Unloading of the vehicles in Istanbul

Well the last 2 days the guys have been very busy organising the paperwork with the shipping agent, customs and insurance agent.

The taxi ride was an experience in itself. They drive through the tunnel at 110km in a 50km zone, no seatbelt, using a mobile phone and one hand on the stearing wheel, but very skilfully. The Dakar rally has nothing on it!

Yesterday was the big day. A ferry trip across the Bosphorous which separates Europe Turkey and Asia Turkey to Haydarpasa where the docks are. Beautiful views of the various temples palaces and other old buildings along the way. Population of Istanbul is 17 million (I think the majority are carpet sellers).

Another morning of paperwork and then the rest of the day waiting patiently on the wharf for containers to be located and inspected by Customs. Then a large Turkish guy whose job it was to unlock the container doors with a large pair of bolt cutters proceeded to do this with lots of cheering from the group and much photo staging and then kissed some of the male members of the group which made their toes turn up. He then got into trouble for opening the doors without the presence of Customs. He was still walking around later with his bolt cutters over his shoulders like a star who was just discovered so it looks as though he still has a job.

Finally we were given special permission by Customs to drive our van out because we had to put the wheels on. All the guys pitched in and helped fit the wheels and rear lights which had been taken off for loading.

Eventually all vehicles were allowed out of the containers and members were busy putting on hoops, canvas, fueling up and checking everything over. Our van started first go in the container but when we were all set to take off the battery had died. We had to be towed by another Blitz to get going.

All the Turkish guys on the wharf were very helpful and friendly and very interested in the vehicles when they were unloaded.

We returned via the Bosphorous again by car ferry as we had organised 24 security parking close to our hotel . We kept the engine running on the ferry which caused some inconvenience to the people behind sitting in their car - something to do with fumes!! We were too scared to turn off the ignition in case we couldn't get it going again. Leisa and Nigel also had battery trouble with their jeep and Leisa very courageously drove it from the port to the parking lot. On the ferry a guy signalled to her to turn off the ignition but then when she went to drive off the ferry the jeep wouldn't start. What a stir she caused - she had all these guys pushing her off the ferry to get started. Only a woman would get away with that!

Once off the ferry it was a case of looking at your map and/or following the vehicle in front. We did the latter and followed John Hedges and inadvertently ended up going over the Golden Horn bridge to the other side (in the wrong direction completely). After going down a couple of side streets to get back in the right direction we saw that John was indicating to go in another direction altogether (nowhere in the direction that we had to be going). A good decision was made not to follow John and we headed back towards the parking area. A slight error by the nagivator found us in the police yards where we were met with 3 policemen with assault rifles not really understanding what we were doing. After showing them the map they pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately there were bollards in the middle of the street and we could not go across to go down the street that led to the parking lot. So we had to do a lap of the block and when we were pulled up trying to work out which way to go a carpet salesman came running out of his shop and tried to sell us a carpet. We finally managed to end up at the correct destination with much cheering from the rest of the group who had managed to get there - except for two others (John Hedges being one of them). Dave and Maggie Motteram arrived soon after us. A taxi finally led John home and he had prime parking right outside of the front of the hotel.

Because we managed to get the vehicles off the wharf quicker than anticipated our journey now begins a couple of days earlier. Today we are headed for Galipolli via the coastal route and will camp the night out in the Galipolli National Park.

Dubai Rest & Recreation

Well we have made it to Dubai after an 11 hour flight from Perth. We were in a 4 seat row at the very back of the plane. The seats were quite small much to the discomfort of the 2 largish Greeks who occupied the seats next to us. One of the Greeks was used to flying business class but his mate had talked him into buying these cheap flights - he found flying economy class very challenging. He could not unfold his table fully as his belly was too large so he tried to stand up in the aisle as much as he could. Unfortunately we had quite a lot of turbulence during the trip so the seat belt sign was on most of the time and he had to remain seated. He did say at the end of the trip that he would be flying home business class!

