Pass and past Innsbrueck heading for the German border when about 3 kilometers before the border everything ground to a halt because of the roadworks and it an hour later I was on German soil. Going round Munich and past Ulm, Augsburg,Stuttgart,Karlsruhe,Speyer and Ludwigshafen I eventually parked up for the night near Rheinbollen and the worst part of the journey was nearly over as from Bolzano till here there had only been about 60 kilometers of motorway that did not have an overtaking ban for one reason or another.
Thursday morning going past Koblenz and heading towards Venlo I stopped at the service area at Bedburg to get a Eurovignette and carried on towards the 1st unloading address at Vlijmen in Holland where the 80 rolls where soon unloaded and I swapped trailers with another of our vehicles that was waiting for me there. Now it was off back to Venlo where after refuelling both vehicle and the fridge I headed to the Son Veiling where I loaded 13 pallets of Paprika then I went to another loading place in a small village not far from Venlo to load another 13 pallets of Paprika. Passing Eindhoven and Antwerp without any major problems I turned right at Gent and headed towards Ostende, stopping for a coffee at Jabbeke I approached by a man in the toilets who said he would pay me 2000 euros if he could put some pouches in my load, I told him that it was locked and sealed and he replied that this would not be a problem as in his yard nearby they could deal with all that easily, I politely told him to go forth and multiply and returned to the truck, shortly afterwards I saw the same person walking around the parking area so I took a foto of him and then set off towards Dunkerque to get the Norfolk Line boat to Dover. Upon arrival in Dover I stopped at the customs control and asked to speak with some one and told them exactly what had happened and gave them a copy of the foto before continuing my journey, up the M20 & M26 and on to the M25 I then turned on to the M23 and going down past Crawley,Horsham and Worthing I was soon parked up outside the customers premises on Tangmere airfield.
Once the obligatory rest period had been completed I pulled round to the unloading area and 3 hours later I was unloaded. Empty I went along the A/M 27 and up the A3 as far as the A34 turn off and headed up to the M4 where I turned west as far as Swindon where I was to reload at the Motorola factory, after a long wait I was eventually loaded and left there 5 hours after arrival and began the journey back towards Dover which passed with no problems, on arrival at Dover I had just missed the 24.00 sailing so Ishot up to the Tesco´s at the top of the hill and did some shopping before returning to the port to get the 02.00 sailing, on the other side I got just outside of Dunkerque before parking up.
Observing the weekend migratory habits of the Flemish Belgians towards the coast I made my way to Holland where I dropped the trailer and picked up another one loaded for Spain and began to head south and even Paris presented no problems as I sailed through and along the N20 before rejoining the motorway at Artenay and passing Orleans I got as far as Blois before the hours were up.
As I had no perishable goods loaded this meant that Sunday was spent in Blois doing some cab cleaning and writing this journal. At 22.00 the rally begins and we are all off heading south once more and I am home by 08.00 Monday morning.

Seen in Germany near Koblenz somebody ballsed up

Leaving home early Tuesday morning I was in at SLI´S in Azuqueca de Henares by 10.00 only to be told that I would have to wait at least an hour, eventually they strain themselves eenough to unload me and I am off around Madrid to Getafe and arrive at the customers while they are at dinner so once again I have to wait till 15.00 before I can begin to unload but by 15.30 I am once more heading south along the A4 passing Guarroman before turning off past Bailen and Jaen before parking up for the night and settling down to watch the Spain - France game.
Wednesday I drove the last few kilometres to Granada and eventually found the Puleva factory which is extremely well hidden after a 2 hour wait my 8 pallets were unloaded and I headed off further south along the A92 past Antequera before turning off to cut across country at Aharal and followed the A roads through Utrera, Los Palacios y Villafranca and Lebrija until I arrived at Chipiona where the hunt for the loading address began, this would have been easier if there had been some sort of sign on the building with the company name. Eventually loaded with leeks I headed back the way I came as far as Arahal where I then continued on the A roads through Marchena until Ecija where I joined the A4 heading north towards Madrid managing to get as far as La Carolina before parking up for the night.
Coninuing along the A4 Thursday morning I stopped for a 45 minute break at Seseña before commencing the attack on Madrid and eventually got round the place using a combination of the M45 and M50 which broughtme to the A2 which I then followed up past Guadalajara as far as Medinacelli where I turned off and took the N111 as far as Almazan and then the C101 to Agreda where the major road works to build a ring road have already started, once past Agreda I turned towards Cintruenigo once again on the N111 and followed this until the junction for the A15 motorway which I then took stopping at the 1st service area for a break before continuing up the motorway as far as Pamplona where I followed the the ring road around to the right before dropping down towards Irun on the N121a, filling up in Irun I sailed across the border estimating that I had more than sufficient hours left to get me as far as the 2nd service area in France but between the 1st and 2nd peages it all went tis up and I caught up in the mother of all traffic jams as it appears that a Belgian lorry had run in to the back of another one before tipping over and spreading his load of potatoes all over the motorway. 3 hours later I managed to get off the motorway and instead of following the rest of the vehicles through the country lanes I ignored the lorry ban signs and went through the middle of Bayonne following the river until I came to a bridge which crossed and then followed the other side of the river back out towards the motorway which brought me back on one junction further up and past the accident, I eventually got to the 2nd service area but with the days tacho disc well abused.
Leaving early Friday morning I managed to get up the RN10 and around Bordeaux before the morning shit began and continued north once again on the RN10 passing Angouleme where I was pleased to notice that great advances have been made with the works to construct the by-pass junction at the northern end of the town and ran up as far as Payre before stopping for a break. The next stage had me joining the motorway at Poitiers and following it as far as Orleans where I stopped for another break so as to ensure that I did not run out of time halfway round Paris. Turning off at Artenay I followed the RN20 until it joined the A104 going around Paris, I decided on this route as I had noticed a big increase in the volume of tourist traffic and knew that Paris would be gridlocked, it was and so was the 104 as I followed around to the north of Paris to get on to the A1 towards Lille and managed to get as far as Ressons before parking up for the night and settling down to watch the Germany - Argentina game.
Up Saturday morning at sparrowfart I got past Lille and went to get my vignette as always at the Belgian border only to find it closed this is a problem of course as finding anywhere else that sells the damn thing in Belgium is extremely difficult, so left with no other alternative I carried on through Belgium without one and past through Antwerp before turning right to head towards Bergen op Zoom and bought a vignette at the Shell before heading to our yard where I filled up and swapped trailers before heading to the truckwash at Roosendaal to give the DAF a bath. Heading diagonally across Holland passing Utrecht and Zwolle I crossed in to Germany near Emmen and followed the Bundestrasse as far as Haselunne where I stopped for a break before driving the last 45 minutes to the Autohof near the Cloppenburg exit of the motorway where I parked up and went inside and ordered a meal with plenty of German Beer while watching that bloody disgrace of a football match which saw England go out of the world cup.
Well before dawn I was once again on my way passing Bremen and going through Hamburg before the hordes of tourists woke up and had a break just before Schleswig, crossing the Danish border at Padborg I followed the motorway heading north passing Arhus and eventually turned off of the motorway just before Aalborg and cut across country towards the coast until I reached the road that would take me to the small port of Hanstholm where I would be getting a ferry to Norway.


Looks as though the Danes are also affected by EU fishing policy




Waiting for the ferry next to the Catamaran


This is the one I am waiting for


Bye bye Denmark

Once on the boat I was pleasantly surprised to note that apart from a cabin for the 8 hour crossing freight drivers were also given free meals (P&O,Sea France & Norfolk Line please take note).
Arriving in Egursund at 02.00 on Monday and having passed the Norwegian customs it was found that there was a severe lack of parking facilities so I set off towards Stavanger,just before Stavanger I was surprised to come across an unmmanned toll station where trucks are suppsed to pay 51 Kronen, not too bad providing you know about this before hand and have the exact money available which I did not,so with no one to be seen I was left with no choice but to drive straight through assuming that if they really wanted the money then they would be sending a bill.I was in Stavanger by about 04.30 and as it was such a nice morning I set off for a walk round the harbour area and discovered that they were holding the World Beach Volleyball Championships in the harbour completely blocking the road through the harbour.



Some shots of Stavanger Harbour area












A building with a lifeboat on it


This shop


had all sorts of wonderful things in the window





Many of the houses appeared to be made of wood

Back at the truck I had a couple of hours sleep and woke up just in time to watch the boat go sailing past the cruise terminal and park up on the other side of the port, I now discovered that the only way to get to the boat was to drive all the way around the town as the harbour road was blocked. Eventually arriving at the boat it was now time to wait for the ships agent to arrive and complete the paperwork formalities, it was 11.00 before he turned up and the boats captain was doing his nut, anyway I was eventually unloaded and received loading instructions so off I set get a small ferry to the town of Tau a simple matter until it came to the method of payment this 25 minute crossing costs 568 kronen (about 70 - 80 euros) they would not take euros, no bank nearby and neither DKV or UTA were acceptable the only way of paying was with my Visa card.


Stavanger - Tau Ferry


Leaving Stavanger


View from the ferry

Arriving on the other side


Tau Harbour



Arriving on the other side I followed the 13 through some of the most spectacular scenery that I have seen in many years until arriving at the town of Hjemerland where I was to load.


The road was not brilliant
















Waiting to load

After a 2 hour wait I was loaded with 18 tons of fresh salmon which was to be taken to Paris. Back down the 13 it was time to pay the boat again and I crossed back to Stavanger where I took the E39 and followed it south past Lfjord, Lygna until I arrived in Kristiansand where once again I was to catch a boat, although it was by now once again the early hours of the morning it never quite got really dark so I was able once again to appreciate some really fantastic scenery during this trip although it was too dark to take any decent fotos.



Tuesday morning the formalities to get on the boat were soon completed and we left at about 08.30 one again cabin and free food were supplied for the crossing and we arrived in the Danish port of Hirtshals at 13.00, after passing customs which were a kilometre away from the boat terminal it was now time to get a Eurovignette but once again they only wanted cash,thinking bollocks to this enough of my money has been spent on this trip and I set off through Denmark without one and 4 hours 15 minutes later I was in Padborg having a meal and playing with the maut machine. A clear run down past Hamburg and Bremen meant that a further 4 hours 15gotme in to the Autohof at Cloppenburg just in time to see the Italians put 2 goals past the Germans, A quick stop at Haselunne to get a Eurovignette and I just managed to get over the Dutch border as far as the 1st service area near Hoogeveen before parking up for the night.

An uncomplicated run down through Holland passing Zwolle, Utrecht and Breda soon had me through Belgium while enjoying a cigarette in the cab and I had a breakjust past Antwerp before continuing into France where loand behold just for a change Paris was gridlocked, eventually I arrived at the Rungis market area where I had a booking time for 23.00 but I was empty and parked up for 22.30.
After waiting for the rush hour traffic to finish on Thursday morning I went around Paris on the A86 as far as Aubervilliers before turning off towards the city itself and after crossing over the Peripherique I arrived at a small industrial estate called Cap 18 where I loaded some Caviar for Holland before heading back north up through Belgium and in to our yard where I finished for the day.


Seen in Paris

Friday morning I first went to Intersupply in Rotterdam and loaded another trailer for Dover before returning to the yard to pick up my own trailer and return to Intersupply to unload the Caviar and load for Stockholm, after this I had to go to Meeders in Barendrecht and in Rotterdam to complete the load before setting off up past Utrecht and Zwolle and crossing into Germany near Emmen,following the B213 past Hasdelunne and Cloppenburg I joined the motorway and continued north taking a 45 minute break between Bremen and Hamburg before continuing the journey to Travemunde where I was to get the ferry to Trelleborg in Sweden,I arrived withminutes to spare and was able to drive straight on to the boat where once again cabin and food were free.
Arriving in Trelleborg Saturday morning a drive up past Malmo as far as Helsingborg where I turned on to the E4 for Stockholm, Swedish roads are nice and wide but the scenery can get a bit boring as the roads are lined with miles and miles of forest interspersed with the occasional green field or the occasional lake. As you pass Jonkopping there is the biggest lake that I have ever seen it is 123 kilometers long and at its widest point it is 28 kilometers across and you follow it´s shores for quite some time, approaching Stockholm I parked up for the night at the ferry terminal.


Distinct lack of traffic on Swedish highways


Arriving in Stockholm as it gets dark

Sunday morning I made enquiries as to exactly where the cruise boat Silver Cloud would be berthing and found that I was only about 200 yards away from where it would be arriving, after a long wait while the passengers suitcases were unloaded it was eventuallymy turn and eventually the trailer was empty and I returned back to Trelleborg to catch the boat back to Germany.




A couple of views across Stockholm harbour




These aircraft were mounted next to the road near Linkoping where the Saab aircraft is

Monday was a reasonable run down through Germany and in to Holland and back to the yard where I dropped the trailer and bob tailed to Hoogvliet near Rotterdam to pick up another trailer before returning to the yard with it.
After having Tuesday off on the Wednesday I set off to do a collection in Zelzate in Belgium, as we were short on trailers I had to take one that they have borrowed, it was a fridge that was about 9 meters long with 2 axles the rear one of which was self steering, it has been many years since I have had a trailer with a self steering axle and they were always extendables for long loads so as you can imagine this thing took a little bit of getting used to. After loading 4 pallets in Zelzate I had to go to DHL in Brussels to drop off a few pallets of returned Motorola´s. A phone call from the boss had me heading back along the same motorway till just past Gent where I was supposed to load some pallets just outside Deinze but upon arrival lo and behold the pallets weren´t there they were in Nevele so off I set once more and soon arrived in Nevele where once they returned from lunch the 4 paalets from the 1st customer and a further 5 pallets of nougat were soon loaded and I made my way back up past Antwerp to our yard in Holland and parked up.
Thursday was another day off at Jennifers and Friday morning began with driving up to Intersupply´s in Hoogvliet just outside Rotterdam and loading a trailer for Dover before returning with it to the yard, the afternoon was then spent loading and unloading trailers and waiting for my vehicle to return from Italy.
Saturday lunchtime and my motor had finally returned and I could start heading back towards Germany following exactly the same route as on the last two journeys and I arrived at the ferry terminal in Travemunde at 22.30 and went in to book myself on the 03.00 boat only to be told that I could get on the 23.00 if I wanted, no sooner said than done and by 23.05 I sitting in the restaurant on the boat enjoying a free meal before showering and going to bed.
The boat arrived in Trelleborg nicely on time Sunday morning and I parked up to complete the obligatory rest period before setting off up past Malmo and Helsingborg where the Swedish countryside went from being predominantly flat to actually developing a couple of semi respectable hills, by mid afternoon I am parked up in Goteborg but due to the extreme heat I decided against going walk about and taking photos.







Monday morning the boat arrived on time and I was unloaded by 09.00, heading back on the same route as I arrived I turned off at Helsingborg and took the short ferry across to Denmark which is that close at this point that you can clearly see cars on the other side. The last time that I used this ferry it was for TNT-Ipec and the trucks were yellow, now there is a modern ferry port facility,


New ferry terminal

Below a couple of shots of Helsingborg








On the ferry in pole position


Arriving in Helsingor

before the ferry used to unload where the road ended, the boats have been modernised as well and 25 minutes later we arrived in Helsingor and set off following the main road to Copenhagen, just as I got to the ring road that goes around Copenhagen the roadworks started and I got stuck in the 1st traffic jam that I have ever seen in Denmark, once past this I stopped for a 45 minute break before continuing my journey down to Rodbyhavn where I caught another ferry to Puttgarden in Germany. On arrival in Germany I stopped at the ARAL petrol station and got my Maut ticket as far as Hamburg, driving down past Lubeck it was not long before I reached Hamburg and I parked up for the night at the Stillhorn rest area.
Tuesday morning I got another Maut ticket for the remaining 16 km´s to where I would be loading just outside Seevetal. Upon reporting to the warehouse I was informed that my load was planned for 18.00, it was now 08.00, after 30 minutes the warehouse boss came out to me and said that they would be loading me in 20 minutes and by 09.40 I was heading back towards to Hamburg,collecting another Maut ticket on the way before turning on to the A1 and heading once more down past Bremen to Cloppenburg and following the Bundesstrasse through to Holland and down past Zwolle and Utrecht before reaching the unloading address just outside Breda where the load of lettuces was soon unloaded and I headed back towards the yard.
Setting off Wednesday morning to do a couple of collections in Belgium I was in no hurry so I decided to cut across country to Beerse where I picked up 2 pallets of deep freeze before heading to Oevel for another pallet of deep freeze. Nex time I will go around the long way on the motorway as the Belgians seem to prone to closing roads with no prior warning and only one well hidden sign pointing out the diversion, for this reason when heading back towards Holland I took the motorway and passed through Antwerp and arrived at the border at Meer where I had another 2 pallets to pick up before heading back to the yard.
Thursday I started off by running to ABX Logistics in Zwijndrecht to load 500 car tyres for Aspe near Alicante before returning to the yard to load some more groupage consignments for Spain after which I set off southwards. Passing through Belgium and France with no problems apart from the idiot who spun his car just north of Paris


Daft sod managed this all on his own

I got as far as Poitiers before parking up for the night.

Friday was another easy run down through France and in to Spain where I followed the A1 as far as Araia where I filled up both the truck and the fridge tanks with diesel before heading for home in to the dubious clutches of HM.
Leaving early Sunday evening it was a nice peaceful run along past Logroño and Tudela before turning off towards Borja to take the cut through road tp Doña La Almunia where I headed towards Cariñena. In Cariñena I turned towards Teruel and parked up in Daroca for the night.

