The Week At Work As It Was

And following the A8 past Augsburg, Ulm and Stuttgart and joining the A5 at Karlsruhe before changing on to the A6 near Speyer before parking up for the night.
Wednesday I was away up the A61 and crossed in to Holland at the Venlo-Schaffhausen border and upon arriving at the yard swapped trailers for a loaded one and immediately set off through Belgium and Luxembourg and in to France before parking up for the night just north of Dijon.
Thursday setting off from Dijon it was a quiet uneventful run down through France passing Lyon and I was soon enjoying a coffee just over the Spanish border in La Junquera before continuing on till just past Barcelona where I parked up for the night.
Friday running down past Tarragona, Castellon and Valencia and I just managed to unload the 1st customer in Elche just before the midday break, a message was received to forget the drop at Murcia and carry straight on to El Ejido where 20 pallets were soon unloaded after which I headed back along the coast for about 20 minutes and unloaded 1 more pallet in Roquetas De Mar and that was the end of that week as far as chasing around was concerned and having been told that I would be staying there for the weekend I started to look around for somewhere half decent to park up and ended up parking up at the truckstop Poniente just outside of Vicar. Now this place I would not recommend to a dog it was dirty and in a disgusting state of disrepair to the extent that I kept my clogs on when I went in to the shower.
Saturday I ran in to the DAF dealer at Roquetas De Mar to get some minor repairs done and meet up with the gaffer after which we set off to El Ejido to do the annual tachograph control and then headed for Almeria for the vehicles annual MOT test which in comparison to an English one is a bit of a laugh but is still better than they used to be in Spain by midday everything was finished, I had spent al day contemplating an afternoon on the beach as the sun was shining but a hard wind had blown up that put paid to that idea so I eventually parked up in Roquetas de Mar and spent the night there.
Sunday was spent lazing around and doing nowt in particualr until the phone went and the Boss asked where I was and before long we had met up and went to a nearby village which was staging its annual fiestas which were very impressive as more fireworks were set off than at any Nov 5th party I have ever seen.