Dubai Airport is massive but very easy to find your way around. Lots of stainless steel and glass. Jim had to open his hand luggage after it went through the x-ray machine as his monoculars had shown up on the machine. His new buy off e-bay and of course they were in army colours. The girl queried whether they had night vision (which they don’t) looked through them and then let us through. Thought for a minute we were not going to get out of the airport - good start to the holiday! We never thought that these would present a problem we just didn’t want them to get broken in the check-in luggage. I thought the additional spare parts Jim brought in the check-in luggage for the van would be the problem!

We have done the City tour on the hop-on hop-off bus and are amazed at the new projects under construction. Some even look as though they have been started but not finished. Most of the labour in Dubai appears to be foreign workers and there are loads of them everywhere.

We stopped at the Wafi Shopping Mall on Friday which is the Holy day so most of the shops were closed. This shopping mall consists of shops selling only very expensive designer labels and this is where the rich and famous shop.

It's quite amazing the amount of freight (including washing machines and electrical gear) just lying on the wharf at Dubai Creek waiting to be loaded onto the wooden dhows for shipment to various ports around the Arabian Gulf. There didn't appear to be any security guards or anyone keeping an eye on them. Apparently the crime rate is very low here.

Well tomorrow we fly to Istanbul (with the monoculars in the check-in luggage I hope). We hope to meet the McKinney's from New Zealand at the Dubai airport as they are catching the same flight as us to Istanbul.

Trip Map

This is a map of the proposed trip

Part 2 of C15 restoration

If you click on the following address it will give you a slideshow of part of the restoration of the C15

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll292/jsewell_album/Part%202%20of%20C15%20restoration/?action=view&current=156bad69.pbw

Part 1 of C15 Restoration

If you click on the following address it will give you a slideshow of part of the restoration of the C15

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll292/jsewell_album/?action=view&current=c6c0fe8e.pbw

PHOTOS OF "GEORGE"

CHEVROLET WIRELESS VAN (AKA "GEORGE")

George Smith (deceased 2000) was a prospector who lived for many years on the outskirts of Southern Cross, Western Australia. George was a returned ex POW from WW2 of the 2/28 btn of the 9th Division, having been wounded and captured at Ruin Ridge 27th of July 1942.

Soon after the war George purchased an ex army Chev Blitz signals van which he used as his mobile home while prospecting in the Yilgarn Goldfields. This van could be regularly seen on Three Boys Hill on the outskirts of the Southern Cross township until due to failing health in 1990, George took up residence in one of the council units for the elderly.

I had kept in contact with George over many years as I was interested in Blitz trucks and had several of my own. When I heard George had purchased the local ambulance and moved into a unit I approached him to purchase the Blitz which he agreed to do. I kept the Blitz under cover until 2008 when my wife Sandy and I heard of the trip that Lang Kidby was organizing to Normandy. It was then a panic to restore the signals van as this was the ideal vehicle for the trip, not too big but big enough to camp in as this was going to be an all camping trip driving through seven countries including ferrying the vehicles down to Crete and across to Italy.

We are the only ones from WA as the other 15 vehicles are coming from the Eastern States and NZ. These consist of Jeeps, Dodges, Chevs, a Ford, Studebaker truck and a Harley Davidson motor cycle.

The Chev Blitz was, as mentioned earlier, a signals van of which well over a 1000 were built in Australia from 1942 to 1943. These vehicles used running gear supplied by General Motors of Canada and bodies that were made at Woodville in Adelaide SA and were assembled in the various states at the GMH assembly factories. George’s Blitz was assembled at GMH in Mosman Park WA in 1943 and was used by the 5th Division which was stationed between Guildford and Geraldton when an invasion was thought to be imminent.

I started the restoration in May 2008 and I had it licensed by December of the same year. It was stripped down to the last nut and bolt and was very consuming, thankfully I had a patient partner as I was not doing my share of the home jobs and the help of a brother-in-law for the interior woodwork of the van body.

I have named the Blitz "George" in memory of George Smith and I feel he would have been pleased that his old truck was still on the road and it is a pity he did not see it restored. I would have liked to travel to see the North African war sites (Libya and Egypt) where George was captured but it is not safe to travel in these countries today.

Jim