Monday morning at 07.00 it was 26 degrees celsius as I continued on my way towards Valencia and by 11.00 I was at the 1st unloading address on the Vara de Quart industrial estate where 5 pallets of cockles were soon unloaded. I now headed towards Alicante taking the toll free inland route and stopped for a meal some 30 kms outside of Valencia before carrying on there was no rush as the next customer has lunch from 14.00 till 16.00. Arriving on the industrial estate just outside Alicante it was easy to see why there was chaos as some moron had lost some of his load of sacks on the roundabout that is the entrance to the industrial area.





The 2 pallets of groupage were soon unloaded and it was back to the same roundabout where the truck had been removed but the sacks were still there as I turned back on to the main road and headed towards Aspe where I was supposed to be booked in for the next morning, on arrival I decided to try my luck and was rewarded with a cheery "no problem we´ll tip you now" and 1 1/2 hours later 500 tyres have been unloaded and I am heading towards Elche where I got on the A7 motorway towards Murcia until the service area about 20 kms before Murcia where I decided to stop for the night as I didn´t really want to park in the next customers village over night with the fridge engine running.
Tuesday morning at 08.00 the gates opened and after the small delivery vans had left I could enter and the 4 pallets of cockles were soon unloaded and I left Cabezo de Torres and made my back to the motorway and headed south, rounding Murcia I turned off once more at Alcantarilla and headed for the big industrial estate where 6 pallets of metal parts were also out in quick time and I could now set course for my last unloading address just outside Mazarron where 4 pallets of ice cream had to be delivered to a private address, it turned out that the man had an ice cream van and went around the beaches selling ice cream to the tourists. Once unloaded it was time to get back on the motorway and head back around Murcia to the village of Santomera where I loaded 88 drums of frozen fruit juice. Now it was jus a case of following more or less the same route back past Alicante, Valencia and Teruel




The eternal roadworks on the way to Teruel are still continuing

and I managed to get as far as Ricla where I parked up at the Restaurante Gallego for the night.


Spanish driving standards are on the up

Wednesday was a clear run up the usual route passing Bordeaux, Angouleme and Poitiers and I eventually parked up for the night at Tours.
Setting off nice and early on Thursday morning I managed to get through Paris before the rush hour began and by 14.00 I was at my unloading address at Hazeldonk on the Dutch - Belgian border and after a 2 hour wait the trailer was empty and I headed for the yard where I was given the loading instructions for the next day after which I decided to use my last 45 minutes driving time to get a bit nearer to the place as Fridays can be a bit chaotic and I ended up parking just past Dordrecht.
At 09.00 Friday morning I arrived at Inter Supply in Hoogvliet only to be told that I was too early, so went and found somewhere to park and wait till they rang me to load. At 14.00 the phone call came and by 15.00 I am heading back past Rotterdam and in to the yard where after helping to load a couple of trailers and having a meal it was time to go to bed.
Having dropped the trailer that I loaded yesterday I now picked up another one and headed towards Barendrecht, a nice clear run on a Saturday morning as half of Holland has gone on holiday and I arrived at the customers premises bang on time and could back straight on to the loading ramp and by 10.30 I am heading back to the yard with a trailer full of fruit and vegetables, upon arrival I attached the trailer to the electrical hook up for the cooling system and went to Jennifers for the rest of the day.
Sunday at 08.00 I am back in the yard waiting for the part time driver who is taking the 2nd trailer to Stockholm and who apparently I am to showhim the way and look afer him. Apparently the man has been driving for 30 years but is still scared of driving to Stockholm on his own. By 09.30 super Dutchman has his kit in his motor and we can leave to echoes of his experience and tales of gallantry resounding out of the CB speakers, 40 minutes later I have turned the CB off and left him talking to himself. Following the usual route up past Utrecht, Zwolle and Hoogeveen on to Germany we managed to reach the Autohof at Cloppenburg in time to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix


This caused a slight delay

before continuing up past Bremen and Hamburg to Travemunde where we got the ferry to Trelleborg.




A couple of shots of Trelleborg

Just after we came off the boat on Monday morning pratt features behind me say´s stop a minute I need to change my tacho disc, (it´s only been in there since 09.00 yesterday and it is now 12.00). Going up past Malmo and Helsingborg we are approaching Stockholm by 20.00 and head around the northern side of the town to the Vrihamn where the boat is already moored and we park up next to it for the night.
At 08.00 the unloading starts and by 09.00 I have persuaded the provisions the master to supply coffee and by 11.00 both vehicles are empty at which point the pizza´s arrive from the galley so we are forced to eat them before heading off to do the paperwork at the customs office. Just as the customs formalities are completed the instructions have arrived via the black box to head back to Trelleborg empty and get the boat back to Germany. Upon arrival at Trelleborg the place is full of trucks and it 02.00 before we can a boat, once on board the free evening meal is downed before heading to bed.


Swedish Roadtrain

Arriving in Germany on Wednesday morning we park up for an hour while chaos control decides what to do with us and eventualy we are told to head towards Osnabrueck. Just as we are passing Bremen I am told that superman behind me has to load in Osnabrueck and that I am to go to Haselunne and wait for a trailer change, stopping at Wildeshausen I set his fridge to minus 25 as it has to be pre-cooled and explain to him 3 times where the loading address is and then set off towards Haselunne with a spring in my step as I have now got rid of the millstone around my neck. Parking up at Haselunne it was time to eat and then go to bed as it would be a few hours before my trailer arrived. Just as I got up another of our vehicles arrived he was on his way back from Norway and had loaded fish for Boulogne sur Mer, shortly after this my trailer arrived as did Nigel an Englishman who lives near Murcia and as he had never been to Copenhagen I was to show him the way. Setting off at 23.30 we headed north.
It was a wonderful drive up through Germany as all the Germans were either asleep or on holiday and we reached the ferry at Puttgarten with 4 hours 15 minutes driving and an hour later we were in Denmark and by 07.30 we were parked up on the Langenlinie in Copenhagen and went to bed until the boat arrived. At 13.00 the boat arrived and began its berthing procedures and at 14.00 the lengthy unloading procedure began. As this is an old boat it has no hydraulic loading hatch and everything has to be loaded by hand, as you can imagine this does take its time, the good thing about Copenhagen is that the port labourers do everything so we just stood in the sun and ate the sandwhiches that came down from the galley until they were finished. Once unloaded we now had to drive round to the Vrijhavn to do the customs formalities which took all of 5 minutes after which we headed back through Copenhagen as the instructions came through to head back to Germany and park up somewhere near Lubeck. A 2 hour 15 minute run had us back in Puttgarten where we had a 40 minute wait for a boat due to the excessive amount of muppets with caravans but by 21.00 we were back in Germany and by 22.00 parked up about 20 kilometeres from Lubeck where we went to bed.
On Friday morning the loading instructions arrived and we set off past Lubeck, Hamburg and Bremen to load


Bloody Tourists

at Loeningen near Cloppenburg were a full load of mineral water was soon in the back and the journey to Holland continued, after a coffee stop near Hoogeveen I set course for the yard and parked up and went to the office where I was given an envelope, upon opening I found a sheet of paper with the details of a flight booking from Brussels to Madrid and a hire car to go home with for the weekend.
After being picked up at Brussels airport and taken to the yard I gave the truck the once over before setting off through Holland, just before Tilburg I stopped and got a Eurovignette before continuing to Venlo where I fuelled up before entering Germany at the Schwanenhaus border crossing where I also got my Maut ticket. Running down the A61 past Moenchengladbach I stopped for the night just before Koblenz.
Waking up on Tuesday morning to overcast skies I continued to down the A61 past Koblenz, Ludwigshafen and Speyer before turning on to the A5 as far as Karlsruhe where I turned on to the A8, It wasn´t long before the day started to go pear shaped and just before Pforzheim everything ground to a halt as there was a broken down lorry in the roadworks and this had caused a 10km tailback, once through this I had a nice free run for about 20 minutes before everything ground to a halt again, what caused this tailback I still don´t know but once it had freed up it started to pour down with rain which caused the caravan pilots to panic and traffic slowed once more and I only just managed to get to the service area at Fildersheim just past Stuttgart for a 45 minute break. Carrying on in the pouring rain past Ulm and Augsburg I went round Munich on the ring road and then followed the A8 towards Salzburg seeing another traffic jam just in time I decided to pull in to an MSA for another 45 minute break, by the time the break was up the jam was gone and I carried on down the A8 as far as Rosenheim where I turned on to the A93 which took me to the Austrian border at Kiefersfelden, here the motorway became the A12 and I continued along it as far as Innsbrueck where I turned on the A12 which is also called the Brenner Autobahn and the climb to the top began and I just managed to reach the border with 15 minutes driving time left so I parked up for the night.
07.30 the next morning and I am winding my way down the Italian side of the Brenner onthe A22 passing Bolzano, Trento and Verona as far as Modena where I turned on to the A1 and headed past Bologna, Prato and Firenze before turning off on to the SS2 in order to cut through to the coast, this road took me through some hilly countryside and some of the worst rain storms that I have seen in many years


and this was with the wipers on fast speed

and after passing Siena I eventually arrived at Grosseto where I turned on to the SS1 and followed it past a multitude of villages masquerading as camping areas before eventually arriving in Civitavecchia where I would be for at least the next 36-40 hours as I had 1 boat arriving on Thursday and another one on Friday.

Nicely on time The customs agent arrived at 08.30 and by 09.00 I am standing next to the boat preparing to unload. The unloading was a slow process mainly due to the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Italian port workers but by 12.00 I am empty and the boats provisions manager invites me on board for dinner. The rest of the day was spent discovering that Civitavecchia is not the best place tp be stuck for a couple of days as there is absoultely sod all worth seeing or doing, even the small beach was stony and littered with empty bottles and paper waste that I did not bother with it.
Friday morning once again the man is nicely on time and by 10.00 I am empty and the sandwiches and coffee provided by the provisions manager have been consumed so I set off back along the same route as I am to load at Alpi in Prato. Once again enthusiasm is not obvious and 3 hours later I am leaving there to head for Modena where I am to load another few pallets at another of Alpi´s depots, due to traffic it is 20.00 before I arrive but by 21.00 I am on way and manage to get as far as Trento before the hours were up and parked up for the night.









Saturday ! the day fun begins, as I awaken the motorway is already stuffed full of tourists of all nationalities heading for home, the other way is also well congested it must be shift change at the beach this weekend. Surprisingly the traffic moved quite wel through Italy and Austria and the real problems did not begin until some 35 kms from Munich where everything came to a standstill and it took 90 minutes to do there 35 kms but once on the Munich ring toad the traffic loosened back up and reasonably good time was made once more and I managed to get as far as Hockenheim before parking up for the night and I stood there listening to the Robbie Williams concert that was being held a couple of hundred yards away on the Hockenheim circuit.
The journey north continued Sunday morning following the A61 all the way as far as the border at Venlo where I filled up with fuel and headed up past Nijmegen and Ede before parking up just outside Utrecht to enjoy a dull, dismal and wet afternoon off.
Monday morning was once again damp and overcast as I made my way to Alphen a/d Rijn where I unloaded the 15 pallets that had been loaded near Modena as it rained down in buckets. The next and final drop was just north of Amsterdam in Zaandam at the Alpi depot and after negotiating several traffic jams I eventually arrived and by lunch the trailer was empty, I now had to load some ships stores in Vlaardingen near Rotterdam and once again the heavens opened up and the place was soon under water, 4 hours later I am loaded and I head to Rotterdam to park up for the night as I have to load another 8 pallets tomorrow.
The 8 pallets are soon loaded and by 08.30 I am working my way through the Rotterdam rush hour traffic as I head for the yard where I unload the trailer and park up before disappearing to Jennifers for the rest of the day.
Wednesday is a late start and at 11.00 I leave the yard and towards Intersupply in Hoogvliet where I am loading for Stockholm and by 15.30 I have the paperwork and head out of the Rotterdam area and follow the by now documented route past Utrecht and Zwolle in to Germany where I have a 45 minute break at Haseluenne before continuing the journey up past Bremen and Hamburg to the port of Travemunde where I am booked on to the ferry to Trelleborg.
Disembarking in Trelleborg it was a nice quiet run up to Stockholm along the wide Swedish roads and I am parked up in the Frihamn by 20.00.
Friday morning the Crystal Serenity comes steaming in and is berthed by 08.00 and by about 09.00 unloading has commenced and I stand there watching as the Swedish port labourers unload the trailer a bit later the provisions master calls me over for breakfast and we enjoy eggs and bacon and we have just finished when the forklift driver drops a pallet of eggs and makes a nice mess, nonetheless by 11.00 the trailer is empty and the customs formalities have been done and I am making my way back south, just as the afternoon comes to an end I receive instructions to load tomorrow at 08.00 in Helsingborg.
08.00 my arse the stuff has not even arrived and it is 12.00 before I am loaded and ready to leave, due to the late arrival of the goods the long boat is no longer an option so I have to get the short ferry from Helsingborg to Helsingor and drive down through Denmark passing Copenhagen on the way and get another short ferry from Rodbyhavn to Puttgarden in Germany, having a 45 minute break in Cloppenburg I just manage to get to Schipol airport just outside Amsterdam before the hours run out and luckily the decide to unload me straight away.

Driving down to the yard on Sunday morning was a pleasure as half of Holland is either still asleep or on holiday and once in the yard I change trailers and pick up a tilt loaded for Spain and head off through Belguim on a miserable overcast day, it has come to my attention that there are swarms of tourists heading back north and that the police aseem to have their hands full with that lot so I decide to chance my arm and keep on driving through France despite the driving ban, all goes well and after a 45 minute break at Vemars I sail through Paris with no problems and another 45 minute breal is taken just past Orleans and I eventually manage to get as far as Ruffec on the RN10.
Setting off on Monday morning there is very little traffic and I stop for dinner at Souquets before carrying on to the Spanish border. The first unloading address at Zizurkil is soon found and after a short wait the 6 pallets are soon unloaded and I carry on towards Madrid and I park up for the night just past Aranda de Duero.
I arrived at the Nestle factory in Guadalajara nicely on time Tuesday morning and after backing on to the unloading bay they asked for the air suspension to be raised, just as the suspension was raised there was a big bang and the air bag on the lift axle exploded shortly to be followed by one on the middle axle,after a discussion with the office I cut off the air supply to both bags and carried on as normal, this would not be a problem as there was very little weight in the trailer, once the 4 pallets of cocao powder were unloaded it was off to Coslada to unload the groupage after which I had to go to the Lever factory at Aranjuez to unload one container of sod knows what before heading to Exel in Pinto to unload some furniture. Now that the Madrid stuff is out it is time to head towards Valencia and the going is nice and easy although it is quite busy going the other way, taking a 45 minute break just before Albacete I am at the customers premises just outside Ondarra by 20..30 and by 21.00 his 3 pallets are unloaded and I go and find somewhere to park up for the night.
The next unloading address was a furniture shop along the coast and didn´t open until 09.30 and the 4 boxes of office furniture were soon unloaded and I headed along the coast to Altea where 15 generators were unloaded, now it was time to head for Almeria and about 50 miles before I got there I phoned the customer to check exactly where they wanted to unload, they weren´t expecting me until tomorrow and as a crane had been ordered there was no chance of getting unloaded today so it was find a restaurant and park up for the night.
At 09.00 the customer phoned me and explained where we could meet up and that I could then follow him to where the Jaccuzi would be unloaded and by 10.00 we are unloading not far from the centre of Almeria and by 11.00 I am on my way to the DAF garage to get the suspension fixed. While they were fixing the trailer I had the chance to have a sniff round my new DAF which is nearly ready and only needs to be sign written and registered and I should be able to pick it up in about 2 weeks. Once the trailer was fixed I received instructions to go empty to Coslada just outside Madrid to deliver some goods locally that one of our drivers had left there as he was running behind schedule, so heading back past Almeria as far as Viator I then headed north on the A92 which goes right through the middle of the area of Spain where many of the old Clint Eastwood cowboy films were made,


Many Western films were made in this area





One of the sets can be seen from the motorwaythis eventually took me to Granada where the A44 took me past Jaen and on to the A4 which I then followed all the way to Madrid and parked up for the night in Coslada.
Friday morning at 08.30 I loaded 18 containers and 6 pallets of groupage and set off for Tres Cantos just north of Madrid where the 18 containers were unloaded at the Danone factory after which it was back to Coslada to Cretschmar Cargo where the 6 pallets were unloaded and by 11.30 I am at SIT which is also in Coslada loading 4 large crates for Antwerp. Instructions from chaos control were to go and have dinner so as to give them some time to try and find some more freight but by 15.00 they had given up and I could begin the journey home. Normally the 90 kilometres to the Somosierra would take me about an hour but today it took nearly two due to the amount of lemmings who appear to be heading homewards at last, a 45 minute break at Brugos and I was home for 21.00.
My first task on Monday morning was to jump in my car and drive to the regional transport authority in Vitoria and collect my digital tachograph card and then return home and pick up my plunder and jump in the trusty old DAF and head north. Picking up the A8 just outside Bilbao I headed along past San Sebastian and stopped to refuel at Irun before crossing the French border and following the usual route up past Bordeaux, Angouleme and Poitiers without incident and I finally parked up for the night at Tours.
Tuesday morning saw me carrying past Orleans before turning off at Artenay and following the RN20 till Paris, considering that I hit Paris at 09.30 I sailed through it with comparative ease and stopped at Ressons for a 45 minute break. A further quick stop at Wancourt for a Eurovignette and I was at the customers premises in Antwerp by 15.00 where I promptly wasted 15 minutes trying to find the inadequately signed vehicle reception for Gosselins Worldwide, once found the reception was discovered to be a hive of Belgian effeciency and I stood at the window for at least 30 minutes before anyone could be bothered to lift their arse off of their stool and attend to me, a further 20 minutes now passed before I was given permission to go to warehouse number 8, here at last things started to look up and within 30 minutes I am on way battling with the Antwerp rush hour traffic to get to the motorway towards Breda, eventually I parked up on the Dutch border at Hazeldonk for the night.