Monday morning the first thing to be done was my annual medical check up and after having my MOT Certificate pinned on my backside I was back off along the coast to unload the 1 remaining pallet in Murcia which did not take long and by 16.00 I was being loaded in Elda with shop furniture destined for Ingolstadt, one this was in I had to go in to Cargo Express in Alicante where I was loaded with more than 200 loose boxes of shoes, once again a friendy company where you are received in a welcoming and friendly manner Oh how different is life when not working for Van Overveld. Once the shoes were loaded I was away back up past Valencia and Castellon and managed to get nearly as far as Tarragona before parking up for the night.
Tuesday I followed the N340/A7 past Tarragona before joining the AP7 which took back round Barcelona and up past Gerona until I stopped for a refuel and dinner at the border town of La Junquera, after dinner I crossed the border in to France with no great problems and was soon winging my way up past Perpignan, Narbonne, Nimes and Orange taking another 45 at Valence. The last couple of hours driving took me as far as the Lyon ring motorway until about halfway round where it was blocked due to an accident so I deviated off via the A43 and took the connecting road through to the A42 which also takes me in the general direction of Strasbourg and parked up for the night at the first service area.
Wednesday I was away early and passing Besancon and Mulhouse where I had a 45 break I was soon nearing the German border at Ottmarsheim and pulled on to the parking area to get my maut when I was approached by a woman in a French customs uniform and was asked for all the papers after which it was decided that the load merited further inspection and I was directed to a nearby loading ramp where the whole load was unloaded and closely inspected both by hand and with dogs, finding nothing they decided to inspect the vehicle and where soon climbing on the roof of the trailer and underneath while another customs officer went through the cab like a dose of salts About 2 hours later I am allowed to go and drive the 20 minutes to the first unloading address at Weil am Rhein where 256 boxes of shoes are soon unloaded at Evola Spedition and I am provided with a map of where the second address is in Ingolstadt and told that people had been contracted to unload the furniture and that they would be there at 09.00 in the morning. The stretch of motorway from Ottmarsheim as far as Weil am Rhein is maut free and I had already booked the stretch as far as Freiburg Sud at the border so I was now free to continue up the A5 and turned off at Freiburg Sud and followed the Bundesstrasse through Freiburg and up past Titisee and Biberach as far as Ulm where I rejoined the motorway and carried on as far as the service area at Leipheim where I paid the maut stretch from Ulm to Leipheim and booked the next stretch for the morning as far as Dasing as I was now parked up for the night.
Thursday I was back on the motorway as far as Dasing where once again I turned off on to the Bundestrasse as followed it up to and through Ingolstadt eventually reaching the area where a new shopping centre is being built and also where I was to unload by 08.30. Enroute I have managed to save at least 250 toll payable kilometers by using A roads and it has taken me about an hour longer over the roughly 400 kilometer stretch. At the shopping centre the fun starts there is only 1 provisional entrance for vehicles delivering and it gets me nowhere near the shop that I need to unload at so I sit back and wait for the chiefs to arrive and let them sort it out, they eventually arrive and start haranguing the site authorities for access to their shop and we are eventually directed to another entrance where upon arrival we discover that a bloody big trench has been dug right across it thus rendering it less than useless so we are now back to square one, more discussions now take place and it is decided that we return to the original entrance and cross the parking area as far as possible and that the site workers will then bulldoze a track through all the piles of muck and gravel as far as the rear entrance of the shop, this was done by 10.30 and we could now begin the unloading process and by 13.00 I was unloaded and on my to Baar-Ebenhausen just under Ingolstadt to load rolls of insulating paper for Belgium upon arrival everything went quickly and I was soon loaded. Getting on to the motorway I stopped at the first service area to get my maut ticket and set off up past Nuernburg, Wuerzburg,Frankfurt and Koblenz suffering 16 sets of roadworks and 3 traffic jams on the way and after 9 1/2 hours driving I started hunting for a parking place and by the time 10 hours 35 minutes had been driven I had managed to find one between Koeln and Aachen.
Friday morning I stopped at the border at Aachen Nord to get my Eurovignette and soon passed through Holland in to Belgium turning off of the motorway at Maasmechelen and by 09.00 was at the first unloading address and within 10 minutes the 2 pallets were out and I hopped across the road to the second address and unloaded the rest, by 10.15 I am winding my way back in to Holland and soon arrive at my loading address in Helmond to load screws at Nedschroef, after 30 minutes loading commenced and soon after the trailer was full and I was heading for our yard where trailers were swapped over and I was off to Wateringen near Den Haag to load suffering the usual Friday afternoon traffic on the way upon arrival eager hands soon see the trailer loaded and now it is off round Rotterdam to Krimpen aan der Ijssel for 3 pallets of ships spares. Once loaded I head for Tilburg and park up for the night.
Saturday morning at 08.00 sharp loading commences and goes quite fast until they find out that 2 of the pallets that I need are still on the night trailer from the UK and yes you´ve guessed it they weren´t on the back of the trailer either they were in the front but by 09.15 I am off heading towards the Dutch border at Hazeldonk buying another Eurovignette on the way and am soon loading some groupage at Wiba Transport with the trailer now being quite full some stacking was required but by midday I am once more on my way heading south through Belgium and past Paris following the route that you all by now well know and parked up for the night at Poitiers.
Sunday I left the motorway as always at Poitiers Sud and headed off down the RN10 past Bordeaux and was soon across the border and home.
Leaving home at 16.30 Monday afternoon I had a nice uneventful run down past Burgos and over the Somosierra and with a 45 minute break 30 kms before Madrid I was parked up for the night in Coslada by 22.15.
Tuesdays first drop was a pallet of groupage at Trafertir in Coslada after which I set off to do battle with Madrids rush hour traffic and using a combination of M40, M45, and M50 I was soon heading south on the A4 passing Bailen and Cordoba until Ecija where I turned off and followed the road through to Marchena where I had to unload another pallet, once that was done I continued to follow the same short cut past Utrera and Jerez de Frontera and eventually arrived in Puerto de Santa Maria where I unloaded several pallets which were eventually destined for Morrocco, it was now 19.00 and I wouldn´t be unloading anything else today so after a coffee I headed towards Algeciras along the coast road and parked up for the night in the port area of Algeciras. Wednesday the first drop was at Maersk Logistics another pallet of broschures after which I had 3 pallets of ships spares which had to be unloaded at Transmeditteranea. Now it was time to head along the coast again passing Estepona, Marbella and Torremolinos and turning off the Malaga ring road to head for Campanillas where I had another 3 pallets to unload, upon entering the village I stopped at a petrol station to ask for directions to the unloading address and was told it was the second the road on the right so off I went and turned in to the road only to find that after 800 metres it had been dug up by the waterworks and was completely closed which meant reversing all the way back to the main road and trying to find another way in, eventually after noticing that all the other roads where far to narrow for the DAF I stopped at another petrol station and telephoned the customer and explained the situation to which he said "but its not supposed to be dug up till tomorrow" and that he would come with his car and guide me in, he eventually turned up and off we set through maze of village side roads with some very tight turns and after passing through 3 different villages we arrived at his premises and unloaded the 3 pallets, after using his neighbours yard in which to turn round and headed back out the same way and back towards Malaga on to the ring road again before turning off near the airport to get to a place called Churriana where I had 10 items of furniture to be unloaded which was soon out and I was heading back around Malaga and following the coast road past Nerja I arrived in El Ejido at about 19.00 and was still able to unload 1 pallet of spares before deciding to spend the night at the El Ejido Truck.

