| Busname | Unknown |
| Year | 1989 |
| Month | May |
| Info | In May 1990 I was travelling around Europe with a friend calling in on a lot of the old Top Deck haunts and catching up with some crew still on the road and some of the camp ground people. A close friend and ex Top Decker Kim Murray had committed suicide 4 weeks earlier and I had planned to meet with another of Kim's close mates "Noddy" (a Top Deck driver) at the campsite in Berlin for a few quite beers in remembrance of our great mutual friend. Well as anyone who has been associated with Top Deck knows the phrase "a few quiet beers" and Top Deck could be no further from the truth. Noddy and Robyn invited me along to a few beers at the British Occupying Forces Wet Mess (servicemen's bar) with their bus load of punters. What a night, throwing down pints of beer at very good prizes and talking to British soldiers stationed in Berlin as part of the post war setup of French, American, Russian and British Occupying Forces. After about my 5th pint I was talking to the barman (a British serviceman) about how I had loved going to Berlin as a courier when I had worked with Top Deck and with all its recent history. We got talking and he said he could show me around a bit the next day. For those of you who had been to Berlin in the mid '80s or earlier you would remember how buses were not allowed to stop in front of the Brandenburg Gate near the Russian Memorial and how the buses would drive slowly towards the Brandenburg Gate, slow to take photos of the Russian Memorial then turn around in front of the B Gate and head away again. That was my last memory of how things were in Berlin so you could imagine my surprise at how things gad changed, whilst feeling very hung over from my previous night in the Wet Mess. I had been told by the barman to go to a little white demountable opposite the Russian Memorial which was a British Border patrol base. I walked up to a little security meshed window and knocked. Feeling like someone out of a spy movie, a small section of the window slid back and I said "this sounds a bit stupid but I was told to say 'Harry sent me'". Much to my relief a voice from someone I could not see, said "no worries Aussie that was me, I'll be out in a minute" Sure enough a side door of the demountable opened and out stepped Harry. Seconds later a white VW Combi with small Union Jack insignias on the doors pulled up and we both got in and the driver said they were about to do a routine patrol and where did I want to go? I said I didn't care as I was blown away anyway. He replied "if you're blown away now wait to you see what we're going to show you" I could not believe, it here I was in Berlin (my personal favourite city of Europe - from a couriers history spiel point of view) and I was about to get a personal tour of the Wall and its surrounds. Although the Wall had first begun to come down on 9th November 1989 and this was now over 6 months later it was still a dominating feature of Berlin and the occupying forces were still doing regular patrols. The first stop on "my tour" was the Reichstag. Again those who had been to Berlin in the '80s would remember how it was back then, you'd park the bus in the buspark and walk across to the entrance and on the way you'd pass a few white crosses, memorials to those who had died in failed attempts to escape East Berlin. In my case when I was originally there as a courier some of the crosses were dated only a year or 2 earlier. I remember one time buying a can of Coke and turning toward the East German guard tower that was only about 20m away and holding up the Coke (like in a saluting fashion) and opening it and saying "cheers big ears" the border guard repositioned his rifle as though he was about to aim at me...I shit myself and went rather quickly, straight inside the museum. So you can imagine how I felt when I was retelling this story to my new found "tour guides" that they then went and unlocked a gate and we drove up to the base of the now disused guard tower and we proceeded to then climb up the stairs and then to be looking out from the same guard tower that some 5 years earlier I had saluted with my can of Coke. Seeing how impressed I was at the access these guys had they then continued to just keep trying to out do themselves. We then went around to the right hand side of the Reichstag and just walked straight in through corridors up and down some stairs more corridors more stairs, empty rooms, little ladders and eventually to daylight on the roof of the Reichstag. Harry told me to stand in a certain position and he went stood over near the edge and held his hands in a certain way as though he was holding a flag and said "does this remind you of anything" Then I realised where I was, it was the exact spot where the Russian soldier had held the flag in the famous photo of the Fall of Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reichstag_flag_original.jpg I couldn't believe it. I am sure very few if any other "tourists" had got to do what I had just done..amazing...but wait there's more. Being so high the view over the Wall and surrounding areas was fantastic. Over in a big grassed area which for years had been known as "no man's land" there was some scaffolding taking shape and a large grassed area with hundreds of dirt mounds. I asked my "guides" what it was and they said the area was being prepared for the "The Wall – Live in Berlin a live concert performance of the Pink Floyd studio album, The Wall, to be held in Berlin, on 21 July 1990, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months earlier. A live album of the concert was released in September 1990. A video of the concert was also commercially released. The concert was staged on vacant terrain between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, a location that was part of the former "no-man's land" of the Berlin Wall. The