At 09.30 Wednesday morning a message arrived via the computer system telling me to go and load half a trailer in Tilburg so off I set and 40 minutes later I am backed on to the loading bay of Barsans in Tilburg and loading commences, 30 minutes later I am on way back to the yard where I unload the trailer and drink coffee for a few hours until my next trailer arrives. Once the trailer has arrived I pick it up and head back towards Belgium passing through Antwerp once more and at Gent I turned right towards Ostend and crossed the French border near Dunkerque and headed for the Norfolk Line terminal and was nicely on time for the 22.00 sailing to Dover.
Just after midnight I negotiate my way through the docks at Dover and head to the Eastern docks customs clearing facility handed in the paperwork and went to bed, at 08.00 my time or 09.00 UKtime I go and retrieve the papers and head round the corner to the cruise boat terminal where after undergoing several checks by a jobsworth I am allowed to park up and wait to be unloaded. Unfortunately Dover is a problem for the cruise ships as the quayside has been built too high for the loading hatches, add to this that it is also low tide and it is obvious that I am going to be here for some while, eventually I am unloaded and am back in Western docks to get the 15.00 sailing back to Dunkerque where I head back past Gent and continue on the same motorway as far as Brussels where after negotiating the Brussels ring I head off towards Liege for a few miles before changing motorways and now heading towards Leuven I pass Genk and ark up on the Dutch-Belgian border at Maasmechelen for the night.
Friday morning at 07.30 I follow the motorway till just past Heerlen and take the turn off to Kerkrade where I load a trailer full of lighting for various Spanish destinations before returning to the yard with it where I drop the trailer off and pick up another one and head towards Barendrecht, arriving at Meeders in Barendrecht I only had to wait an hour before being loaded with fruit and vegetables once the doors were closed I headed off round Rotterdam to the other Meeders place on the Spaanse Polder for the paperwork and a free coffee. Now it was just a case of head for Amsterdam and complete the customs formalities at the Westerpoort and then head in to the middle of town as the cruise terminal is close to the Central Station in Amsterdam, this is an opportunity not to be missed being able to park so close to where all the Amsterdam night life can be found and the engine had hardly stopped turning as I made my way towards the bright lights.
Saturday morning and the MV Century turned up and eventually the process of unloading began under an overcast and windy Dutch sky. By lunchtime the trailer is empty and the journey back to mission control begins the traffic was not too bad for a Saturday but the situation was not helped by the traffic on the motorway having to stop while bridges were raised to let pleasure yachts pass, eventually reaching the yard it was time to head for Jennifers and I got their just in time to watch the England game.


Amsterdam Central Station behind here is the main entertainment in Amsterdam


View upriver from the cruise terminal


The size of the Century can be seen by comparing it to the trucks


This sign means that things are coming to a stop


As the motorway is lifted


And again ........ to let pleasure yachts pass

Monday morning the first task was to swap trailers and head for Venlo to unload, stopping to get a Eurovignette on the way I was at the fruit & veg auction area by 10.00 to unload a load of empty paprika crates that were being returned from Tangmere. This should have been a quick easy job but the prat who loaded the trailer in England and who has signed for the crates being on 26 special pool pallets has not checked the pallets and a few of them are not pool pallets which means that muggins here can restack them on the good pallets. With this eventually done it is now off to Cuijk to load a couple of pallets of frozen juice concentrate, upon arrival in Cuijk I report to the office to be told that the warehouse staff are at dinner and I will have to wait till 12.45, at 12.45 I report once more to be told there will be a further delay as the warehouse staff are now in a meeting, eventually they appear and then it becomes obvious that the stuff is not even picked so now there is a further delay before it is loaded. The next target is Meeders on the Spaanse Polder on the north side of Rotterdam to pick up 5 pallets of fruit & veg before heading off to the same company´s premises at Barendrecht for another 5 pallets of the same. Now it is time to head for Intersupply in Hoogvliet where the lot comes out and I have to change trailers again and load for the Princess Danae which will be in Hamburg tomorrow. Once loaded I go to switch on the fridge and find that it will not start, investigation reveals that the fuel tank is empty so off I trog to a petrol station and fill it up, it still will not play so it is obvious that the moron who has used it before has let it run dry so now I can bleed the bloody thing as well, apparently the last driver is the same plonker who loaded the crates that I unloaded this morning, the next time I see him it will time for a smack. Once everything is sorted I can start heading for Germany following the usual route via Utrecht and Cloppenburg up past Bremen to Hamburg where the search for the extremely badly signposted cruise terminal can begin, once found it is time for bed.
Tuesday morning begins with the realisation that this is going to take ages as it is an old boat and everyting that is unloaded has to be put in a cage then lifted by a crane to the boats loading hatch where it is then handballed off in to the boat.


Hamburg´s cruise boat terminal is built out of old containers


View across Hamburg port area

By 16.00 everything is out and I receive instructions to head for Osnabrueck, asking for a touch more clarification so that I can book the Maut I am told that the customer has not sent the fax with the exact address yet but has said that it will be near Osnabrueck so I book the Maut as far as the Osnabrueck Nord tun off and head off down the A1 motorway spending ages sitting behind some moron doing just under 80kmh with an overtaking ban in force. Just as I get to the service area Dammer Berg the loading instructions arrive and the first pick up is in Rastede which is nowhere near bloody Osnabrueck it is north of Oldenburg so now I have to stop and book another stretch of Maut to go all the way back again before turning round and heading back the way that I have just come as far as the Ahlhorner Kreuz where I swing on the A29 and head towards Oldenburg eventually parking up at the Huntetal service area.
Before leaving in the morning I get another maut ticket as far as Rastede and upon arrival I am immediately loaded with 11 pallets of ice cream, once I have the paperwork I head south once more towards Osnabrueck and when I get to the loading address lo and behold once again the stuff is in like lightning and once more I am on way with no major hold ups so now I make my way along past Rheine and cross the Dutch border at Enschede before heading past Utrecht and Gorinchem to the unloading address in Dongen where the ice cream is soon unloaded. Now it is back to the yard where I swap trailers and fill up before heading back out past Breda and Eindhoven to Venlo where I have to stop to get another ticket, driving down the A61 was a pleasure as the traffic was minimal and I could fly up the hills and I had a 45 minute break near Koblenz before continuing down past Karsruhe where I turned on to the A8 heading for Stuttgart and parked up just past Stuttgart for the rest of the night.
Upon waking I noticed the BAG (German Ministry) where checking vehicles on the parking area so I wandered across a chat working along the method of attack is the best form of defence and came away with a nice little book that lists al the maut machines in Europe, setting of once more I passed Ulm and Augsburg before hitting the dreaded Muenchen Ring with it´s roadworks and hold ups


Was stuck behind this old Iranian F10 for quite a while in the overtaking ban area near Munich

before turning off on to the A8 again, where I usually turn off near Rosenheim to head for Innsbrueck this time I carried on towards Salzburg and crossed in to Austria and it was not long before I sat in a horrendous traffic jam 5 kilometers before the service area where I was due to park up for 45 minutes and this with only 10 minutes driving time left, as the jam was hardly moving I set off down the hard shoulder for the last 2 kilometers and just got on to the parking area in time, once the break was completed I once again joined the traffic jam and thanks to intelligent use of the acceleration lane managed to get close to the front where it all went in to one lane, the jam was caused by roadworks in the Tauern Tunnel but now I hoped that the road would be reasonably clear, it turned out not to be too bad despite a further 7 sets of roadworks on the stretch between there and Villach where I swung off towards the Italian border and crossed in to Italy with no further problems, dropping down through the mountains till just past Udine where I turned off towards Venice, after passing through the toll station I followed the motorway past Mestre till the turn off for the SS11 and turned off, this took me to the long viaduct that carries both road and rail traffic over the water to Venice,


Crossing the viaduct to get to Venice

once over the viaduct finding the cruise boat terminal was no problem as everything was perfectly signposted and I was soon parked up and ready for bed.
On Friday morning the customs agent turned uo nicely on time and as the boat sailed in to Venice the customs formalities were completed and unloading could begin, being the only vehicle with fruit 6 veg I was unloaded first and could start making my way towards the loading address. Following the same route back to the motorway I then turned on to the motorway in the direction of Trieste for 2 junctions before turning off on to the SS13 which I then followed towards Treviso


Italian Super Strada between Mestre and Treviso

as far as a place called Dosson and soon found the company that I was looking for, I was soon loaded and made my way back to motorway and once again followed it towards Trieste till the turn off for Udine and set about following the same route back and after taking a 45 minute break I was able to pass Austria with no problems and entered Germany, stopping at the first motorway service area to get a maut ticket I then carried on as got as far as Scheppach before parking up for the night.

Saturday was a relatively easy run up through Germany following the usual route past Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Koblenz and crossed the border at Venlo in to Holland and made it back to the yard before the hours were up and parked up for the night.
Sunday morning I changed trailers and filled up before heading back along exactly the same route, once again the maut ticket was booked at Venlo and I drove down the A61 as far as the truckstop at Rheinbollen where I decided to stop and watcht the formula 1, not having used this truckstop for several years it was interesting to see how much the parking area had deteriorated although I must say that the food was good. After the race I carried on heading south through several sets of roadworks and it seemed to me that the tailbacks were longer on a Sunday than on a normal working day, I suppose this is due to the lack of goods vehicles on the road and the increase of muppets out for a swan in the car. I eventually got as far as Edenbergen near Augsburg before parking up for the nght.
Setting off again I managed to get round Munich before they started closing off roads for the Popes visit




The German police were everywhere preparing to close roads to allow the pope to pass through

and had a nice clear run down to the Austrian border I had a 45 at Worgl before passing Villach and crossing the Italian border following the motorway down past Udine till just before Mestre where everything came to a standstill, the reason for this is that there is an overtaking ban for lorries coupled with a 50kmh speed limit which means that while the two outside lanes are free flowing the inside lane grinds to a halt as the lorries continually have to brake for traffic that is entering or leaving the motorway. Once past Mestre I turned on to the SS11 and eventually crossed the viaduct that leads to Venice, once over the viaduct I follow the road around to the right and enter the dock area and park up in front of building 107. With it only being 15.00 I decided to use the opportunity to do some sightseeing and I walked back out of the dock and made my way to Piazzale Roma and caught a water bus in to the city.

Some shots of Venice

















































At 08.00 I am at the boat the Sky Wonder and by 09.30 the trailer is empty and the loading instructions have been received, after perusing the map I took what seemed the most direct and logical route but my efforts were soon thwarted by lorry bans of various kinds so I tried a second route and met with the same kind of prohibitions, eventually I found a route by following the SS13 towards Treviso and then cutting across on some small roads until reaching the town of Scorze where I was to load bottled water. Reporting to the traffic office I soon found out that I could go back to the vehicle and then return to the office once more armed with both vehicle and lorry registration papers and the EU permit before being allowed to be processed, [smilie=wanker.gif] once all this has been done I am informed that there will be a 2 hour wait before I can be loaded, eventually 33 pallets of water are loaded and the paperwork has been received, the office has taken the wise decision that I will be going back via Switserland using the Simplon Pass, once again it is time to peruse the map and once more I set off on the most logical route only once again to have my efforts thwarted by a maze of lorry bans and diversions and what is no more than 20 odd kilometers turns in a 1 hour 36 minute battle to reach the motorway that heads towards Milan, after a while I receive the fax number from the customs agent and end up trying on 3 different service areas before finding one that has a fax machine where I can fax through the load details this way I will be able to pick up the customs documents this evening even though they will have gone home by the time I get there. Continuing the journey along the A4 all goes well until about 30 kilometers before Milan where everything slows to a crawl due to another lorry overtaking ban and some arsehole at the front who can´t find the accelerator, after passing through the toll booths at Agrate the crawl is soon reduced to a standstillas Milan is now emptying itself as it is now 18.00. After negotiating this obstacle I follow the A8 towards Varese and have a 45 minute break at the first service area. Eventually I turned off of the A8 onto the A26 and drove up past Lake Maggiore which is huge and eventually reached the TIR Terminal at Villadossola where Hangartner also has a huge combi terminal where they put their swap bodies on the train, after picking up the customs documents it is time to look for somewhere to park up as Switzerland will have closed for the night by the time I get to the border, even though there is a massive empty parking area at the TIR Terminal over night parking is not allowed (I later discover that this is because the Eastern Europeans used to leave it looking like a rubbish tip.) so I set off to find somewhere else evetually parking up for the night in a layby.

Bright and early Wednesday morning although still dark I make my way to the Swiss border and complete the various formalities and start the climb to the top whilst making a mental note not to forget to phone HM later and wish her a happy birthday. After several kilometers of twisting and turning and steep hairpin bends I arrive at the top 2005 metres above sea level, now the long descent can begin, something that you have to get right as it is extremely steep and is well over 20 kilometers long through galleries and around bends if you get this wrong there is a good chance that you, the gaerbox and the engine will be going home in seperate boxes, I tend to go down here at a steady 30kmh with the engine at 2300rpm using both the engine break and the retarder.


Roadworks on the Simplon Pass do not make life any easier




The Alps in the morning sun from the Simplon


Village near the top of the Simplon

Arriving safely at the bottom I made my way through the town of Brig and after a few kilometers of A road I joined the motorway and headed towards Lausanne and had a 45 minute breakfast stop overlooking Lake Lausanne




A couple of views of the enormous lake near Lausanne


Swiss castle...... once again built on a hill..... obviously those who decided where these things were to be built were not the poor sods who had to get the stones to the top


before continuing on to the French/Swiss border at Vallorbe and after about 5 minutes taking care of the formalities I cross in to France. Initially following the RN57 in the direction of Besançon it does not take long for the French to put the schedule off course with a diversion for lorries that has us carreering along C grade roads and through small farming villages before returning me to the RN57 at Pontarlier. Eventually reaching Besançon I cannot help but smile as I see the massive fortress that is built on top of the stone cliff that looks over the town and protrudes nearly to the town centre (I have tried several times to get a foto but cannot get a good angle driving past and parking is impossible) above this fortress flies the French flag proudly if the same fortress were in UK there would be no flag, add to this that in order to keep lorries out of the town centre the French have bored a tunnel underneath the fortress for the traffic to pass through. Once around Besançon I continue following the RN57 up past Vesoul, Epinal and Nancy before parking up for the night at Metz and retiring to listen to the Manchester United v Celtic game.
Thursday morning I cross the border in to Luxembourg and cross nearly to the other side of the country but I do a U turn at the last junction before the Belgian border and fill up with fuel at the BP station before moving on to the parking area and dropping the trailer before settling down to wait for my next trailer to arrive. The other trailer arrives and I pick it up andhead back towards France, when I reach Nancy I sling a right as far as Toul where I hang left and cruise on down past Dijon before stopping for a break at Beaune. Setting off once more I carry on past Macon and when I reach Lyon I decide to go through the middle and am soon on the other side and I eventually park up for the night at Montellimar.
Waking up in the morning I look out of the window and am filled with nostalgia as the weather would have done Manchester proud, basically it was pissing down as I set off down the motorway as far as Orange where I then turned on to the A9 and went past Nimes, Beziers and Narbonne where the rain stopped and the Mistral winds started but once over the climb and in to Spain the wind also died down and I stopped for some food at La Junquera, having plenty of time I decided to follow the NII down instead of the motorway as far as Hostalric where I rejoined the motorway, after a while I decided to stop for a coffee and lo and behold there were two other of ours on the parking area who were also going to the same place so after a coffee and a shower we set off round Barcelona noting that the traffic in the other direction is at an absolute standstill but luckily our side is free flowing and we are soon on the other side of Barcelona heading for the docks where first I make a slight detour to get rid of 1 pallet that I have in the back before we head for the cruise terminal which is on the other side of the bridge, this bridge was not there the last time that I was in Barcelona docks, once the terminal has been found we settle down for the night.
The boat arrives nicely on time Saturday Morning and as the other two already have reloads and I don´t I let them unload first so it was about midday before I was unloaded, this was compensated by the arrival of the Queen Mary 2, once unloaded I received instructions to head for the border and ring from there, so back around Barcelona and up the motorway as far as Figueres where I turned off on to the NII and went in to Villamalla to fill up before heading for La Junquera and something to eat, instructions are eventually received to head towards Donzere in France and wait till Monday morning for instructions, so off I set and am soon parked up at Mornas after passing Perpignan, Beziers, Nimes and Montpellier.