The road from Malaga to Almeria will be a lot better once all this is finished
Thursday morning at 08.00 I am outside the next customers premises and after being invited for a coffee we set about unloading the 17 tons of spares, once this was done I headed down the road to Roquetas de Mar where I unloaded the last pallet and the trailer was at last empty, contact with mission control informed me that I my first reloading address was in Alcantarilla near Murcia so off I set and arrived there just before 14.00 to be told that I would be loaded after lunch at 16.00 which gave me time to eat, after loading the 21 block pallets of deep frozen goods I was told the second and last address would be tomorrow morning in Valencia, so setting off once more towards Alicante before taking the cut through from Elche to the Madrid road

Castle at Villena
I stopped at a BP service area to fill up and eat and was given a free polo shirt for my custom after which I continued the journey to Valencia and was parked up outside the customers premises in Quart de Poblet by 21.00.
Friday morning by 09.00 a further 5 pallets of frozen goods have been loaded and I am winding my way out of the Valencia area and heading north until just before Sagunto where I turn off towards Teruel and the climb begins passing the permanent roadworks

and at Teruel I take a 45 minute break at Cariñena before cutting through past Ricla another road that is permanently being worked on before joining the N232 just before Tudela and then joining the A15 to Pamplona topping up the fuel tanks at Beriain on the way I then took the N121A down to Irun and as I got to the border I was one again pulled over by French customs for a check of the trailer contents, once they had finished buggering about I drove as far as Bayonne and had another 45 minute break before continuing up towards Bordeaux and parking up for the night about 20 kilometers before Bordeaux.
Saturday was a quiet run up past Bordeaux following the usual route up past Angouleme, Poitiers, Tours, Orleans and just as I took the turn off at Artenay to get on to the RN20 I noticed an English registered Scania with a blowout on one of the trailer wheels so I stopped to see if help was needed and it turned out he needed a second jack in order to get the axle up far enough to get the wheel out so I give the poor lad a hand before continuing my journey up through Paris and after a quick stop to get a Eurovignette I parked up for the night in Belgium.
Sunday I changed trailers in the yard in Rucphen and headed out past Eindhoven to the German border at Schwanenhaus near Venlo and got the maut ticket for the trip through Germany. A wonderful trip driving through Germany on a Sunday with no hold ups at all andthe 480 bhp just flew up all the hills with a loaded weight of 5 tons as I went down past Moenchengladbach, Koblenz, Ludwigshafen and Karlsruhe before heading in the general direction of Stuttgart and managed to get past Munich before parking up. I thought that 842 kilometres on a 10 hour disc was quite good.
Monday I continued the trip through Germany and crossed the border in to Austria at Kiefersfelden where the reason for the lack of traffic became clear, it is a holiday in Germanyand the Austrians had also imposed a driving ban on all goods traffic heading for Germany.

