Re: BREAKDOWNS

Posted by kit carr on Nov 02, 2011; 7:38am
URL: http://sundownersadventures.385.s1.nabble.com/BREAKDOWNS-tp4544086p4957377.html

Picking up from Col’s story:

I was a passenger on AL125 in early 1976. Dave Rogers and Chalker White were courier and driver respectively. (I almost most said respectfully……)
We were having a good trip, with a few mechanical incidents along the way, none being memorable enough to recall 35 years later. We arrived in Mashaad, where some of our more adventurous  female passengers found some very friendly Irani males and were out very late. Very very late.
We discovered another bus in town and had a meal with Col, who wasn’t the happiest guy around, but was glad of some company.
It was early in the year,and still cold. It was very cold the next morning as we headed off towards Gorgan, travelling on the northern road, over the hills, before we were to drop down to the Caspian.
We travelled through Bojnord, and climbed up into the mountains of the Golestan National Park. It was cold. This point is only of significance because very soon we were in a position to study the cold quite well. Near, but not at the very small and seriously desolate town of Chaman Bid, the poxy bus broke down. The details are hazy now, but the technical term was “fukt” as I recall.
Dave disappeared to find a bus to carry the passengers on,  which he did, while Chalker, Georgie, Tom, Wayne and I stayed with the bus as security. We had no food or water, but that didn’t seem to be a huge issue, and we hitched up to the top of the hill, to the road side stall at Chaman Bid. In fact I think it was all of Chaman Bid. We were able to but Chai, bread and something? Which we took back to the bus to share.  
We stayed a few days, parked on the road side, and became regulars at the Chaman Bid food store. The locals recognised us, and prepared food and tea for us as we arrived. The bus was freezing cold, and we were lucky we had our sleeping bags with us for the camping section later on in the trip.
Eventually we were towed to Gorgan, to repair the bus. Given the technical condition of the bus, (‘fukt”) it was deemed necessary to send a new engine form London to repair the bus. This was done, and Dave went to Teheran to pick up the engine from the airport. When he got back-we had all been waiting at the fine HaghiGat Hotel- he brought the engine and the bad news that it had been dropped unloading in Teheran, and it too had become “fukt”.
Tom was a mechanic for the fire service before he left Australia, and he took the lead in offering to build one engine out of two. Dave took the passengers on to Esfahan, much warmer, and friendly American service men.

We stayed in the cold at Gorgan, and worked in a poxy yard, outside in winter to fix the bus. WE continued to stay at the HAgighat, brought bottles of beer from the shop across the road, and we carefully stacked the bottles under the bed, empty and full. More empties over time as the Hotel staff decided that cleaning out the room we stayed in was not going to happen. By the time we fixed the bus, after many days, there were many many many bottles.
Eventually we fixed the bus and drove to Esfahan to meet up with the troops who were pretty happy to see us.

I think we were by then 14 days behind schedule.
There were many more breakdowns to come.
The last major breakdown saw us camping on the side of the Autobahn outside of Munich.

That particular trip was great, with great people. We still meet every 5 years .