View across the port area in Barcelona


This bridge in Barcelona is new and made reaching the Cruise boat terminals a lot easier


Queen Mary passing Voyager of The Seas in Barcelona although the QM looks smaller because of the distance between the two it is reality bigger


Voyager of The Seas

Sunday was spent eating and mp3ing a few cd´s as the weather was not exactly brilliant.
On Monday morning I suppose the load near Donzere got cancelled as it was 11.00 before I got instructions and they were to go to DHL, Rue Gene Haffan in Venissieux near Lyon, much detective work later I discover that the address is Rue Eugene Heffan, not being a great fan of enormous companies I approach the place with some trepidation and am soon informed that the person that I need to speak to will be back at 14.00. At 14.00 exactly the same person tells me that I must go and load at the old Danzas warehouse about 2 kilometres away, so off I set once more and park on the allocated bay and by 17.45 they have finished loading the trailer and I now have to go back to the 1st address for the papers and to load a couple of items more. Back at the 1st place I set the trailer on loading bay 69 and commence the trek to the offices, here you have to walk all around the warehouse (130 loading bays) as the door nearest the offices is for staff only, in the office they give me 4 stickers for the items that I am loading and I can now walk back again, the items are soon loaded and now I walk back to the office again for the paperwork and then walk back to the vehicle. Eventually leaving this shitehole I head up past Macon and Dijon and have a 45 minute break near Langres before continuing as far as Nancy where I have to stop once more to get a Eurovignette after which I enter Luxembourg and turn round at Capellen to get to the BP where I fill up, I am now about to set off to drive the remaining 30 or so minutes that I have left but while driving through the parking area I see an empty space so I fill it quickly as parking spaces along this route at this time of night are extremely rare.
I can leave at 11.00 and head down towards to Liege and pass through Maastricht till Elsloo where I turned right on to the motorway towards Antwerp before turning off at Genk and heading towards Opglabbeek where I soon found the DHL depot, here it took them more than 45 minutes to prepare an unloading manifest but as soon as that was done the unloading went pretty quick and I also asked them put the freight for the next drop on the floor as it had been stacked on top of the pallets for Holland. Leaving DHL I drove back to the motorway and turned once more towards Antwerp, at Beringen I had to change motorways and eventually turned off at Geel Oost and wound my way through the industrial area until I reached the Nike distribution centre, choosing the 1st gate marked as a lorry entrance sods law dictated it would be the wrong one so I had to turn round and go and try another one, at the 2nd attempt I struck gold and entered the premises, after passing the third degree I was allowed to pass the barrier and soon found the department that I needed and the 11 pallets were soon unloaded. I now headed towards the town of Geel and passed through it heading towards Arendonk and this brought me to another motorway which I then followed towards Eindhoven, circumnavigating Eindhoven brought me to Son where I got on to the new stretch of the A50 and soon after this I arrived in Veghel where I parked up for the night.
Wednesday morning at 08.00 I back on to the unloading bay in Veghel and after about 30 minutes the trailer is empty and I can cut across country towards s´Hertgogenbosch and then towards Tilburg as far as Helvoirt where I load some garden furniture before continuing on to Hazeldonk for some lamps, now I am told to bring the trailer to the yard and swap it for another, once this is done I head towards Hoogvliet where I am once again loaded for Venice and off I set following the usual route via Venlo and down past Koblenz and Karlsruhe and just before Hockenheim the parking area game starts, no matter where I look everything is full, parking areas, autohofs even industrial estates with parking restrictions, by the time I find a spare place I have passed Stuttgart and am nearly in Ulm with a total of 11 hours driving for the day and a period of 5 hours without a break. This is not the 1st time that this has happened as parking has become a serious problem in Germany but still nothing is done about it even though the German police have publicly stated that they estimate that 10,000 extra parking spaces were needed yesterday, a further fact is that approximately 180,000 lorries are on the German motorways every day and there are only 80,000 parking spaces available, simple arithmetic, it does not bloody well work.
Thursday when I get up I see the German ministry on the parking area and decide that attack is the best form of defence and stroll across to ask when some of the vast amounts of money that are being generated by the motorway toll system are going to be used to construct some parking areas. After leaving the man somewhat berated I make my way past Ulm, Augsburg and Munich and head once more towards the Alpine Republic. Little did I know that today was to be a tad frustrating, it all began just before Munich when a waste tanker pulls on to the motorway and decides to trundle along at 60km/h in the no overtaking area with a line of trucks behind him as far as the eye can see, once this idiot has disappeared I discover that they have decided to turn the A99 Munich ring motorway in to an archeological dig as there are roadworks everywhere, as this 2nd obstacle is negotiated and I have turned on to the A8 towards Salzburg a bloody Unimog pulling a trailer gets in the way and once again the queue behind this 50 km/h idiot is immense. At long last the Austrian border is reached and surprise surprise the Germans have decided to hold a big truck control session and everyone has to crawl through the parking area so that the unfortunate amongst us can be pulled in, all this happening not too far from Berchtesgarden where Adolf used to spend his summer holidays. Austria was eventually passed with no further problems


Austria signposts everything clearly


Austrian Schloss between Villach & Salzburg

until the Austrian border where once again everything had to leave the motorway so that checks could be held to see that everyone had either their Vignette or a Go-Box in the vehicle. Now in Italy it appears to be plain sailing and I drop down out of the hills and past Udine before turning towards Venice and stopping for my 2nd break. Setting off on the last stretch everything wasplain sailing until I had passed the toll booths and just before Mestre and about 5 minutes before my turn off everything grinds to a halt as the Italians have decided to repaint some white lines and everyone has to go from 3 lanes to 1, If there had been some warning of this I could have diverted off on to the SR14 but as there was no warning I could do nowt else but add to the chaos and I eventually reached the Cruise Terminals with 9 hours 59 minutes on the disc.

.An easy start to the day as the boat would not be arriving until about midday. The day complicates itself because despite several phone calls the boat agent does not come and collect the paperwork until the boat has arrived and then discovers that he can´t get customs permission to unload as they have gone to dinner, this means that it is 17.00 before I am empty and can now work my way through the Friday afternoon traffic to get to my 1st loading address in Fossalta di Portoguaro eventually arriving there at 19.00 I am soon loaded and head towards the 2nd address in Vedelago but by the time I get there they have gone home, as they do not work Saturdays the decision is taken to forget this one and go straight to the last address in Quinto di Treviso to load in the morning.
Saturday morning the 5 pallets are quickly loaded and I return along the usual route via Munich and get as far as Stuttgart before parking up for the night.
Sunday is an easy run through Germany and in to Holland and after a lengthy lunch break at the truck stop in Asten I park up just outside Tilburg.
Monday the trailer is empty by 08.30 and I head towards De Lier near Rotterdam to load 4 pallets which turns out to be 6 oversized pallets before heading to Vlaardingen where I have two addresses to load, at the first one once again the pallets are oversize and there are two pieces of steel plate which are about 2 metres 60 long, once that is in I head to the 2nd customer where it is realised that we do not have enough space for his goods so the decision is taken to leave the 1st 6 pallets there for collection tomorrow, once the trailer is loaded we have double stacked pallets on top of the steel plate despite my observations that it will be extremely dificult to unload in Algeciras due to the lack of an unloading bay, back in our yard the decision is taken to add more freight just to complicate life even further before I head south via the usual route through Paris before parking up just outside Tours.

Tuesday and Wednesday are spent transiting France and Spain via Madrid and the final night is spent some 30 kms before Malaga.
Thursday morning I pass Malaga early before the traffic begins and arrive in Algeciras at 08.30, due to the chaos at the customers and the difficulties involved in getting his stuff out of the trailer it is 14.00 before I leave there and go round the corner to the 2nd customer who by now has disappeared for dinner. At 16.00 they return and once again the fun begins and 1st we unload the 6 pallets for Gibraltar for the second time and can now begin the wearisome process of trying to unload the goods that have double stacked and stacked on top of the steel plate, eventually they have to ask a company nearby for the use of their unloading facilities as we are unable to unload the goods and it is 18.00 before I can leave there and go to an industrial estate in Algeciras to tranship some goods on to another trailer of ours, once this is done I head for La linea where I am to unload the steel plate before entering Gibraltar as it has been loaded by mistake but upon arrival they have all gone home so I park up for the night.
Friday the company where I am supposed to unload the steel plate opens and surprise surprise no one knows anything about it so it can not be unloaded and the telephone calls begin. Eventually the problem is sorted and the plates are unloaded and I can now head for Gibraltar and start the customs clearing process before I am eventually escorted to the unloading address where I am quickly unloaded and loaded with a few items that have to go back to Holland, now it is back to the customs area to do the paperwork. Once the customs documents are ready I now head along the coast towards Cadiz and past Jerez de Frontera where I unload 1 small box. At last I can start heading north and cut up through Utrera and Marchena to Ecija where I join the A4 towards Madrid and manage to get as far as Puerto Lapice before parking up for the night.
Continuing the by now familiar route along the A4 I pass Madrid and take the A1 up past Burgos before swinging left at Miranda de Ebro and dropping down through the hills to home, after more than a month on the road it is about time.
Monday morning started with a quick belt along the coast to Santander to load 7 pallets of pears before heading back past Bilbao to Irun where I had 2 addresses to visit the first one being Transnatur where I loaded some groupage for Norway to be unloaded in Holland and the 2nd address was Cretschmar Cargo on the Centro de Transportes in Irun where another 5 pallets of groupage were loaded. Now it was time to enter enemy territory as I took the usual route up past Bordeaux and Angouleme managing to get as far as Poitiers before parking up for the night.
Tuesday started well and I was able to get as far as the service area on the A86 in Paris before stopping for a 45 minute break. Once through Paris I stopped at the Belgian border for the obligatory Eurovignette and a coffee before going in to Belgium, Antwerp was at a standstill so I took the toll tunnel and shot through without further incident, upon arrival at the yard I am handed a load of paperwork and told "there is your new motor move in",



once all my stuff is in I hitch up a trailer that is loaded for Almeria, a strange load "live bees", a new motor means a new day and after working out the intricacies of the digital tacho off I go again heading south with a quick stop at Bergen op Zoom for a Eurovignette and a coffee, upon reaching Antwerp it is still at a standstill and here I lose about 20 minutes, after entering France I stop for a break at ressons before carrying on, as I reach Paris I discover that the A3 has been closed so I have to continue on the A1 as far as the peripherique and follow that round to the A6 which brings me to the A10, due to the fact that I am now starting to feel a bit tired I decide to stay on the A10 instead of using the RN20 and soon I have passed Orleans and eventually park up at Tours for a well earned sleep.
Wednesday also turns out to be a good day and I sail down the usual route past Poitiers Angouleme and Bordeaux before stopping for a 45 at Muret, the thing with a load of live bees is that every time you stop you have to open both doors of the fridge for 15 minutes to give them an airing, they also have to be kept at a constant 14 degrees Celsius. The next step is down the road to the Spanish border and past San Sebastian before taking the N1 towards Vitoria stopping for fuel just before the long climb up the Etxegarate, once past Vitoria I change on to the A1 and park up for a sleep at Briviesca.
Thursday is nice sunny day as I contnue the journey south passing Burgos, by now I have got used to the controls of the XF105 and by now as the hills approach I am switching the automatic gear change off and using the manual mode to get myself up the hills changing the gears using the stalk on the steering column a bit like those in a formula 1 car, down and past Madrid and on to the A4 I have abreak at Puerto Lapice before carrying on to Guarroman where I have another break at the Andamur truckstop, just after Guarroman I change on to the A44 and go down past Jaen and about 30 kms before Granada I turn on to the A308 towards Guadix thus cutting off the corner as this brings me out on the A92 heading towards Almeria, this was an excellent stretch of A Class road which saves about 20 minutes, I eventually parked up for the night about 35kms before Almeria.
Passing Almeria I headed straight for the 1st unloading address in El Ejido where I unloaded 2 pallets of groupage before heading to the last unloading address in La Gangosa near Vicar where the bees were unloaded. Now I shot off to the DAF dealer in Las Roquetas to get the 5th wheel moved back a notch and get on their nerves until they parted with a t-shirt, some lighters and a baseball cap, once all this was done I headed back north following the same route via Guadix and Bailen taking a 45 minute break in La Carolina before carrying on to Villarta de San Juan near Manzanares where I loaded a complete load of Melons for Rungis, once loaded I drove the remaining time left and just managed to get in to Coslada and parked up for the night.

Saturday morning has me heading out of Coslada and following the ring road round to join the A1 towards Burgos leaving me well impressed with the pulling power of the XF105.460 as it pulled the 21 tons of melons up the long climb at Somosierra, passing Burgos and Vitoria I filled up at the BP near Andoain and had a 45 minute break just after crossing the border as there was an accident near Bayonne with the obligatory tailback. Once the jam had cleared I carried on past Bordeaux and parked up at Barbiezieux for my 24 hours off.
Leaving Barbiezieux Sunday evening I drove up past Poitiers and Tours before having a 45 minute break at Orleans, leaving the motorway at Artenay I followed the RN20 towards Paris until it met up with the 104 which I then followed back on to the A10 and round towards Orly and Rungis where I was to unload, arriving at 04.00 I was tipped and away by 05.00 thus enabling me to charge round the Peripherique with no hold ups and I carried on towards Lille as far as Assevilliers where I stopped for a couple of hours shut eye before carrying on towards the Belgian border, as I approached Lille I received a phone call telling me to park up on the LAR at Rekkem to swap trailers that evening as my hours were nearly up anyway. The trailer arrived that evening and we changed them over before settling down for the night.
Tuesday morning sees me driving through Belgium and entering Holland, swinging right between Hazeldonk and Breda I head for Tilburg as far as the next motorway split where I turn off towards Gorinchem on to the A27 as far as the junction with the A58 where I then head towards Waalwijk, at 07.00 the customers staff arrived and then discovered that there was an electrical fault and that the unloading docks would not work so there would be a delay until this was fixed. Eventually the eggs are unloaded and I now head towards Rotterdam because I am going to be loading bees in Berkel en Rodenrijs. The bees are loaded, the paperwork is completed and the fridge is set to a constant 14 degrees and away I go heading for the yard, the intention being to fill with Ad Blue as the boss has said that he was getting a 1000 liter tank put in, surprise surprise upon arrival at the yard no tank. Now the fun begins as does the search for Ad Blue eventually I managed to get 10 liters in Bergen op Zoom and another 10 liters in Nazareth near Gent. Heading south once more I cross the border in to France and have a 45 minute break at Ressons before carrying on to Paris, by now the rush hour traffic is over and I should fly through. Wrong, just after passing Charles De Gaulle airport the Matrix signs tell me that the A1 is closed for repairs, fair enough no problem I will be using the A3 anyway so it doesn´t affect me, or so I thought,keeping a close watch on the Matrix signs I headed towards the peripherique and as by the time I came to the junction with the A86 there were no further warnings I decided to go through to the peripherique as this saves me at least 15 minutes but upon climbing the hill to the Porte de Bagnolet I see blue flashing lights and all the traffic is diverted on to the peripherique in the opposite direction because there has been an accident, the accident occurred some time ago as the tow truck has already loaded one of them , anyway now on the peripherique but heading in the wrong direction I look for a junction to swing round and head back the way that I need to go, but wrong on the other side of the road they are digging it uo so that is now also not an option. Eventually the roadworks on the other side come to an end and I swing round at the following junction and follow the diversion south which takes me along the old inner peripherique running naer enough parallel with the outer one, as at junction after junction the slip roads were coned off I ended up carrying on as far as the Porte d´Italie where I knew that I could swing down directly on to the A6 and this is what I went to do until I saw that they had coned off the slip road to the A6 so I start following the parallel road with its numerous traffic lights and mini roundabouts, as once again slip road after slip road is coned off I end up following this as far as Anthony before I can get on to the motorway again. The bloody French are too pissing stupid to use the Matrix signs to inform drivers of the delays and diversions once again chaos reigned in Paris as hordes of foreign trucks looked for a way through, I fortunately have done multi-drop in Paris on several occasion so had a good idea which way to aim, others don´t and because of the couldn´t give a f**k attitude of the French many would have ended going well over their hours before finding somewhere to park for a break. Eventually I reached the A10 and soon turned off of it again on to the A104 as far as the RN20 which I then took as far as Artenay before rejoining the A10 (This saves about 20 euros in tolls and only takes 5 minutes longer than the motorway). Now being thoroughly pissed off I decide to park up at Orleans for the night.