Austrian police pulling in trucks heading for Germany

Two hours later I am heading down the Italian side of the Brenner prepared for the frustration of a 60 km/h speed limit that lasts about 30 kms and an overtaking ban for trucks that lasts for 180 kms as the heavens darkened and it began pour down, taking a 45 minute break just before Verona. Passing Bologna the traffic was at a standstill going the other way due to the roadworks, slipping around Bologna by going round to the right I wound my way through the hills and repeated tunnels on the way to Firenze where now it was my turn to get stuck in a jam, turning off of the Firenze ring road I headed for the coast passing the town of Grossetto and taking the SS1 towards Civitavecchia and parked up for the night at Alberese. Leaving Alberese at about 06.30 saw me in Civitavecchia at 08.00 to complete the customs formalities


Ciitavecchia port
after which it was round to the boat the Prinsendam and wait my turn to unload unfortunately there were two others whose loads had a higher priority than mine so I had to wait and it was 12.15 before I eventually left retracing my footsteps along the route taken yesterday with the weather slowly becoming worse and the Italian traffic becoming more intolerable by the minute as the endless overtaking bans for goods traffic force me to a crawling pace through the hills and I eventually have a 45 minute break between Firenze and Bologna before continuing on north where after partaking in the permanent traffic jam known popularly as Bolgna I turned off of the motorway at Modena north and joined the Modena ring road snarl up until the junction with the SS12 which I then followed in the direction of Verona as far as Mirandola where I was to load the next day for Belgium.

