Russian aid in Africa... So good they left all their trucks behind says Jerry B on Biglorryblog!

"Well, they were once running around perhaps," says JB, "but these vehicles were spookily still and abandoned, other than the one shot of them on the road, taken some months back when they first arrived when yours truly and his box brownie toddled into a fenced, murram yard in a faraway place recently. Part of a drill rig convoy, but what are they?"

Well that's a pie quiz challenge if I ever heard one guys!

And they come with a heavy duty front end too by the looks of it...

Mmmm... A ZIL? MIL? MAZ? KAMAZ? VOLAT? MZKT?

JB goes on to say: "Back to the Ruskie Roughnecks. Tough-looking vehicles, heavily-built with massive axles, unfortunately I didn't have time to check if the green one was a special, heavy haul unit, as it was not only hued differently to the rest but was pulling a very substantially built semi-lowbed."

"Why? Because the inevitable hero with a gun appeared, right on cue, from deep slumber under a tree, stage right (as you can see in the picture above), and generously offered to shoot me if I didn't leave post haste. Which I thought was pretty unfriendly on the whole, but there we are. It was moderately difficult to argue in the circumstances."

"Meanwhile, you've seen this 12x12 ex-SCUD platform before but there's a couple more shots of it parked next to the trucks - with detail of the 3 front steering axles, central tyre pressure control system and (frankly massive) fabricated chassis members."

"We might all be stuck in deepest, darkest Africa playing with Europe's throw-outs much of the time," says JB, "but the odd, unusual toy-ski still comes along-ski every now and then to brighten up our day, to wit I still say "Andropov vorr Prezi-dent, Komrade Kruschev! Da! Yzveenee? Nyet!"

"Meanwhile", says our man "No bona fide nature notes per se today,as Volrath is the featured Bellamy Moment this time, he being sufficiently close in size, shape and general appearance/behavioural characteristics (in particular) to our primate cousins up in the trees to qualify."

"As you will see from the first Cruiser pic, punctures happen, here probably more often than most normal places, and are a near-daily occurrence during these off-road bush projects. Pretending that the high lift jack was out of order (that's it lying on the ground in front of the car) our be-tailed hero with the prehensile toes radioed in for help, not in the form of a spare jack gentle reader (which, as stated, wasn't needed in any case) but rather than raise a sweat lifting the car up manually, lets call in a Bedford-with-Atlas airstrike instead! So that one can go to the pub while the truck driver changes the wheel for one, for a small consideration.... Which pub is a fraction out of shot, on the right of the Bedford and the chap busy toiling. Marks out of ten for effort from Mr V, I certainly wouldn't give him one. In fact, for that matter I wouldn't give him one in any shape or form..."

"And there is our hero staggering in to camp some time later, properly exhausted and clutching a decoy bottle of water, after enduring the trials and tribulations of watching a wheel being changed from the refuge of a well-serviced hostelry verandah... OIA! Regards JB..."

And to finish here's a shot which I can't quite figure out where it goes... As JB hasn't captioned it! Though it does look like a convoy run by the same lot as the Marie Celeste... Where is everybody?