Wednesday morning has me following the usual route south past Tours, Poitiers, Angouleme, Bordeaux and Bayonne to the Spanish border. Just as I approached the border the heavens opened and it absolutely pissed down with rain so I decided to forget the N121a and follow the A8 past San Sebastian before turning on to the N1 until the junction with the A15 which I then followed up past Pamplona and parked up for the night near Peralta.
Thursday saw me following the A15 as far as Castejon where I turned on to the N232 and after passing Tudela I turned on to the N122 just after Mallen and followed this as far as Magallon where I turned on to the A121 and this took me to La Almunia de Doña Godina from where I followed the A220 in to Cariñena where I picked up the N330 and after passing through Daroca I stopped for a break at Calamocha. Setting off once more I soon reached the new stretch of dual carriageway which took me past Teruel as far as La Puebla Valverde where it returned to being A road for the winding descent through the hills until just before Segorbe where it once again became dual carriageway which led me down to the A7 on to which I turned heading south and after passing Valencia I took the inland route towards Alicante which meant heading along the A35 as far as the junction with the N344 which took me past Caudete, Yecla and Jumilla until I reached the A30, turning in the direction I went past Molina de Segura before turning on to the Murcia ring road as far as where the A7 branched off towards Almeria, once past Lorca I turned off once more towards Aguilas where I would be unloading in the morning, some quick hunting soon revealed where the unloading address was and now I went and found a restaurant and parked up for the night.
The customer arrived at 08.00 sharp and 15 mnutes later the 7 pallets were unloaded and I was on my way following the coast road as far as Vera where I rejoined the motorway and made good time in getting to La Gangosa near Almeria where the rest of the bees were unloaded, now I drove around the corner to the Carrier dealer in order to get the fridge motor seen to, as they were busy I dropped the trailer and went to the DAF in Almeria to get some AdBlue and returned for the trailer later and then parked off for my 24 hours off in the sunshine.
By Saturday afternoon the 24 hour rest period has been completed and I toddle off to El Ejido and by 16.00 am loaded with fresh peppers and start the long haul northwards following the same route as usual I have a 45 at La Carolina before carrying on up past Madrid and over the long climb at the Somosierra and parked up soon after going down the other side.
Sunday morning I drove up past Burgos and Vitoria and fuelled up near Andoain before having a 45 just outside Irun. Crossing the border in to France and following the motorway up to Bordeaux and around the ring road without any problems, Instead of taking the RN10 towards Angouleme as usual I stayed on the A10 and went up past Saintes and Niort before turning on to the A83 and parked up for the night about 100 kilometres before Nantes.
Monday saw me passing Nantes just as the rush hour finished







and taking the N137 up as far as Rennes where I eventually got on to the A 84 which I then took as far as the turn off for St Lo where I then used the N174 to cut off the corner



and this brought me on to the N13 which I followed up past Saint Mere Eglise



I was soon following the lorry diversion around Cherbourg and in to the ferry terminal where a quick attempt to get on the 18.00 sailing proved to be fruitless I settled down to wait for the 23.45.





After spending the night crossing the channel in the company of my Dutch colleague Remco we disembarked in Poole and I was not really surprised at the slow system that is in place to herd the vehicles through immigration and customs, once this major obstacle has been passed we follow the signs out of Poole and then taking the A35 & A31 until it joined up with the M27 and after getting past Southampton with no problems unfortunately things ground to a halt at Portsmouth before we could carry on past Chichester and in to Tangmere where surprise surprise we were the only vehicles on the premises



which meant that we were both soon unloaded and I reloaded with empty trays for Venlo, the forklift driver remembered me from last year so he wasn´t taking any chances and the trays were on in record time and just as I closed the doors a Mercedes Sprinter came round the corner driven by Iain who had come all the way from London just to see me, so we all trot off to the canteen for a free coffee and quickly wind up Timbo using the Iain´s PDA before it was time to go back to work. Out of Tangmere and hang a right back on to the A27 as far as Sindon where I took the A29 just to show the Dutchman what English countryside looks like and we folowed this road twisting through villages and up and down some good hills









as far as Five Oaks where we turned on to the A246 to Horsham, the phone rings as it is Mags telling me how pleased he is to be in Scotland thus missing my visit, going round Horsham we get held up by an accident on a roundabout where a car has smashed in to a cyclist we eventually slip on to the M23 as far as the M25 and then the M20 where we once again held up as a car as smashed in to a small lorry and part of the load is spread across the motorway, we roll in to Dover to be told that there is no more room on the 16.00 sailing and that we will be on the 18.00 boat. Off the boat in Dunkerque and up through Belgium and in to Holland where we drop the trailers in the yard and go to sleep.
Up in the morning and after coffee I help load my trailer and head back south through Belgium with no problems until after entering France I discover that Lille has come to a complete stand still, taking a 45 minute break at Ressons I soot through Paris in near record time and follow the usual route along the RN20 as far as Artenay where I rejoin the A10 just before Tours I start looking for a parking space with no success The clock is ticking when the the signs appear telling me that the motorway is closed and we all have to turn off at Ste Maure where I manage to get a parking space for the night.

Thursday morning is wet and miserable and I discover that the motorway was closed last night due to a bad lorry accident before setting off down past Poitiers and Bordeaux before entering Spain and heading home to see HM.
Leaving Sunday afternoon it was 24 degrees Celsius as I drove out of Llodio but by the time I had reached Burgos the temperature had dropped to 13 degrees and there was a 100km/h sidewind with the occasional downpour. Due to a long traffic jam I was unable to watch the final Grand Prix of the season as I ended up taking my 45 minute break on a parking area where the tv reception was abysmal. Once the jam had cleared I carried on around Madrid on the M40 before turning on to the M42 towards Toledo as far as the junction with the M506 which I then followed towards Humanes where it did not take me long to find the tomorrows unloading address.
Bright and early Monday morning I roll on to the customers premises and by 08.00 the trailer is empty and I send a message to chaos control asking for instructions at 13.00 I am told to head south towards Almeria and be at the DAF dealer in the morning for a service so of I set along the by now well known route via Bailen, Jaen and Guadix and park up just before 23.00.
Tuesday the motor gets a service and by 13.00 I am heading towards Dalias to load Peppers


The loading address is nicely placed between the hills



upon arrival there is a delay as the peppers are not ready and it nearly 17.00 before I leave, heading back along the same route as yesterday I have a 45 minute break at La Carolina before continuing up past Madrid and heading towards Burgos on the A1 I just manage to reach La Cabrera where I park up for the night.


Andalucian sunset in the olive tree covered hills near Jaen

Leaving La Cabrera Wednesday morning I pass Burgos and Vitoria and have a break just before the big drop, continuing the journey past San Sebastian and entering France I jst manage to get around Bordeaux before the shit starts and and eventually park up for the night just before Niort.
Thursday I follow the same route as last week past Nantes and Rennes and arrive in Cherbourg to be greeted with the good news that it will be the old boat tonight, this boat has to be experienced to be believed it creaks and bangs and the beds are bloody uncomfortable.
Friday morning sees me winding my way through the roadworks in Poole and eventually arriving in Tangmere to unload the peppers, after about a 60 minute wait the unloading starts and shortly afterwards I am winging my way towards Dover where once again I get the Norfolk Line to Dunkerque, off the boat in Dunkerque I steer towards Belgium and turning left at Gent and heading towards Antwerp when suddenly everything grinds to a halt, switching on the radio I discover that the whole of Antwerp is a disaster area including the Liefkenshoek Tunnel as there has been an accident on the other side of Antwerp that has backed up for a good 30 miles. After eventually negotiating this obstacle I continue my journey towards Holland and turn off at Hazeldonk to load 269 televisions on the industrial area there before heading for the yard and parking up for the night.

Saturday begins with a rapid rethink of plans of visiting Jennifer as one of the Dutch drivers has been on the piss and has not departed for Barcelona during the night as expected, eventually the decision is taken that the bosses dad will double man with me as far as the Spanish border. Off we set at about 11.00 and once again Antwerp is a disaster area and we lose a good 90 minutes here before finally setting course for Luxembourg where we have the 1st coffee stop before entering France, heading south via Metz, Nancy and Dijon another break is had at Beaune before the bosses dad drives his last hour to Macon where I then take over the driving and continue on down past Lyon, Valence and Orange before stopping for a break just past Nimes, setting off once more we arrive in La Junquera at about 07.30 and the bosses dad jumps in to another of our vehicles that is heading north and I continue on towards Barcelona on my own, a final coffee break just past Girona and then I wing my way round Barcelona and in to the dock area to the cruise terminal where after about a 2 hour wait I am unloaded, I then drive out to Martorell and park up for 24 hours off.

Some shots of Barcelona Harbour area






This is the one I am looking for



Leaving Martorell at about Monday midday I head south past Tarragona and eventually leave the motorway at Amposta and follow the National road along the coast passing Castellon, Villreal and Nules before arriving in the small village of Faura where I was greeted with "we expected you at 08.00 this morning" to which I just shrugged my shoulders, I was loaded immediately and then headed towards the bar in the village for a coffe and a sandwhich before starting the journey north, once again a well known route up past Teruel and Cariñena I managed to nearly reach Tudela before having to take a 45 minute break after which I drove my last hour and ended up parking up just before Pamplona.
Rounding Pamplona Tuesday morning I take the N121a down to the French border and once again head up past Bordeaux and Niort before turning off once more towards Nantes and managed to just get past Rennes before parking up for the night.
Wednesday morning sees me fly in to the docks at Cherbourg just in time to get the boat and 4 1/2 hours later I roll off again in Poole where the first thing to greet me is a long queue of trucks being held up by jobsworths in hi-viz jackets, eventually leaving the docks I wind my way through Poole and negotiate the senseless roadworks


and head towards the 1st delivery in Southampton,


Part of the old town wall in Southampton

turning off the M27 on to the M271 I soon find the customer not far from the town centre onlt to be told we don´t open till 20.00. Well in that case why was I not told this while loading ? and how the hell am I expected to keep within the confines the law if the necessary information is not passed on to the driver ? after phoning base I am informed that London, and Bristol must also be unloaded tonight. This WILL NOT be happening again. Once the Southampton is offloaded I head up the M3 towards London and taking the M25 & M4 as far as junction 3 where I turn off and head for the Western International Market, arriving at the gate I discover that they want 5 quid to let me in, after pointing out that there is little chance of me paying a fiver to get to my unloading address and that they had better phone the customer to get him to come and get it the barrier was raised and I drove in, after finding the correct bay I then find out that the buggers do not start till midnight so I phone up Iain and we go and have a coffee and a bite to eat, midnight arrives and after the good man wastes more time setting his stock out he then decides to unload his oranges and I head off down the M4 to Bristol, soon finding the market I notice that there is once again a gatehouse and a barrier, thinking to myself this sod is going to want money I get out and stick the notes under his nose with a Buenos Noches to which he looks at me and says in you go, this accompanied by various gesticulations which I decipherd as being directions to the customers location, arriving at the customer I am told the person in charge of unloading does not arrive till 03.00, patience is now incredibly thin but by 05.00 the trailer is empty and I go and find a space to park and sleep. I hadn´t een parked 5 minutes when a jobsworth appears telling me I can´t there........ after throwing several Que´s and No Entiendo´s in his general direction he goes away and leaves me to get some well earned sleep.
Once awake I am back off down the M4 negotiating the incredible amount of roadworks before joining the M25 and heading anti- clockwise as far as the M26 where I headed down towards the M20 and Dover and just got in to the docks in time to get on the 18.00 boat, arriving in Dunkerque I shoot up in to Belgium and up past Gent and Antwerp and park up at Hazeldonk on the Dutch border and go to sleep again.
Friday morning the 1st mission was to go to Tilburg and load some groupage at Mol Logistics before going round the corner and load some cushions for Barcelona, after which it was trog off to the yard and take out some of the groupage and the cushions and replace with some film for Madrid. Off I go heading south along the usual route via Paris nd for once there were no hold ups and I got as far as Meung before parking up for the night.
Saturday strangely enough was more of the same and I was in the house by 23.00

Leaving home at about 05.30 I followed the well worn route past Burgos towards Madrid using the AP1 & A1 stopping for a coffee and tortilla at the restaurant at La Cabrera before continuing the journey south, upon reaching San Augustin de Guadalix I turned on to the M104 and took the short cut to Colmenar Viejo where after rounding the town I reached the Poligono Industrial Sur and soon found the days 1st customer where after a short wait the 27 pallets of plastic film where unloaded and I now headed for address No2 by going down the M607 until it joined with the M40 which I then followed clockwise around Madrid until reaching the A2 which I then followed up past Alcala De Henares until just below Guadalajara where I turned off and followed the usual route through the outskirts to reach the Poligono Industrial Henares where I noticed that a new ring road has been built going around the north side of Guadalajara, reaching the Nestle factory the 1 pallet of concentrated juice is soon unloaded and I head back towards the new ring road having taken the decision to use it and find out where it comes out, it turned out that the ring road was faster even though it was a few kilometres longer and I was soon round Guadalajara and heading back in the general direction of Madrid as far as Coslada where I turned off and wound my way through the maze of streets until I reached the next customer Bofill y Arnan who happened to be at lunch so off I toddled to feed. They opened at 15.30 but the pratt who had to do the unloading paperwork did not turn up until well gone 16.00, the groupage was then unloaded and by 17.15 I was ready to leave but as the last 2 customers would be closed by the time that I got to them I took the decision to stay in Coslada and headed for my favourite bar/restaurant for the evening.
Tuesday morning I left Coslada and headed off around Madrid using the M45 as far as the A3 which I then took heading for Valencia for about 6 kilometres until I reached the turn off for Rivas Vaciamadrid, soon finding the 1st customer and unloading their 6 pallets I then drove about 5 minutes to the last address and their 5 pallets were also soon unloaded. Instructions were received to head towards Valencia and ring before the turn off for Alicante, arriving at the turn off I stopped for a 45 minute break and phoned and the loading address was confirmed as Faura just outside Sagunto so I carried on on the A3 as far as the Valencia ring road where I turned north and after passing Sagunto I arrived at the customers premises in Faura where I was in and loaded with 26 pallets of oranges within an hour. Back out of Faura and around Sagunto I followed the road up towards Teruel where the roadworks to convert the road into a dual-carriageway are proceeding nicely although there is still a long way to go. Driving up past Teruel in a horrendous downpour I was soon through Calamocha and Daroca before turning off at Cariñena I managed to get as far as Magallon before parking up for the night.
Turning right at Magallon as far as the N232 which took me past Tudela before joining the A15 as far as Pamplona where I took the N121a through the hills and when I was about half way along this tight and twisting road I saw an artic that was coming the other way just shoot straight through the crash barrier and leave a great big hole in the trees, stopping I saw the wreck of the vehicle some 60 metres below in the rocky river bed with on fridge left on the trailer chassis and no cabin left on the tractor unit, as all the vehicles that were travelling in the same direction as he was had also stopped and the rescue services had been called there was no point in hanging around or trying to get down the cliff face to the wreck as special equipment would be needed so I returned to my vehicle and continued my journey stopping to refuel just outside Irun before crossing the border in to France and managing to get as far as Labouheyre before having a 45 minute break. Setting off once more Up past Bordeaux and following the A10 up as far as Niort before taking the A84 towards Nantes I managed to get within 35 kms of Nantes before parking up for the night.
Setting off early Thursday morning I was able to Fly around Nantes and Rennes and even managed to get around Caen before the traffic built up. Boarding the boat in itself was no problem apart from the space available for the driver to leave the vehicle when parked, basically the vehicles are that close together that even I had severe problems in getting out of the cabin (Jimbo or Mags would have had no bloody chance). Once I had manouvered myself out of the cabin I went upstairs and complained at length to the appropriate deck officer as I found it to be absolutely ridiculous state of affairs. Arriving Portsmouth we past several ships pertaining to the Royal Navy as we berthed.


The Isle Of Wight comes in to view














Some shots of Portsmouth which show us that the government is holding the navy in a high state of readiness

Exiting Portsmouth harbour was simple and I was soon winging my way along the A27 to my first unloading address in Chichester, after placing the vehicle on the unloading bay I am informed that the amount to be unloaded has changed and that they will be unloading 2 pallets less, I asked what was to happen with the 2 pallets and they said that the next customer would accept them, they now wanted me to remove the vehicle from the unloading bay and I said I would as soon as I had confirmed that it was OK for me to take the 2 pallets to the next customer, You will remove the vehicle now young man I was told, as this was about the 4th time that this idiot had called me young man (he was half my age) I told him to stop taking the piss or he would be waking up elsewhere, after speaking to the boss I was told it was ok to take the 2 pallets to the next customer so I now set off in search of a parking place that did not cost money, I eventually found one near Havant and set about getting 9 hours rest as the next customer did not open till 23.00 and I would have been out of hours by then.
Up at sparrowfart Friday morning I am at the customers in Southampton at 03.00 and the pallets are unloaded except for 3 pallets of Clementines that now had to go the last customer in Bristol, why the pratt organising all this can´t be bothered to phone either myself or my boss to inform us of all these changes is beyond me. Out of Southampton I took the M3 up as far as Winchester before turning on to the A34 towards Newbury where I turned on to the M4 and made my way to Bristol where I was soon unloaded, contact with chaos control revealed that I was to head for Dover so off I set back along the M4 suffering once again the multitude of roadworks and having a 45 on the way I had a smooth run round on the M25, M26 & M20 to Dover where I was able to drive straight on to the Norfolk Line to Dunkerque without waiting, arriving in Dunkerque it was a case of winding along a new diversion to the motorway where I headed towards Belgium when instructions arrived to load 4 pallets near Hasselt, replying that it would have to be tomorrow as my hours were nearly up arrangements were made for me to load the next day, I eventually parked up for the night just before Gent.
Saturday morning I rounded Brussels and took the motorway towards Liege as far as Leuven where I then headed towards Genk as far as Lummen where once again I headed towards Liege and just past Hasselt I took the exit for Bilzen and arrived at the loading address just before 08.00, within 10 minutes the 4 pallets of cheese were loaded and I was on my way to the next address at Hazeldonk, back along the same motorway it was really pissing it down and there were several accidents with cars aquaplaning (usually big Mercs and BMW´s)