Bit cloudy in the Alps

More permanent roadworks on the Brenner Pass
Wednesday upon reporting to load I was informed that the loading was done elsewhere so off I set to the loading warehouse which was 3 streets further away and by 10.00 I am loaded and cutting back towards the motorway on the Strada Statale and head back towards the Brenner and had a 45 minute break and something to eat at the Autoporto before crossing back in to Austria and back in to Germany by which time my patience is wearing extremely thin after suffering roughly 400 kilometres of continuous overtaking ban for goods vehicles, just after crossing the German border I stop to get my Maut ticket and am pleasantly surprised to get round Munich in the rush hour with no great problems another 45 minute break just south of Stuttgart left me with an hour left to drive but every damn parking space is full and after trying 4 service areas,6 parking areas, 2 Truck Stops and an industrial area and still not being able to find enough space to park up I say bollocks to it and its disc out and new disc in and continue no my way north while keeping an eye out for any parking space that may be unoccupied but it was to no avail and the night passed in to morning.
Thursday at 07.00 I am at Exel´s warehouse in Opglabbek near Genk in Belgium and an hour later I am empty and heading up past Eindhoven and in to the yard. After being asked if I was now going to sleep I said no as the sleepy point had passed and I changed trailers and had a couple of coffees before heading down past Antwerp and Lille in to France and having a 45 minute break just before Paris at Vemars, due to the traffic situation I went round Paris on the A104 and joined the N20 at the usual place rejoining the motorway at Artenay before following the usual route back down through France past Poitiers where I left the motorway once more and turned on to the N10 parking up just before Angouleme for the night.
Friday was the usual route down past Bordeaux to the Spanish border fill up with fuel and down past Burgos eventually parking up for the night at La Cabrera.
Saturday I was at the exhibition centre in Madrid at 08.00 and was the first in the queue to be tipped and by 10.00 am winging my homewards to the dubious clutches of HM.
A phone call told me that I would be loading Tuesday in Bordeaux so I set off Monday evening and after fuelling up at Idiazabal I crossed the border in to France and headed north on the RN10 and parked up for the night just before Bordeaux.
Tuesday morning I went round the Bordeaux ring road heading for the dock area of Bassens which for some daft reason has a ban on trucks entering it from the ring road between 06.00 and 09.00 forcing them to follow a lengthy diversion but having allowed for this I was at the ring road exit for the docks at 09.02 and soon arrived at the loading address where I was informed that I would be loading at an outside warehouse some two kilometres away, eventually 24 big bags of soya were loaded and I had the paperwork and started to head north on the RN10 passing Angouleme as far as Poitiers before joining the A10 at Poitiers and followed it as far as Orleans where I was to change trailers at the Centre Routier. After the trailer change it was just a case of retracing the earlier route in a southerly direction and I got as far as Aussac before parking up for the night.
Wednesday I was back round Bordeaux and over the border in to Spain where I took the N121 up to Pamplona, traffic was very quiet due to it being a Spanish bank holiday and the Basques had lifted their ban on goods vehicles. Passing Pamplona I headed down the A15 as far as the N232 where I turned in the direction of Zaragoza as far as the Opel factory where I cut through to Cariñena and followed the road down past Daroca and Teruel and parked up for the night about 30 mins past Teruel.
Thursday morning I was away early and passed the eternal road works with no delays and was soon passing Valencia before the rush hour started and heading towards Albacete before following the national road past Jumilla and Caudete towards Murcia where I rejoined the motorway heading for Almeria until I had passed Lorca where I turned on the road for Alquieras where I was to meet the customer at a petrol station. The customer then took me along a maze of tracks before reaching his plantation where they then set about unloading 43 trolleys of artichoke plants by hand which was quite a lengthy process but by 15.00 the trailer was empty and the trolleys were dismantled and neatly stacked back in the trailer. Heading back towards Lorca and back towards Murcia as far as Totana where I turned of towards Mazarron I soon found the place where I was to unload the empty trolleys. Now I could head for my first loading address just outside Murcia in a place called Los Ramos where I was to load the next day.
Friday morning at 09.00 I loaded 9 pallets of lemons and was soon heading along the motorway past Alicante before taking the new motorway up in to the hills past Alcoy to my next loading address in L´Olleria where 5 pallets of porcelain were loaded, the next target was a small village called L´Enova near Xativa where 6 pallets of Oranges joined the fruit collection just after dinner, heading north past Valencia and Sagunto I finished loading in a village called Artana where a further 6 pallets of Oranges were loaded after which I took the national road up past Castellon and stopped for an evening meal at Cambrils before continuing the journey north amongst some torrential rain fall passing Tarragona before joining the motorway towards Barcelona before parking up for the night at the Llobregat service area.
Saturday morning still with the torrential rain I passed Barcelona and driving up past Girona towards the border I could not help but notice that many rivers which were permanently dry now actually contained water for the first time that I could remember, arriving at the border town of La Junquera I stopped to refuel and enjoy a meal and a shower before heading up the hill towards France, halfway up the hill there was a bloody great queue of traffic waiting to cross the border, I eventually discovered that this was due to roadworks on the French side. Once in France the torrential rain was now accompanied by an extremely side wind commonly known as the Mistral as I headed north past Perpignan, Narbonne, Nimes and Orange before having a 45 minute break at Montellimar. After the break it was up past Lyon and Macon managing to get as far Beaune before parking up for the night.
Sunday the journey north continued up past Langres, Toul, Nancy and Metz where I swapped trailers and changed course for Germany managing to get past Karksruhe, Stuttgart and Ulm before the hours were up and parked for the night at Leipheim.
Monday I continued the journey south along the already well known route past Munich to the Austrian border at Kiefersfelden and along past Innsbruck and over the Brenner Pass to the Italian border and down the other side, during the eternal overtaking ban I got so pissed off that after careful perusal of the mirrors I slipped in to the left hand lane and shot straight past the bloody lot, following the same motorway as far as Modena I slung a left and trundled through the permanent roadworks as far as Bologna where I headed for Firenze winding my way through the hills and multitude of tunnels. At Firenze I went right passing Prato and Lucca before taking the split off towards Pisa where I parked up for the night.
Tuesday morning I am in Livorno for just after 09.00 and there is no boat,

