Diesel Gypsies DANGER -- HEAVY GOODS

By Stefan Kanfer

Cat Weasel, Slippery Mick, Flying Pharaoh & Co. are the sobriquets of truck drivers who make the overland shuttle from England to Saudi Arabia, carrying heavy machinery to and cheap petroleum fro. Several years ago, British Journalist Robert Hutchison enlisted in the small army of these diesel gypsies, sharing their home cooking and their raunchy exploits. Aside from engine trouble and the occasional stray bullet, his lively memoir records few acknowledgments of the 20th century. Ancient hostilities persist, and bribery remains endemic. Still, customs inspectors prefer modern baksheesh. At one checkpoint, the presentation of a girly magazine "got us all waved out of the compound without further hassle."

To combat lethal roads, official harassment and wandering bandits, drivers adopt aggressive attitudes, complete with tattoos, earrings and vile vocabularies. They cannot quite disguise the soft hearts beneath their flamboyant T shirts. When an East German family gets stranded on the road in Yugoslavia, it is hauled back home gratis. As the journey concludes, a trucker wistfully remarks, "I was born in the wrong century. I should have sailed with Sir Francis Drake." Perhaps he should have, with Hutchison along to take notes. The world would then know a lot more today about what went on in the 1500s at the borders, across the seas and belowdecks.