Just one of many that lost control in the rain in Belgium, funny how they were all high powered expensive cars

in Antwerp I headed for Breda and soon arrived in Hazeldonk where after a bit of a wait 4 pallets of groupage were loaded and I made my way back to the yard where verything was unloaded and I dropped off the trailer before filling up with AD Blue and picking up another trailer which is loaded for Lisbon, setting of once more I passed Bergen Op Zoom, Antwerp, Gent and Lille with no hold ups at all and for a change I was able to reach the service area at Vemars just before Paris with 4 1/2 hours where I then parked up for my 24 hours off.
Once the obligatory rest period had been completed I was off crossing Paris without too many problems despite the presence of scores of Sunday drivers still heading for home, taking the RN20 up as far as Artenay where I joined the A10 motorway and passing Orleans and Tours I had 45 minutes off at Jaunay Clan before turning off the A10 at Poitiers Sud to get on the RN10 which I followed past Angouleme to Bordeaux where I flew around the ring road and headed south towards Spain before deciding to call it a day at Lebouheyre.
Monday afternoon after passing Biarritz and Bayonne I cross the border in to Spain and pass San Sebastian and Vitoria where I had a 45 minute break before continuing on to Briviesca where I refuelled. Once past Burgos I followed the national road to Valladolid where I took the ring road round to the west until I reached the San Cristobal industrial area where I parked up for the night.
Tuesday morning the fun starts as I try to unload 1 pallets at Cadburys in Valladolid, it took me 3 attempts to even be allowed on to the premises and unload the bloody pallet, there is something in the Spanish mentality about not wanting to understand the 1 pallet bit, as you have an artic you can wait although smaller vehicles with 5 or 6 pallets can enter and unload immediately, once they get around to unloading you the comment is usually oh ! only 1 pallet ? which is when I usually do my nut telling the pratts that that is what I have been telling them for the last 2 hours. All done I head back out of Valladolid with vision severely impaired by the thick fog I aim for Salamanca where I follow the new ring road around the town and receive the pleasant surprise that a good part of the old N620 has been converted to dual carriageway until about 20 kilometres from the Portuguese border, just before the border I have a quick break before crossing. Entering Portugal the fog clears a bit but it still remains too hazy for taking fotos as I follow the motorway until just before Guarda where I turn on to the new motorway which cuts through towards Lisbon passing Castelo Branco and joining the A1 near Santarem, although this new motorway is a vast improvement on the old road that winds its way through these hills I certainly don´t want to have to haul a full load over it as some of the climbs and descents seem to be never ending, fortunately my load only weighs 5 tons so the DAF has no problem in negotiating these natural obstacles. Following the A1 towards Lisbon I have another 45 near Vila Franca de Xira before beginning my assault on the Lisbon rush hour traffic. The Portuguese mentality was never sufficiently prepared for driving motor vehicles and coupling this with the fog and the fact that it was beginning to get dark fun was pre-programmed as I wove my way around the city and eventually found the badly signed entrance to the area of the port that I needed, a tad more detective work and I actually managed to find a cruise boat terminal only for Murphy´s law to decree that it was the wrong one, luckily the one that I wanted was only about a kilometre away and I parked up for the night to await the arrival of The Crystal Serenity the next morning.

Wednesday I awoke to the sound of several thousand horsepower berthing not far away and knew that the boat had arrived. Soon after the agent turned up and I could enter the security compound although I had to wait a bit to be unloaded and for the Portuguese customs to do their thing I was empty and away by 13.00, as I negotiated my way out of the docks area the heavens opened to a downpour the likes of which I have seldom seen and once more any foto taking was severly impeded as I went over the old bridge heading south towards the Algarve. Just short of Faro I stopped for a break and the rain was still pouring down. Entering Spain at the border near Ayamonte and passing Huelva I made my way towards Sevilla and parked up for the night to await further instructions.


Crystal Serenity in Lisboa


The old bridge across the river


As said it was pissing down all day


A quick shot of Lisboa between showers

Once I received the instructions I made my way around the top of Sevilla with the rain still pouring down and soon found the small village where I was to be loading called Villanueva del Rio not far from the Rio Guadalviver only to be told that I would not be loaded until the evening. Come evening and I am told there will be a further delay as the machinery has broken down and I eventually leave there at 23.30 and drive along the national road to Cordoba before joining the A4 heading towards Madrid getting as far as Valdepeñas before saying bollocks to it and going to bed.
Friday at about midday I wake up and make some coffee and at 13.30 I hit the road once more still heading towards Madrid on the A4, Rounding Madrid with no problems I am soon on the A1 and have a 45 minute break just before Aranda de Duero before continuing up past Burgos and heading for home.
Leaving home Saturday evening there were no problems at all as I drove across the French border and up past Biarritz and Bayonne managing to get within 20 kilometres of Bordeaux before parking up for the night.
Waking up Sunday morning to pouring rain I drove up past Bordeaux and then followed the RN10 up past Angouleme as far as Poitiers before rejoining the A10 and taking a 45 minute break at Chatellerault before continuing up past Tours and Orleans and turning off on to the RN20 at Artenay which I then followed as far as the A104 where I had another break before tackling Paris. Getting through Paris went quite smoothly and I was soon winging it up the A1 and got as far as the Belgian border at Rekkum where I parked up for the night.
Monday morning it was still pissing it down as I got my Eurovignette and started the journey through Belgium, after about 30 minutes everything ground to a halt for no apparent reason, eventually passing Gent and Antwerp proved to be no problem I passed the Dutch border and carried on up past Breda and Dordrecht to Barendrecht where I was to unload, I soon found the address and reported for unloading only to be told that would be a long wait, this was at 11.00, at 14.30 I am told that I can now unload, upon opening the trailer I discover that I have had visitors during the night and 11 boxes of Oranges have disappeared, by 16.00 the trailer is empty and I drive back to the yard to change trailers and fill up with Ad Blue. Leaving the yard once more it was back down the same route past Antwerp and Lille getting as far as Vemars just north of Paris before parking up for the night.
At least on Tuesday morning it was not raining for a change and the battle of Paris was not too bad as I made way through using a combination of the A3, Peripherique and A6a to get me on to the RN20 towards Orleans only took an hour, up past Orleans and Tours I had a 45 once again at Chatellerault before turning off at Poitiers and running back down the RN10 and around Brdeaux before having another 45 at Muret where it started raining again as I carried on down towards Spain eventually parking up for the night just north of Bayonne.
Crossing the Spanish border Wednesday morning I took the N121a up towards Pamplona and then followed the A15 down as far as Castejon where I then took the National road past Cintruenigo before stopping for breakfast at Vilaverde, continuing on through Agreda and passing Almazan without problems there was a short hold up just before Medinaceli where a Spaniard had missed the road and was parked in the field on his side,



joining th A2 I drove down past Guadalajara and wound my way in to Coslada where 2 pallets of groupage were soon unloaded. Rounding Madrid on the M40 as the A6 which I then followed for a short distance I turned of at Las Rozas and soon found the next delivery address, here I was told that they had to find a forklift to borrow in order to unload the Jacuzzi so in the mean time I went to a nearby restaurant and had some dinner, some 3 hours later they had managed to borrow a forklift and the jacuzzi was unloaded, now I drove back to the M40 and followed it towards the north before turning on to the A1 and immediately turning off again at Alcobendas where headed for the industrial estate and parked up outside the next unoading address for the night and walked down to the nearby bar to watch the football.
Thursday morning once the customer decided to open at 09.30 I unloaded 21 pallets of boat engines and then set off to negotiate my way around Madrid, I noticed that there was less traffic than usual so I took the decision to go straight through the middle on the M30 and see how the eternal roadworks are getting on, I was pleasantly surprised as there was only a few hundred yards of works and absolutely no hold ups and I was soon through the other side and heading south on the A4 stopping to refuel and at the BPin Guarroman I then drove down the road to the Andamur for a meal. Suitably refreshed I took the motorway down towards Granada passing Jaen, just before Granada I turned once more towards Sevilla and just before Antequera I turned off towards Malaga and after the 2 motorways converged the long descent towards Malaga began which brought me on to the ringroad which I followed round towards Torremolinos as far as the turn off for the airport where I followed the road into the Industrial area and soon found the next customer where 5 hydraulic rams were unloaded just in time for me to participate in the evening Malaga rat race with it´s long traffic jams. Once around Malaga I continued along the coast Passing Torres De Mar where I turned off and had my evening meal in a restaurant inside the Shopping Centre just outside the town, I set off for last stage of the journey passing Nerja and I eventually parked up for the night just outside Motril.
Friday morning and I continue along the coast road towards Murcia passing Almeria as far as the turn off for Antas where I turned straight on to the industrial area next to the junction and unloaded two whirl pools, the amazing thing about this industrial estate is that every second company is bloody English and as typical arrogant Brits in a foreign country they can´t even be bothered to have their premises signed up in Spanish. Now it was back along the coast to El Ejido where I parked up to have my 24 hours off. This 24 hours is starting to get up my nose, I could have loaded this afternoon and driven back to Guarroman and then driven home Saturday and had my 24 hours off at home instead of sitting here in El Ejido at the dump that masquerades as a truckstop.
By 13.00 Saturday the 24 hours are up and I drive to Dalias where I load 10 pallets of green peppers before setting off for Vicar where after an hours wait I am loaded with another 16 pallets of peppers and meet up with a Spanish driver that I met more than a year ago in Livorno. Back along the coast past Almeria and tunring off towards Guadix I followed the usual route back up to Guarroman and stopped at the Andamur for a meal. I managed to get past Madrid and parked up close to the Somosierra and went to sleep.
Waking up Sunday morning I noticed that the road had been salted so it must have been cold last night, further proof of this was supplied by the sight of a Spanish artic that had slipped off the road just past the crest. Up past Burgos and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the north bound side of the new dual carriageway just before Vitoria has been opened for use and the southbound stretch will also soon be open, I stopped at the andamur at Araia for a meal before filling up at the BP at the bottom of the Etxegarrate and crossing the border in to France where passing the usual places I had a 45 minute break at Cestas before continuing past Bordeaux and travelling up the RN10 I got as far as Poitiers before parking up for the night.
Leaving Poitiers Monday morning I followed the A10 to just north of Tours where I turned on to the A28 and head up past Le Mans and Alencon and approach Caen from the other side this time. I was on the waiting list for the 23.45 sailing but managed to get on the 17.30 boat and was in Portsmouth and parked up near Havant by 23.30.
Arriving at the customers on Tangmere Airfield I was pleased to see that I was the only vehicle on the premises so I was soon unloaded and heading for Dover via the A24 and M23, M25, M26 and M20, once again lady luck smiled on me and I was straight on a Norfolk Line sailing for Dunkerque, once on the other side I receive instructions to load near Kortrijk so I head towards Lille and then turn off and cross the Belgian border near Ypres and soon arrive in Kortrijk where after a short waiting period I am loaded with deep freeze. As I head for Gent on the motorway I hear on the radio that Operation Stack has been implemented because of a strike in Calais so it seems that I got out of the UK just in time, continuing up past Antwerp I turn right just before Breda and follow the motorway towards Utrecht before turning off for Dongen and driving around the town soon arrived at the industrial area and was immediately unloaded. With the trailer now empty I drove to Tilburg where I was supposed to be loading in the morning and parked up for the night.

Reporting to load Wednesday morning I am told that the load is still on its way from the UK and is held up by the strike in Calais. Having been told to head for theyard I drive back past Breda and drop the trailer in the yard before going to the trailer repair company in Roosendaal to pick up a tautliner that has been repaired, now I head for the truckwash and get the whole thing washed before heading back for the yard. When I get back to the yard I am told that due to half of the load for Madrid still being in England I could drop the trailer that I had washed and pick up the dirty one that I had left this morning and go to Weert to pick up a complete load for Madrid. Off past Breda again and Eindhoven I arrive in Weert to be told that there is a delay so I settle down for the wait. Eventually loaded I head Towards Liege via Maastricht before following the motorway past Namur and Mons crossing the French border at Valenciennes I get as far as Ressons where I park up for the night.
Leaving Ressons I was impressed that I managed to get through Paris with no major hold ups and I took the usual route along the RN20 and the A10 passing Orleans, Tours, Poitiers and then taking the RN10 past Angouleme and around Bordeaux and managed to get as far as Bayonne before parking up for the night once again.
Away from Bayonne early in the morning I crossed the Spanish border and turned on to the N121a and managed to pass Pamplona before the traffic started, following the A15 down as far as Castejon I took the national road past Cintruenigo and stopped for breakfast at Villaverde before continuing on through Agreda and past Almazan till Medinacelli where I turned on to the A2 towards Madrid passing Guadalajara, turning off at Coslada and heading for the Transport Centre I soon found TDN where I was to be unloaded and mush to my surprise even though it was lunchtime I was unloaded and away witin 30 minutes. Seeting off once again I rounded Madrid using the M45 before turning on to the A3 towards Valencia after about 30 minutes I stopped for lunch before carrying on towards the coast eventually stopping for the night at Requena.
After a long nights rest I left Requena at about 09.00 and after rounding Valencia and passing Sagunto and Nules I was in Burriana by 11.00 and by 13.00 I was loaded and on my way north, apart from a slight deviation to cut off the corner near Xiva I followed the usual route up past Teruel and Pamplona and stopped for the night at Sumbilla between Pamplona and Irun for the night where a good evening meal with a few colleagues lasted until the early hours.
Up late Sunday morning the dirst task was to make some coffee and clear the head before heading for Irun to get some more money and do a bit of shopping before entering enemy territory, once again the usual route was followed up past Bayonne and Bordeaux and had a break at Barbezieux before continuing the journey north with the fridge clattering away behind me, up past Poitiers and Tours and another break was had at Blois. Up past Orleans and on to the RN20 at Artenay I parked up for the night just before Paris.

Leaving it as late as possible before attacking Paris unfortunately it was still completely gridlocked at 10.00 the A104 had an accident on it and the A86 was at a standstill, leaving me with no option but to head for the peripherique which was also at a complete standstill




but at least it is shorter thus less kilometers of stress, eventually passing the Parisienne shitehole I head north on the A1 with a short stop at Wancourt to get a Eurovignette I am soon past Lille and in to Belgium where I stop just before Gent for a meal. Continuing the journey I get through with Antwerp with no problems and just after crossing the Dutch border I turn right towards Eindhoven for a few kilometers before tunrning left towards Utrecht as far as the A59 which I then turn on to going past Waalwijk as far as s´Hertogenbosch where once again I head towards Utrecht for 2 junctions where I turn round and head back the way I came to reach the service area to park up for the night, this leaves me about 500 metres form the turn off that I need in the morning.
Up early Tuesday morning I take the turn off for Hedel and five minutes later I am unloading the oranges and half an hour later I am back on the rest area waiting for further instructions.


saw this one at Hedel Scania XXL Conventional

By lunchtime the instructions arrive and off I set for Uden where upon arriving at the loading address no one knows sod all about it, after a couple of phone calls I am eventually loaded with 7 small boxes and start making my way towards and around Eindhoven when the phone goes and I am told to go to Tilburg and drop off the seven boxes and then reload a complete load of Land Rover sunroofs for Rugby. Within 30 minutes of arriving at the customers premises I am on my way heading past Breda to Antwerp in severe rain fall when the traffic grinds to a halt so I divert through the Liefkenshoek Tunnel and apart from a short hold up I am soon having my evening meal near St Niklaas in Belgium. Setting off once in a torrential downpour I turn right towards Oostende at Gent and then follow the motorway over the French border and park up just past before Calais at the Transmark, the reasons for this are because of the severe weather conditions and gales there are boat delays and the French are diverting the trucks to a holding area in Dunes where I have no intention of going.
At sparrowfart I creep out of Transmark and quickly pass all the waiting trucks as they appear to have given up and got their heads down and I drive straight in to the docks pass through the immigrant checks and head for the P&O ticket booths where it does not surprise me that I have not been booked on by the customer so after passing the passport controls I go to the main freight office where after a severe amount of waffle I am given a ticket for the boat, a wait of 2 hours and I board 07.20 Pride of Canterbury and we set sail for the UK with the decks heaving underfoot. Entering the drivers restaurant the opportunity arises to ruin someones breakfast as I see muppetdriver sitting at a table and go and join him. Dover is reached and I join the endless queue of trucks trying to leave the docks eventually wacky races starts as I storm up the hill towards the M20 and by Folkstone I have caught up with Muppetdriver and his Swedish Shite Bucket, hitting the M25 I join the queue for the Dartford Tunnel before heading around to join the M1 which I follow up as far as the M45 which I then follow to the end and carry on over 1 more roundabout then take the next turn off and follow the signs for the industrial area, once again I am in and out within half an hour and head back to Watford Gap for a bite to eat. Now instructions arrive to load in West Thurrock so off I set back down the M1 and along the M25 and soon find the loading address at the back of the Lakeside shopping complex, upon reporting to load I am told it will be tomorrow so I settle down for the night.
Thursday morning they try to convince me that I will not be loaded until 14.00 but after a bit of waffle I am loaded and on my way by 11.00,


Dartford Bridge

as once again Operation Stack is complicating life arrangements are made to use the Eurotunnel and so I make my way to France by train and on leaving the terminal head down the coast past Boulougne and follow the motorway past Amiens and through Rouen as far as Le Mans where I head off towards Tours and join the A10 as far as Poitiers where I go on to the RN10 and park up at Vivonne for the night.
It is once again pissing it down as I follow the usual route down to Spain but after crossing the border the weather brightens up,


obviously someone is pleased to see me as I head home for the weekend.