Livorno harbour entrance



This is the one I am waiting for

it eventually arrives at just after 10.30 and first the passengers disembark before the freight hatch is opened, we are just about to unload when some bright spark decided to hold boat drill and all the unloading personnel disappear for an hour and don´t return until just after 13.00 by which time the Italian forklift driver has sodded off to lunch and doesn´t return until 14.00 so it is way past 15.30 before I am empty. Loading instructions for the next day have been received so I am heading back north past Pisa and then continue along the Mediterranean coast past La Spezia as far as Genova

Italy must have more tunnels than any other country on this planet

before heading inland towards Milano and then turn on to the Torino - Piacenza motorway to get to the first loading address in Casteggio where I park up for the night.
First thing Wednesday morning I start the loading process in the DSM yeast factory in Casteggio and by 09.30 am loaded and have the paperwork as I head up past Pavia towards Milano where I have the dubious pleasure of negotiating that eternal chaos known as the tangenzianale around Milano before heading out on the motorway towards Vicenza until just before Bergamo where I head cross country to get to the second loading address at Mapello where the four pallets are soon loaded and I am once more on my way heading back towards Milano and crossing the tangenzianale on the northern side I follow the A8 motorway towards Varese until the turn off for the A26 which takes me towards the Simplon Pass border crossing with Switzerland, it had been decided by the powers to be that this crossing would be used due to the fact that I am just over or just on the maximum weight limit and there are no weighbridges on this route. I had a transit document for Switzerland made up by DHL at the TIR Terminal in Domodossola where I also had a 45 minute break before starting the climb up to the Swiss border where as this vehicle has never been through Switzerland before I had to register it in order to get a toll credit card for transiting Switzerland this took about 30 minutes after which the climb continued along some windy bendy roads with lots of tunnels and galleries and some of the most breathtaking scenery that I have seen in a long time, unfortunately this was obscured by cloud for a lot of the time so foto opportunities were scarce,

