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4 years 4 months ago #204003 by hayseed
Replied by hayseed on topic Bus Story

Zuffen wrote: Lang,

I'll be in India fr two weeks from Friday exclusively to try and see a Tiger, An Asiatic Lion and a Leopard in the wild.

I can well imagine your disappointment with all the to'ing and fro'ing and then not seeing a Tiger.

Hopefully I can report more success.


Good luck Zuffen, The Only tiger I saw there was In the Pathetic excuse's they call a Zoo In India...

"Be who you are and say what you feel...
Because those that matter...
don't mind...
And those that mind....
don't matter." -

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4 years 4 months ago #204008 by jon_d
Replied by jon_d on topic Bus Story
If anyone is interested;

There is an excellent blog with lots and lots of stunning photos of a couple traveling from Brisbane to Scotland via Mongolia and the Gobi, down to Morocco, back to Europe, down through India to home over 3 + years.

www.epicycles.com/

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4 years 4 months ago #204021 by wee-allis
Replied by wee-allis on topic Bus Story
I have a horror bus story with a difference. I was the driver.

Back in the days of the Brisbane Expo, I was working for a bus company who had an interstate coach branch. We were running coaches between Sydney and Brisbane, with change over drivers at Gosford and Grafton. When the passenger demand was such, they would put on extra coaches and run "two up" drivers and go straight through. On this occasion, I was rostered on to not only be the senior driver, but to train a new recruit and started my run in Gosford. Now the coach was a brand new Scania Super Decker on it's first run, with the passenger deck going the whole length of the coach and the drivers compartment below. The sleeper was behind the front axle with access up over the axle.

As we set off, the new driver, being tired, climbed into the bunk and I took the first stint behind the wheel. I set off and the first comfort stop was to be at Karuah. The Service centre was over-crowded with coaches when I arrived, so continued through to Bulladellah. No problem so far and the other driver stayed in the bunk. Off we go again with the next stop being Coffs Harbour. As we where stopped, a passenger from one of our other coaches came running up, saying that their driver had been electrocuted and was unconscious on the ground. Thinking that 24 volts wouldn't hurt him, I went to see what was happening, only to find he had been poking around in the fuse compartment and had touched to inverter, getting 240 volts. Luckily, a nurse was there and attending to him, so I ran to the nearby Police station to call for an ambulance, who attended and took him to hospital.

My "spare" driver was still in the bunk and as I was not confident to let him operate on his own I was now stuck with two coaches to drive. Luckily, a mate was driving two up for another company and offered to take the coach through to Brisbane. His only problem would be that he would be slightly over on his log book. The local Sergeant was there and "Authorised" him to continue through by signing his log book. Doubt the legality, but at the time was happy for him to do it.

Old mate was still in the bunk, so I set of, heading for a breakfast break in Ballina. Just as I was approaching Mooball, a passenger came racing down the stairs saying another passenger was having a fit. I wheeled into the Mooball servo and called an ambulance. When it arrived and we were treating the passenger, some of my other travellers got a bucket, mop and paper towels to clean up the mess made by the poor unfortunate bloke. Anyhow, off I go, arriving in Ballina well and truly late. As the passengers were going for breakfast, I got Tired Tim up and told him to go to the rest rooms and freshen up, as he has now driving.

The herd come back, get in their seats and off we go, with him driving. As we crested St Helena, I decided to go upstairs and check on my passengers. Now at this stage, they had not laid eyes on my offsider and remember they cant see the drivers compartment from up there. Imagine their shock on seeing me and the coach motoring along at about 90kms. I allayed their fear by telling them that as this was the latest model, we were now on Auto Pilot.

We arrived in Brisbane 4 hours late and I informed them all that they should consider themselves blessed as they not only go to ride on a brand new coach, with extra entertainment, but got an extra 4 hours travel at no cost.

Absolutely true. I know because I was there.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Sarge, IHScout, eerfree, Lang, Mrsmackpaul, asw120, roKWiz, Tacho

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