Leaving reasonably early on Monday morning I headed towards Bilbao and then took the A8 out towards Santander as far as where the N634 branched off towards Torrelavega, once past Torrelavega the dual carraigeway began once more and I headed further along the coast, although the road is now nearly all dual carraigeway a few stretches are still being worked on and eventually after passing Gijon and Aviles I reached the town of Navia where I turned in to the hills to a small village called Anleo and duly unloaded the drums of whatever before retiring to a nearby restaurant to await further instructions, none came so I settled down for the night.
By 11.00 the next morning instructions have arrived to return to the same factory and load for Sweden, duly done I set off back along the coast stopping for a 45 minute break just before Santander and then continuing up past Bilbao and San Sebastian to Irun where after filling up with diesel I crossed the border in to France and managed to get nearly as far as Brdeaux before parking up for the night.
Wednesday was spent following the usual well worn route north and Paris was passed with no major problems and I stopped at Wancourt to get a Eurovignette before attacking Lille which has just introduced a new lorry ban for traffic going from south to north, knowing damn well that their diversion is quite a long one I took my own route and was soon passing the border and entering Belgium and parked up for the night about 20 minutes over the border.
Thursday I slipped around Antwerp just as the traffic was building up and soon arrived in the yard where I dropped off the trailer and picked up another one before heading off to the truckwash at Roosendaal. Once clean I headed for Rotterdam and was soon loaded with 4 pallets of deep frozen meat abd then headed back round the other side of Rotterdam to Hoogvliet where a further 22 pallets were eventually loaded after a certain amount of hooha and I couldnow head out past Utrecht and was so pleased to bale to partake in the evening ritual of passing the place at crawling speed before heading up past Zwolle and Hoogeveen and crossed the border in to Germany and parked up at Haselunne for the night where I enjoyed a good evening meal and settled down for the night.
Having been told the day before that I had to be in Hamburg as close to 08.00 as possible it was up at sparrowfart grab the maut ticket and by 05.00 I am storming up the A1 with all sails to the wind passing Bremen before following the A7 in towards Hamburg as far as the turn off for Waltershof where I also did the customs formalities and I rolled in to the company where the boat was being refitted at 08.30. Eventually after a lengthy manhunt I manage to find someone who knows something and am promptly informed that was not supposed to arrive until 18.00, great fun, fantastic, typical Dutch efficiency, as you can imagine where ever you park the truck it is in someone´s way and the day passed with the vehicle being moved several times, as customs had been completed leaving the docks was also not an option and the day passed slowly and turned in to evening when all of a sudden the pace sprang to life and with usual teutonic efficiency the trailer was soon unloaded the paperwork signed and by 20.00 I was empty and could now head around the dock area to the other side where I was to load for Spijkenisse this also took it´s time and at midnight I was eventually loaded and was told that I could now go and do customs to which I repled no chance mate I am going to sleep and promptly pulled the curtains.
Saturday morning I was back in to Waltershof and after a long wait in third world like conditions I eventually had the necessary documents in my hand and could start heading back along the same route towards Holland and am rounding Rotterdam just as afternoon turns in to evening and arrive at the unloading address to discover that they only want to unload 3 of the pallets that I have loaded and that I must take the rest to Antwerp and unload alongside the boat tonight. Having spoken to our office several times today I wonder why no one has bothered to tell me the change in plans and attempt to contact them by phone by get no joy after nearly an hour of trying I give up and head towards Antwerp and just before I cross the border in to Belgian the phone rings and our planner confirms that I can unload in Antwerp tonight. Wrong arriving at the boat at 22.00 I am politely told to piss off and come back tomorrow, Dutch efficiency and planning is doing well this week thinks I as I settle down for the night.
Sunday dawns and as I try to enter the docks area the Belgians will not allow me in saying that they have not been notified that I will be arriving, eventually after pointing out to this moron that I was allowed in last night so why should today be different I was allowed in and could unload alongside a container ship,


Container Boat Antwerp


These damn things go bloody fast

once empty it was back out to the Total garage and try to complete the 24 hour "rest period" and complete a trailer change as well. I eventually left at 23.00 and being night time I was through Antwerp like a flash with no valid Eurovignette and soon crossed the border in to France where I had a 45 minute break at Ressons before flying through Paris and eventually parking up for a sleep at Blois.
Monday afternoon and I am once more heading south along the usual route and crossing the border at Irun and after filling up with diesel I got as far as Briviesca where once more I parked up.
Tuesday is a simple case of honking down the A1 over the Somosierra around Madrid using the M40 & M45 before heading out on the A3 as far as Rivas-Vaciamadrid where I am unloaded so quickly that I nearly fall over with surprise. Instructions are received to start heading towards Valencia as I do so I have a 45 minute break for a coffee about 30 minutes down the road and shortly after the complete loading address arrives and I head down the A3 before turning off towards Alicante and after passing Albaceta and Almansa I park up for the night near Canals.
Waking up to a cold morning I head up the hill towards Ontiniente as it begins to snow quite heavily and I am pleased as I pull in to the town of Ayelo de Malferit and soon find the loading address, after a fair bit of buggering about I am loaded with glassware by 12.00 and head back down the hill and out towards Valencia where after following the motorway round Valencia I follow the usual route up over Teruel and along past Ricla and Pamplona and eventually park up in Sumbilla for the night.
Thursday is another bloody cold morning as I fill up near Irun before crossing the border and entering enemy territory the thermometer is marking -5 between Bayonne and Bordeaux accompanied by a hazy fog that was to hang around for the whole day as once again I followed the usual route up as far as Artenay where I turned on to the RN20 and drove as far as the restaurant at Mondesir where I settled to down to wait for the trailer that was being brought from Holland.
The trailer arrived at the ungodly hour of 03.00 and as the 9 hours rest had been completed I set off south back along the same route as taken yesterday and apart from a Frenchan who had missed the road



Frenchman missed the bend betwen Barbiezieux and Bordeaux

and a slight hold up on the Bordeaux ring road I once again reached the Spanish border with no problems and once past San Sebastian I took the turn off for Hernani and passed around the town till I reached the paper mill where the 1 box weighing 500 kilos was soon unloaded and I just managed to get back to the motorway before running out of hours so ended up parking up again 1 1/2 hours from home.

Leaving home Tuesday morning with instructions to be in Santander by 08.00 I head past Bilbao and along the Atlantic coast till just before Santander where I turned on to the industrial estate at Maliano and duly arrived at the customers premises at 07.55 only to be greeted with "your load is not ready yet" so I settled down to wait, at 12.30 I was called in to load 5 boat screws and proceeded to slide the roof open, the screws were loaded and secured and I headed back along the coast passing Bilbao and I turned off the motorway at Amorebieta and started the climb in to the hills to Gernika. Upon arriving in Gernika I soon found the loading address and the fun and games involved in getting a 3 meter long container that is nearly as wide and as high as the trailer itself and weighing 6 tons began, after about 90 minutes of buggering about we eventually had the damn thing in and the trailer closed. Now it was a case of back down the hill to Amorebieta and turn left on the national as far as Durango where I cut through the outskirts of the town and soon arrived at the last customers premises in Abadiano where I loaded 10 pallets, it turned out that the pallets were destined for somwhere in deepest darkest France. Back on to the motorway and passing San Sebastian I crossed in to France and parked up about an hour later as the hours were up and settled down to find out where this place called Myennes is in France.
Wednesday morning was a damp miserable day (France) and I coasted up past Bordeaux and along the RN10 as far as Angouleme where I then turned off towards Limoges, my original plan was thento slant off and head for Gueret but after seeing the signs warning of extensive roadworks I decided to carry on via Limoges and join the A20 which I then followed as far as Chatearoux where I turned off the motoway and followed the national roads through Issoudun and around Bourges before turning on to the D955 which I then followed and crossed the Loire river at Cosne Cours sur Loire and turned left and just on the outskirts of the town I found the village of Myennes and soon found the unloading address rolling on to there premises just as they were closing, a coule ofminutes of intense waffle later they decided to unload the 10 pallets before going home, once tipped I settled down for a 45 minute break before heading out towards the A71 which I followed until it joined with the A6 southof Paris and parked up for the night at the 1st service area that I came to.
Up early Thursday saw me through Paris before the shit started and stopped for a 45 and to buy a vignette at Wancourt. Now that going through the middle of Lille is prohibited I headed towards Dunkerque as far as exit 6 and followed the northern ring road round Lille and rejoined the usual route just south of the Belgian border, once in Belgium the instructions started to arrive and they want the boats screws unloaded 1st, telling them that it would be impossible as there would not be enough space between the open roof and the container to crane the screws out I am told to go and try "bollox" and a short argument later we decide to do things my way. So passing through Antwerp and turning right just before Breda I pass s´Hertogenbosch and Uden before rounding Arnhem andmakig my way across country to Winterswijk where once the address has been found the container is soon unloaded (a lot easier than I expected). Back as far as Arnhem where I park up for the night as the hours are done for. The instructions now arrived for the next day.
I was at the 1st loading address in Wijchen near Nijmegen at 08.00 but once again the goods are not ready so I have to wait, eventually loaded I head for the next customer in Tiel where I have to load a motorbike fortunately this takes about 10 minutes and I am soon back on the road on my way to get rid of these boat screws, arriving at the factory at 11.30 no one knows who has oredred them or where they are going to put them so I have to wait until after lunch, good use was made of the on site catering facilities. After lunch they appeared to get their fingers out and I was soon under a crane and the screws were out so now I headed back to the yard. After swapping trailers and loading the trailer I now head off back down through Belgium and manage to get as far as Senlis before parking up for the night.
Saturday I had a nice quiet run through Paris and down past Orleans and Tours before turning on to the RN10 and taking the usual route down past Angouleme, Bordeaux and Biarritz and arriving with at the 1st parking area in Spain with 5 minutes left on the tacho only to find the damn thing full at 18.45 because they have decided to dig half of it up, faced with no other alternative than to carry on past San Sebastian and go for the next service area where I was lucky enough to find a space and park up for the night.
An hour and a quarter down the road Sunday morning and in the door to HM.
Saw this while waiting in Holland 500bhp and all the shiny bits





Leaving the witches lair early Monday morning I dropped down past Burgos on the A1 as far as kilometer point 50 where I turned off and cut across towards Guadaljara and then dropped down again to Azuqueca de Henares where I unloaded the first 11 pallets with no hold ups. Carrying towards Madrid I rounded the city using the M40 & M45 before turning off on to the A4 until just past Valdemoro where I had my second drop at a supermarket RDC as usual this did take a bit of time but eventually the 12 pallets of sandwhich bags were unloaded and I could continue my journey south stopping to fill up at Guarroman I decided that the night would also be spent here.
Tuesday morning I carried on south past Jaen before changing motorways near Granada and headibg for Malaga, just after Malaga it was time for a 45 minute break before carrying on to Algeciras where after completing the formalities for entering the port area I was able to get the first customer off before they went to dinner, after eating I went across to the other side of the port to the Maersk container terminal and unloaded 2 pallets of paint. Heading back round Malaga I followed the coast road towards Almeria and parked up for the night with a nice view of the moon hanging above the sea.
Wednesday morning I was away at 07.00 and arrived at the last address in El Ejido just as they opened and the last 2 pallets were soon unloaded and I went about 5 minutes down the road for breakfast while awaiting further instructions. Eventually I was told to go to the DAF garage at Almeria to get the brakes on the middle axle of the trailer fixed this took until about 16.00 and once done I went 1st to Dalias and loaded 12 pallets of green peppers and then to Vicar to load another 14 pallets and then I was told to go back to the DAF and pick up one of our drivers and take him home to Totana near Murcia, once the plebiscite has been loaded I head out past Almeria and along the coast past Puerto Mazarron and Lorca and arrived in Totana at 23.00 where I got rid of the moron and parked up for the night.
Thursday was quite an easy run as it was quite foggy I decided to stay on the dual carriageways and go via Madrid rather than cut across country on the nationals, the time difference is negligible although it is a few kilometers further, once past Madrid the fog cleared so I headed up the A2 past Guadalajara as far as Medinacelli and cut across country through Agreda and Cintruenigo and managed to just get past Pamplona before parking for the night and enjoying an excellent evening meal for 11 euros.
Setting off Friday morning I filled up with diesel near Irun before crossing the border in to France and driving up past Bordeaux, Angouleme and Poitiers as far as Tours where I turned off towards Le Mans, the boss phoned and said that I was booked on the boat from Caen that same night and did not sound too happy when told that the boat would be going without me as after having to go via Murcia there was no way that I was going to make it and with a digital tacho there was sod all that I could about it. I managed to get just south of Argenton before parking up for the night.
Up at sparrowfart on Saturday morning I was Caen port just before 07.00 and was one of the 1st on the boat and set about having breakfat, shower and a kip as the boat rocked it´s way across towards England in somewhat stormy weather. I knew that things were bad in the UK from listening to the news on Talk Sport so I was quite surprised that when I arrived in Portsmouth the sun was shining (someone had obviously told the weather gods that I was on my way), off the boat and head towards Brighton on the A27 and I was soon at the customers premises in Tangmereand within 45 minutes the trailer was empty, contact with chaos control in Holland and it was decided that I would be having my 24 hours off in England as there was no chance of me spending 24 hours sitting on a lunar landscape in Dunkerque, heading up on the M23 I turned on to the M25 as far as junction 8 and headed for a layby near Banstead where I was picked up by Iain and we enjoyed a good meal and a couple of pints down the pub.
Sunday as it turns out was my 50th birthday and the only thing that riuned it was that Man United failed to beat the bloody gooners but never mind thanks to Iains generous hospitality an enjoyable birthday was spent thanks Mate.
Monday morning well before sparrowfart I am heading towards Dover and get the 02.30 boat to Dunkerque which was late so any hope of getting past Antwerp before the shit started were already dashed so I decided to stop for an hours sleep at Gent and give the traffic a chance to sort itself out before heading in to the truck wash in Roosendaal and giving the DAF a bath before heading to the yard. After several hours of hanging around I am eventually told that nothing else will be happening today, great they always come out with this one when it is too late to arrange to go and see Jennifer.
Tuesday was also spent scratching my arse but at least I managed to see Jennifer before heading south under cover of darkness and after a 45 just before Paris the fun starts as half of the roads around Paris are closed for maintenance and it is obviously far too much effort to expect the daft bloody kermits to put this information on the overhead panels, eventually I work my way through the chaos and head down past Orleans, noticing that the overhead panels are informing drivers that the A71 to Clermont Ferrand is closed to HGV´s and that the A20 from Vierzon towards Toulouse is also completely closed, I think one can safeley assume that winter has arrived and that the white stuff has caused chaos once again, after several attempts I eventually find a parking slot just north of Tours at 05.00 and dive into me pit.
Wednesday before setting off I am listening to the French and Spanish radios and it seems that the centre of France has been thrown in to chaos by the snow and that the A15 between San Sebastian and Pamplona is also blocked. But I still managed to get home without any problems.
Leaving home on the Thursday morning it was snowing once again



and as I climbed up towards Miranda de Ebro it got worse as I then headed towards Burgos,



just before the Somosierra the Guardia Civil were parking up all goods vehicles due to the snow so as to give the snow ploughs a chance to clear the climb



and after about two hours we were allowed to continue our Journey but the delay meant that I was now too late in Coslada.
Friday morning and as our agent opens I am straight on the bay and the 8 pallets are soon unloaded and I head off along the A2 as far as Alcala de Henares where after a two hour wait I was finally unloaded and received instructions to head towards Valencia. Rounding Madrid and following the A3 it was an uneventful journey until just before Requena where once again all goods vehicles were being parked up by the Guardia Civil and once again we settled down to a wait of several hours, apparently this time it was due to the fact that the snowploughs could not grit the long downhill viaduct because of the ice (why don´t they reverse down the bugger then ?). Evebtually we are allowed to continue the journey but we are diverted on to the old N3 before the viaduct and and rejoin the A3 on the other side where there is not a flake of snow to be seen, carrying on towards and round Valencia and Sagunto I arrive in Burriana at about 22.00.

Saturday at 08.00 they start loading the oranges and by 09.00 I am on my way north but before I get to Teruel the phone rings and the office asks if I can find somewhere that sells methanol as one of our Dutch drivers is stuck in Calamocha with frozen brakes so I divert into Teruel and stop at the Scania garage and manage to buy the only bottle of methanol that they have left, apparently during the night the temperature had dropped to -16 degrees celsius and even now at 10.00 it was still -5.