Swiss border crossing







Good use of retarder and exhauster got me down without touching the brakes


The end is in sight
eventually arriving at the bottom I passed through Brig and made my way towards the motorway which eventually took me past Sion, Montreux and then Lausanne as by now it was dark the beauty of the scenery could only be imagined. I eventually crossed the border in to France at La Ferriere and 30 minutes later I was parked up for the night.
Thursday I awoke to a misty day and began wind my way through the twisty French roads to Besancon and through the town after which I continued on the RN 57 up past Vesoul to Nancy where I had a 45 minute break before I joined the motorway up past Metz to Luxembourg where I filled up. Passing through Belgium via Liege I entered Holland at Eijsden near Maastricht and headed up around Eindhoven towards s´Hertogenbosch before parking up for the night.
Friday I was at the first unloading address at Geldermalsen by 08.00 and the 4 pallets were soon out and I set about driving the 10 kms to the next address at Culemborg where the 20 pallets of yeast were to be unloaded and after giving the poor woman who had been left there on her own some basic forklift driving lessons we set about unloading and eventually the trailer was empty. Now it was off to Meeders at Barendrecht to load some fresh boat supplies and upon arrival I was greeted with "it´s not all here yet" so I set about amusing myself for an hour or two until it was ready, once I finished loading here I had to go to Meeders other warehouse in the Spaanse Polder for 9 more pallets of fruit and veg and lo and behold I was in for another 2 hour wait beofre I could load. Once done there it was off to Inter Supply in Hoogvliet to load pallets of frozen goods and after suffering the Friday afternoon rush hour around Rotterdam I eventually got them loaded and attacked the rush hour once more in order to head for our yard where I was to change trailers. After applying some imaginative time keeping I left our yard and headed south only to get stuck in a traffic jam in Antwerp which was followed by another bigger jam just south of Gent which meant that I only got as far as Ressons before needing a 45 minute break, after which I sailed through Paris at full steam and got as far as Meung just past Orleans before giving up for the night.
The telephone woke me on Saturday morning with the boss´s dulcet tones informing me that he had found my replacement and that he would be joining me at Blois after travelling up with another of our vehicles from the south of Spain and that as he has only ever driven for Tescos in the UK and is English I would be having the "honour" of training him in the ways of the real of world. So after picking him up we headed south taking it in turns to drive so as to get out of France bef ore the driving ban came in to force.
Setting out Monday morning at about 09.00 with my co-pilot (who turns out to be an ex-Coldstream Guards......bloody woodentops) it was a lazy run down past Burgos,Palencia and around Benavente before stopping for a meal about 20 minutes the other side of Benavente after which we rolled our way through the hills until we reached Vigo. Negotiating the maze known as Vigo we soon found the wharf where the boat was due to dock but due to a highly inefficient and stupid security regime in the port area we had difficulty getting in to the wharf, but after several minutes of conflab we were allowed in and duly parked up for the night and set off on foot to the town in order to partake of some nourishment before retiring for the evening.
Tuesday the boat turned up at 14.00 late as is their want and just at this precise moment in time the woman in charge of port security decided that she wanted to know exactly what the cylinders of CO2 were for that we had loaded and what they used the corrosive cleaning agents for, I replied as far as the CO2 is concerned I have no idea try asking the stores officer on the boat and the cleaning agent is obviously for cleaning purposes, at this she went away stating that we may not be allowed near the boat in order to unload (shit we won´t as soon as the Captain says jump the buggers will jump) 10 minutes later we are allowed alongside to begin the unloading process which I will not describe to you as it is painful and beyond the imagination of mere mortals suffice to say our 2 pairs of eyebrows were raised on more than one occasion, eventually at 17.00 we are empty and begin heading back in to the hills as far as Ourense where we left the motorway and steamed on inland despite the Spanish highways authorities best attempts to put us off track by omitting simple items like signposting we reached our loading address by 21.00 and parked up for the night.
Wednesday morning we were soon loaded with 17 pallets of slate roofing tiles and were winding our way back to civilisation joining the A6 at Ponferrada which we followed as far as Astorga before turning off in the direction of Leon after rounding Leon we headed off towards Burgos and with a quick stop at Victors in order to show the woodentop where it is we proceeded up past Vitoria as far as the Etxegarrate pass where we had to stop in order to meet the boss a Dutchman of diminutive proportions because I think he wanted to say goodbye to me as well as see how the craphat was getting on, after allowing him to buy the refreshments we resumed our voyage towards the French border progressing through enemy territory nearly as far as Bordeaux before calling it a day.
Thursday was a quiet run up the usual route through France until it was time to introduce the poor man to the delights of taking an artic through the middle of Paris just as the rush hour begins, after eventually negotiating this unnatural obstacle we stopped to get a Eurovignette before entering Belgium and stopping for the evening nourishment after which we carried on towards Liege where the first of tomorrows unloading addresses did an excellent job of hiding itself but the wily old fox found the buggers and we then went to bed.
Friday the first batch of roofing tiles were soon unloaded by the French speaking Belgians and we headed off round Liege and towards Aachen as far as exit 37 and soon found the second address the result of which was we now have an empty trailer, after contact with chaos control we are sent to Kerkrade to load 30 pallets of lamps for Spain and we eventually did after being continually baffled by the maze of weight limits and low bridges which constitute Kerkrade, once loaded we headed off up past Weert, Eindhoven and s´Hertogenbosch before turning in the direction of Tilburg to do another pick up before returning to our base in Rucphen for the last time where I removed my stuff from the Big Mean Red Machine and watched it drive off in to the distance.