Wall was written by Waters when he was a member of Pink Floyd in 1979 with a tour following in 1980 and 1981. The show had a sell-out crowd of over 250,000 people, and right before the performance started the gates were opened which enabled another 100,000 people to watch. Fifty-two countries broadcast the two-hour event." The scaffolding was the beginnings of the stage and all the dirt mounds were where land mines had been dug up as the organisers figured having landmines explode during the concert would not be a good idea. Harry asked if I wanted to have a look. On the way back down through the labyrinth of passages etc I commented to Harry how no one seemed to mind we were just walking through their offices. He answered quite loudly and arrogantly "we are the occupying British Forces we can go wherever we like' I just smiled and gestured to the office workers and kept walking. We then drove through a special checkpoint and out into "no man's land". I was still blown away (not by the land mines) at the fact that 1 year earlier I would have been shot doing any of this. I mentioned to Harry how the tour buses used to stop at a little raised platform that enabled tourists to look over the wall at a "bump" in the grass said to be "Hitlers Mound". Harry said "oh that, yeah do you want to have a look". Next minute they stopped the Kombi and asked for my camera and said "go stand over there" which I did, then they said "jump up and down". I could not believe what I was doing. 5 years earlier we'd drive past the "Hitler's Mound viewing platform" (we did not have to stop and get out as we were in a double decker) and point to some bump in the distance and here I was actually jumping up and down on it. As Sniffer (my trainer on my training trip) used to always say "F.ck me swinging" I could not believe what I had been doing these past couple of hours. For me it was probably the best tourist experience I had ever had probably as I was so into the history of Berlin (hey I used to think the Check Point Charlie Museum was the best museum in Europe) but also because of its uniqueness at the time. Better than seeing the Space Shuttle take off or seeing Freddie & Queen in Barcelona or being at the 1984 LA Olympics Opening Ceremony. thanks Harry and also Noddy and Robyn for inviting me to the Wet Mess in the first place. :) |
| Date Entered | 06-02-2011 |
| Author | Lew Cody |
| Busname | BOOBS |
| Year | 1983 |
| Month | May |
| Info | I came across this page while trying to find details of the overland I did in 1983. Left Kathmandu on the 8th of May for 11 weeks. There were two buses, Boobs, and one other I can't remember. The trip was amazing, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Our crew were Fuzz (Gary Furey) and Fred (Real name Godfrey) a kiwi. Other courier was Benny, but forgot the drivers name (tall skinny older guy). We had the usual things happen, Delhi-belly, long border crossings, stolen passports, hassled by Iranian Guards, but I'd do it again in the morning. Often wondered what happened to all the punters. I recall a few names and would hope that they see this and email me. The irony is that now, almost 30 years later, I work for Flight Centre, which was a spin-off from Top Deck and was started by Scroo. Any of you out there who want to catch up, please email me. dmolbiz (at) gmail (dot) com . Denis. |
| Date Entered | 01-01-2011 |
| Author | Denis OLeary. |
| Busname | SNOT |
| Year | 1986 |
| Month | Jan |
| Info | Delivery trip London Kathmandu, flat out London to Turkey, slowed down after that for a great trip. I'd like to make contact with others on the trip, maybe create our own website? To avoid spam ; snail mail gets me at P O Box 880 Wanganui New Zealand or google me in NZ. Cheers : Stephen Lace |
| Date Entered | 26-05-2010 |
| Author | Stephen |
| Busname | DROUGHT BREAKER |
| Year | 1990 |
| Month | Sep |
| Info | HE10 2 weeker 29/9/90 > 14/10/90 / Driver Brian McFadden / Courier David Fulmer / May have been one of the last trips for the season / May have went to beerfest as well from memory. |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |
| Busname | AMZ COACHES |
| Year | 1990 |
| Month | OCt |
| Info | 1 MBFCC3 Beerfest 20/9/90 > 27/9/90 / Main driver Brian Henderson / Reserve Driver Brian McFadden / Courier Rails Madden / 1st coach trip for me, I never did get used to having the steering wheel on the other side ! |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |
| Busname | SNIFFER |
| Year | 1990 |
| Month | Aug |
| Info | Chinese Charter EM823 26/8/90 > 15/9/90 / Driver Brian McFadden Courier Peter Geale / Cook Narelle Sullivan / Tour leader ? This was Sniffer's second trip out. Very fast decker it did 88kmph ! Compared to Rags that did around 70kmph ? |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |
| Busname | RAGS |
| Year | 1990 |
| Month | Aug |
| Info | Chinese Charter EM728 30/7/90 > 19/8/90 / Driver Brian McFadden Courier Paul Rowe / Cook Jan Cantrell / Tour leader ? |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |
| Busname | RAGS |
| Year | 1990 |
| Month | Jul |
| Info | GE4 10 weeker last section 6/7/90 > 28/6/90 / Brian McFadden driver flown into Venice to finish trip because original driver kicked off for drunk and disorderly / Courier Matt Davis |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |
| Busname | DABUS |
| Year | 1990 |
| Month | Apr |
| Info | Chinese Charter EP428 30/4/90 > 14/6/90 / Driver Brian McFadden / Courier Jenny Hedge / Cook Narelle Sullivan ( Chook ) / Tour leader Queenie / Double departure with " Gordon " driver Toby & cook Kiwi Dave. |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |
| Busname | WINO |
| Year | 1989 |
| Month | OCt |
| Info | Chinese Charter EM928. Driver Brian McFadden / Courier Cecilia / Cook Raf / Tour leader Queenie / 30/9/89 > 19/10/89 |
| Date Entered | 23-03-2009 |
| Author | Rolly |