Arriving in Calamocha we soon had the dutchmans brakes working again and I continued the journey north following the usual route and managed to get as far as Bordeaux before parking up for the night.
Sunday was a nice quiet run through France and past Paris and I parked up just over the border in Belgium for the night.
After unloading In Hedel Monday morning I ran back to the yard empty and had 24 hours off.
Tuesday was a case of running up to Rotterdam amd loading 24 big bags and setting off on the journey south once again managing to get nearly to Tours before parking up.
Wednesday was another uneventful day and crossing the border in to Spain and following the N1 up past Vitoria I parked up in Briviesca for the night where there was still quite a lot of snow lying around.
Setting off Thursday morning I went around Burgos before following the new dual-carriageway out past Leon and joining the A6 at Algorta, stopping for a 45 minute break just north of Ponferrada I then continued on to La Coruña and soon found the unloading address where to my surprise I was unloaded immediately despite being a day early. Now I had to head for a place called El Ferrol and load 2 items for Holland and I was told that they only loaded vehicles until 14.00 but as it is always worth a try I went to see if I could be loaded and arriving there at 17.00 I was loaded and gone by 19.00 and drove the last 90 minutes that I had left before parking up for the night.
An enjoyable and quiet drive Friday along the Atlantic coast past Aviles, Gijon and Santander had me home for just after lunch.
Leaving home on Monday morning I drove back along the A8 to just past San Sebastian where I turned off on to the N1 and soon found the unloading address in Lezo where after a short wait the 28 pallets of beef extract were soon unloaded and I could now make my way back through San Sebastian and follow the A1 up the Etxegarrate pass towards Vitoria as far as Araia where I had 1 pallet of cocoa powder to unload at the ice cream factory before filling up at the ADS service area, then I went across the road and had breakfast at the Andamur truckstop. Suitably fortified I now headed towards Pamplona and was sson unloading the last 5 pallets on the Augistinos Industrial area, contact with nerve control centre informed me that they wanted me to head towards Barcelona so I duly drove off down the A15 before turning on to the N232 near Tudela and made my way past Zaragoza where I joined the A2 and after passing Lleida I found a parking spot in a village some 80 km´s before Barcelona where I had my evening meal and settled down for the night.
Up at 8 I was soon mixing it with the rush hour traffic heading for Barcelona as I turned off of the motorway and made my way towards the town centre on the Avenida Diagonal as far as the Plaza D´España which is where the main exhibition centre is,



Heading in to Barcelona on the Avenida Diagonal



Turned right here to enter exhibition centre





Waiting to load at Barcelona Exhibition Centre





Couple of shots of Barcelona from the top



Plaza de España



Leaving Exhibition Centre

fortunately someone had had the sense to put people near the entrance in order to direct the lorries to their respective points of loading so I was sson outside hall 6 which was still deserted so I settled down for the wait and spent some of the time taking a couple of fotos. Eventually someone arrives and the 13 pallets are soon loaded and I head off round Barcelona on the A7 as far as the turn off for Santa Perpetua de Mogoda where I turned off and headed for the Pol Ind Urvasa and reported in at my last loading address to be told that the goods had not yet arrived and that I would have a wait of about 4 hours, I now wandered off to a nearby restaurant and had dinner. By 17.00 the goods have arrived and I am heading north on the AP7 and as I get to Girona the motorway is closed because of an accident and we all have to divert on to the NII, at Villamalla I fill up with diesel and then head off to La Junquera for the evening meal before crossing the border in to France, turning left just before Narbonne I manage to get to within 50 km´s of Toulouse before parking up for the night.
Wednesday morning I have an uneventful run around Toulouse and soon reach the junction for the A20 where I turn off and follow the A20 until just past Limoges where I take the N147 towards Poitiers, as the load only weighs 6 tons I have been flying up the hills and joining the A10 at Poitiers I am soon rounding Tours and stop for my 2nd 45 minute break at Le Mans where I realise that I have made much better time than expected and that I will only be about 15 minutes short of Caen when my hours run out, I decided to go for it as I had no desire to park up for the night that close to a port and with 13 pallets with Motorola stickers all over them in the trailer, arriving in Caen and reporting to Brittany Ferries I am told that I should be able to get on to tonights boat instead of waiting for the morning boat on which I am booked, I sailed.
Arriving in Portsmouth Thursday morning I am soon siting in a traffic jam as I approach Southampton, making my way up the M3 I joined the M25 as far as junction 14 where I turned off and unloaded 2 pallets in Colnbrook before making my way on to the M4 and heading west, passing through road work alley I had a break just before Bristol before heading over the Severn Bridge in to Welsh Wales





Severn Bridge with horrendous prices

and soon reached the next unloading address in Pontypool where another 11 pallets were soon unloaded and I headed back the way that I had just come as far as Swindon where I unloaded the rest at the Motorola factory and settled down for the night.
At 11.00 Friday morning I am back on the loading bay at Motorola and by 13.00 I am back on the M4 heading towards London which I round on the M25 which is surprisingly free flowing although the same cannot be said for the poor buggers going the other way, M26 & M20 soon has me in Dover and on the Norfolk Line boat at 18.00 heading for Dunkerque, arriving in France I head for Belgium and follow the motorway to Gent where I head for Antwerp and park up for the night on the Dutch-Belgian border at Hazeldonk.
Saturday I head in to the yard at Rucphen and swap trailers and once loaded begin to head south once more back past Antwerp and round Lille I have a 45 at Vemars just before Paris, setting off once more the combination of Welsh rugby fans and French weekend drivers has contrived to bring Paris to a virtual standstill but I eventually reah the other side and am soon driving down the RN20 as far as Artenay before joining the A10 passing Orleans and Tours before parking up for the obligatory 24 hours off at Chatellerault.
Sunday was spent sitting around watching the rain come down in buckets.
I left early Monday morning so as to avoid the overtaking bans in the Bordeaux area and passed the Spanish border at about 10.00 and stopped to do some shopping before carrying on to Araia to fill up with diesel and have a break before eventually managing to get as far as Milagros near Aranda de Duero before parking up.
Tuesday was a doddle as I was in and out of the 1st unloading address in Coslada by 09.00 and went to the 2nd address in Alcobendas to unload some outboard motors and once again everything went smoothly and I was in and out in good time, as the rush hour was now over I decided to save a few kilometres and transit Madrid by going through the middle on the M30 before joining the A4 which I took until just past Pinto where I turned on to the M506 and soon arrived at Exel´s warehouse where the garden furniture was soon unloaded and by 11.30 I was once again heading south on the A4 until just after Guarroman where I turned left and drove down past Jaen as far as Granada and then on to the A92 until the turn off for Malaga eventually parking up for the night 10 km´s before Malaga.
Leaving early enough to bet the congestion around Malaga I was in Algeciras for 08.00 where I discovered that everything was closed as it was an Andalucian public holiday, a few phone calls later and it was arranged that some one would come and unload the boats spares as they were urgently needed, once this was done I drove to the other side of the port to discover that Maersk were also closed so the phone calls began once more and eventually the 2 pallets were unloaded and the trailer was now empty. Heading back past Malaga and continuing along the coast I stopped for dinner between Motril and Adra before carrying on to Dalias near El Ejido where I loaded 24 pallets of Peppers, now it was a just a case of finding somewhere to park up for the night as the fridge motor needed fixing and I also needed to load 2 more pallets but neither of these tasks could be done this evening due to the public holiday.
Thursday morning I drove to the Carrier agent in order to get the fridge fixed. once fixed I loaded 2 more pàllets of peppers and started the run north managing to get as far as Milagros where I parked up for the night.
Friday was an uneventful run up through Spain and France managing to get as far Chatellerault where once again the night was spent.

I was in Caen by midday Saturday and on the boat at 17.00 and once through the eternal buggering avout in Portsmouth I drove to Tangmere and watched the moon eclipse before going to bed.
Sunday morning the peppers were out quite quickly and I drove back to Havant to have my 24 hours off.
Once the 24 hour break was completed I drove back to Tangmere where I was supposed to be loading for Holland only to find out that the load had been cancelled. So off I heads towards Worthing and slings a left on to the A23 and lo and behold just before the M23 started there on the hill were the nice men from VOSA waiting for me after a cjeck that everything was legal I was allowed to continue my journey to Dover where I caught the Norfolk Lines boat to Dunkerque, once again the conditions on this boat were horrndous amongst other things the same toilets as 10 days ago were still out of order. Off at the other end I drove to Aalst and loaded a couple of pallets of chocolate before carrying on to Hazeldonk where I parked up for the night.
Tuesday mornig a few more pallets were loaded on an industrial estate at Hazeldonk before setting off to load at two more addresses in Tilburg after which it was back in to the yard to swap trailers before loading for Spain, once done I drove as far as Vemats just before Paris where once again the parking area was over full so I used the payable secure parking as the hours were up and went to bed for the night.
Wednesday was an uneventful run through France although I ended up parking up for the night at the peage at Biarritz as there had been an accident a bit further along the road.
Thursday I crossed the border in to Spain and refuelled near Vitoria before heading off down to jusy south of Madrid where I managed to unload in Humanes before they closed at 15.00. Unloaded in Humanes it was back around Madrid and head north once more as I still had 11 pallets for Burgos, I eventually parked up for the night at Gumiel.
Burgos unloaded the 11 pallets in record time and I was back home under the orders of domestic management by 10.00

I left home on Tuesday evening and made way through Bilbao and along the Atlantic coast until just before Santander where I turned off and headed for Torrelavega where I rejoined the motorway heading towards Oviedo as far as Llovio where once agin I turned off and followed the old national 634 towards Iniesto, about 5 kilometers before Iniesto I arrived in the village of Villamayor Piloña where I would be loading the next day, a hotel parking area provided a place to park for the night.
Wednesday I dove the 5 minutes to the factory and after a bit of a delay the trailer was soon full of Kojak type lollipops destined for Tokio although I would only be taking them as far as Paris. Once loaded the same route as the previous evening was retraced and just before Bilbao I stopped for dinner before continiung the journey along the A8 past San Sebastian until just before the French border where I turned off to fuel up with diesel before crossing the border, the usual route was followed up past Bayonne, Biarritz and Bordeaux and then past Angouleme and I parked up at Payre for the night.
Thursday I rejoined the A10 motorway at Poitiers Sud and continued north as far as Artenay where I turned off on to the N20 and stopped for a break, following the A104, A10, A6, A86, A4, A86 & A3 I managed to get through Paris in surprisingly good time and was soon backed on to the unloading bay at JAL on Aeroport Charles De Gaulle where the lollipops were soon unloaded. The office told me to head empty to Kerkrade in Holland to load in the morning so I set off north once more and headed for the Belgian border at Valenciennes where I stopped to get a Eurovignette and a bite to eat before continuing on past Mons, Charlois and Namur until Liege where I turned off towards Maastricht, after passing through Maastricht I headed towards Heerlen and then Kerkrade where I soon found the customers address and parked outside for the night.
Friday I was soon loaded with a complete load of lamps and was told to head for the yard so off I set up past Weert, Eindhoven and Breda and once in the yard I swapped trailers and set off for Moerdijk to load 2 jacuzzi´s and then to Tilburg to load groupage before returning once more to the yard and parking up for the night.
Saturday after loading yet another trailer I could now head south once more and passing Paris I managed to get as far as Poitiers where I would now be parking up for a 24 hour break.
Monday was a nice leisurely drive as far as Bordeaux where the skies started to darken and the wind strength increased considerably, it also started to snow slightly but soon stopped although the Spanish radio was telling me that it was snowing quite heavily in Spain accompanied by even stronger winds. Crossing the border I immediately drove in to a sleet storm as I rounded San Sebastian and as I neared the long climb towards Vitoria it started to snow,





passing Vitoria and Burgos everything was white but now it started to clear up although it was still very cold as I parked up for the night at Milagros I heard that the road was blocked at both Burgos and the long climb at the Etxegarrate so it seems that I got through just in time.
Leaving early Tuesday morning I was at my 1st drop in Madrid at 08.00 and by 09.30 I was on my way south once more rounding Madrid before joining the A4 which took me down past Valdepeñas and as far as Guarroman where I turned towards Granada and just after Jaen I stopped for dinner. Turning right at Granada on the A92 as far as the turn off for Malaga I decided to stop just before the top of the hill for the night as I didn´t fancy spending the night on the run down industrial estate.
I arrived at the customers in Malaga at 08.00 and by 09.00 I was heading along the coast past Torremolinos and Estepona to Los Barrios near Algeciras where they soon unloaded the 2 pallets of ships spares and I could continue my journey towards Jerez de la Frontera where after rounding the town I followed the national road out to San Luca de Barrameda and managed to unload 1 pallet of Cocoa butter before they went to dinner, once unloaded I also went to eat and had a damn good meal for 6 euros 50 before heading off back towards Algeciras and La Linea where I parked up for the night.
My first task Thursday morning was to enter the customs compound at Gibraltar



View of Gib from customs compound



Gun emplacements on the rock



Crossing the runway to leave Gibraltar

and wait patiently for the customs to do their thing before crossing the border and repeating the process all over again, once this had been done I drove across the runway and made my way to the unloading address where once again I was soon unloaded and could return to the Spanish side where I received instructions telling me that I could load in Puente Genil so off I set and arrived in Puente Genil for 15.00 only to be told that the load would not be ready until the morning.
At 07.30 the customer arrived and took me to another warehouse some 20km´s away where they set about loading the trailer with used truck tyres, as this was done manually it took them until about 13.00 to fill the trailer. Setting off across country towards Cordoba with the temperature reaching a welcome 20 degrees I eventually joined the A4 heading north and stopped just after Andujar. As I made my towards Madrid I couldn´t help but notice the amount of motorbikes heading south to the GP at Jerez, there was also a strong traffic police presence and eventually I was pulled over by the Guardia Civil for a control and after taking several print outs they decided that they were happy and I could continue my journey with the contents of my wallet intact. Another break just after Aranjuez ensured that I rounded Madrid just as the rush hour was dying down and I was soon on the A1 and eventually parked up for the night just after Burgos.
Saturday was a simple case of driving home but I did notice that a lot of the snow had already been washed away by 2 days of continuous rain and by 11.00 I was in the door.

Leaving home early Monday morning I made my way north crossing the French border at Irun and following the by now all too familiar route up towards Paris and eventually parked up for the night near Orleans.
Tuesday was another easy day as Paris presented no problems and apart from a slight hold up at Lille I was soon in the yard in Holland changing trailers and filling up with Ad Blue before heading back southwards again along the same route and I parked up for the night at Wancourt just past Arras.
Up at sparrowfart Wednesday morning I managed to get through Paris before the morning shite began and headed towards Orleans on the RN20 as far as Artenay before joining the A10 as far as Orleans where I changed on to the A71 as far as Vierzon where I then took the A20 down past Limoges until it joined up with Toulouse motorway and at the last service area before Toulouse the hours were up and it was time for bed.
Another start at an ungodly hour saw me crossing the Spanish border at La Junquera and filling up with diesel at the ADS pump on the old customs area at Villamalla before continuing my run down the motorway and around Barcelona before heading for the port area, to get to the other side of the port where the boat was in dry dock meant skirting along the edge of the town area above the motorway which goes under the part of the town near the old olympic village,



Colombus statue at end of the Ramblas in Barcelona many years ago before Zona Franca was built this where we had to park to do customs


upon arriving at the dry dock it was soon obvious that this was not going to be a quick job and after arriving at 10.00 they finally started unloading me at 14.00 and by 16.00 I was empty and could now make my way back round the left hand side of Barcelona where I took the motorway out past Sitges towards Tarragona and parked up for the night.
Having already been told that I would not be loading until the afternoon I didn´t start till 09.30 and then made my way down past Tarragona and Castellon and came off of the motorway just past Nules and soon arrived at the village of Faura, the customer then said that there would be a delay and that the load would not be ready till 21.00. Loaded and able to leave at 20.15 chaos control had said to head north in the general direction of Luxembourg so off I set back up the motorway and managed to get as far as the rest area at Penedes before calling it a day.
Saturday sees me once more filling up at the ADS and then having a good meal in La Junquera before entering France, the oranges in the trailer seemed to enjoy the run up past Nimes, Orange and Lyon and I parked up for my 24 hours off at Chalon.
Another boring 24 hours in France eventually passed and at 22.15 Sunday night I was once again heading north with instructions to change trailers at the Esso near Metz, by 03.00 trailers had been changed and it was coffee time before turning round and heading back south along exactly the same route as far as the Carrefour service area near Dijon where I went to bed.
As the load is in a hurry 9 hours later I am once more looking south and passing exactly the same places as Saturday only in reverse order I parked up for the night just north of Gerona.
Tuesday morning at 10.30 I am waiting to unload at the Bax Global depot near Gerona airport and just after midday the trailer is empty and armed with instructions to load at Casserres near Berga I make my way along the C25 passing Vic and turning on to the C16 just north of Manresa I soon find the customer well hidden off the main road in a small village









where they decided that I would be loaded when they came back from lunch. By 16.00 I am loaded and start to head north still on the C16 having taken the decision to go over the hump. Passing Berga and using the tunnels of Cadi



Tunnel de Cadi

I enjoyed the scenery of the snow covered Pyrenees



before crossing the French border at Puigcerda and taking the RN20










down past Ax Les Thermes which has been improved in some places but in others as you can see it still gets quite interesting and Luzenac where I often used to load talcum powder when I was driving powder tankers I joined the motorway and made my way past Toulouse and turned on to the A20 and headed back up north and got a good half hour past Limoges before parking up for the night.
Wednesday everything went super smoothly and I got past Paris,Lille and Antwerp with absolutely no hold ups which meant that I managed to get to Barendrecht near Rotterdam and parked up for the night on the fruit market where I would be unloading in the morning.
I was soon unloaded Thursday morning and I then made my way to Tilburg to load a small amount of groupage which I then took back to our yard and swapped trailers, filled up with Ad Blue and set off south once more and stopped for dinner at the Dutch-Belgian border at Hazeldonk. It was far too early as I closed in on Paris at 17.00 so I decided to have another break at Vemars where I eventually stayed for 2 hours so as to give the traffic a chance to clear, unfortuntely this was an utter waste of time as Paris was still at a complete standstill so I decided to follow the A104 round the shite hole but this was also jammed solid so this gave me a chance to use my magic route past all the crap and exactly 1 hour and 25 minutes after leaving Vemars I was on the RN20 heading for Orleans and I eventually parked up for the night at Meung.
Sailing down the by now well worn route I crossed in to Spain and pissed off home for a couple of days.

WOW you get around a lot

Very nice pictures

Still running about but as it is mostly to the same places it makes for boring reading. As soon as I get to go somewhere different I will start again