Dave Tapsell
Overland Buses (ix)
Turkey: October 1971
This notorious stretch of road from Horosan to Agri in eastern Turkey has now been abandoned as a new route was opened up later in the 1970s that bypassed the old Tahir Pass. Being a dirt, or gravel road it was never a good surface to drive on — in summer it was hard to see where you were going because of the dust; in the rain it became a river of mud, and in the winter it was under snow for months on end. This road was part of the so-called Eurasian (or Euro-Asian) Highway, yet a lot of it was little more than a farm track. There were more heavy trucks using this road than cars or buses as it was the main trunk route from Europe, eastwards to Iran, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent.
Later in 1971, when I was driving the same bus from London back out to Kabul on this road, it was essential to use snow chains on the rear wheels, from Erzurum to Agri. The landscape is hostile and barren; the climate can be extreme – during that 1971/72 winter the temperature fell to around -40° C. This caused problems with diesel fuel 'icing up' so it was common practice to add a small amount of petrol or paraffin (kerosene) to the diesel tank – not something to be recommended, but sometimes you had no other option. A common sight in the winter was to see a truck stopped, and the driver had lit a small fire under the fuel tank to thaw the diesel.
Overland Buses (ix)
Turkey: October 1971
This notorious stretch of road from Horosan to Agri in eastern Turkey has now been abandoned as a new route was opened up later in the 1970s that bypassed the old Tahir Pass. Being a dirt, or gravel road it was never a good surface to drive on — in summer it was hard to see where you were going because of the dust; in the rain it became a river of mud, and in the winter it was under snow for months on end. This road was part of the so-called Eurasian (or Euro-Asian) Highway, yet a lot of it was little more than a farm track. There were more heavy trucks using this road than cars or buses as it was the main trunk route from Europe, eastwards to Iran, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent.
Later in 1971, when I was driving the same bus from London back out to Kabul on this road, it was essential to use snow chains on the rear wheels, from Erzurum to Agri. The landscape is hostile and barren; the climate can be extreme – during that 1971/72 winter the temperature fell to around -40° C. This caused problems with diesel fuel 'icing up' so it was common practice to add a small amount of petrol or paraffin (kerosene) to the diesel tank – not something to be recommended, but sometimes you had no other option. A common sight in the winter was to see a truck stopped, and the driver had lit a small fire under the fuel tank to thaw the diesel.