HOME SAFELY
It was strange how at the end of the trip we became very lazy. Staying in the hotel and only venturing out to organise our flights or visit the shipping agent and get the Toyota home. Our explorer’s curiosity had slowed down and we were happy to take advantage of the pool, the sunshine, the bar and the restaurant. Also the fact that the North Beach promenade area was all being refurbished for World Cup 2010 didn’t encourage us to go out and about. It looked like a definite ‘work in progress’ and with only a short time to go we hoped that it will all be finished in time.
Our first and most important job was sorting out the shipping and a visit to the agent. There we met Anja and Joerg for the first time and were not surprised to hear that we had common friends in fellow travellers. With many following a similar route we all kept bumping into each other!
Thanks to Helen Thompson – helen@aseco.co.za - at ASECO Container Services (PTY) Ltd everything went very smoothly with just a few little jobs for JC to sort out, like getting rid of the gas bottle, finding hard hats for us to wear on the dock and ensuring that we didn’t have full fuel tanks! Driving around the city, the coast and the docks solved the last problem but what do you do with a gas bottle or how do you find hard hats, without buying them, in a strange city whilst staying in a hotel?
Well, Moses, the concierge was happy to take our partly full gas bottle off our hands and JC suggested to him that he “tip” some of the workmen on the promenade to let us borrow four hard hats for a couple of hours – no problem apparently!
With a confirmed shipping date we headed to Flight Centre where Vicky Hansen pulled out all the stops to get us the best price and the best route for our flights home. We had been trawling through various internet sites to do it ourselves but with so much choice it was great to leave it all in Vick’s very capable hands – www.flightcentre.co.za or vicky.hansen@flightcentre.co.za.
The big day arrived – vehicles to the dock and JC went off in search of our hard hats. No sign of Moses anywhere and the concierge on duty that day –Jason knew nothing about them. However, he pulled out all the stops and within a short time we were ready to roll with two regular hats and two orange fireman’s hats. Well done Jason!!
We found our way to the meeting point and with Joerg and Anja we got to the dock on time to meet the surveyor and customs officers.
The loading went well – JC had not put on as much weight as we had thought because he could still just manage to squeeze out of the window and over the roof of the vehicle to get out of the container!!
As the doors of the container were slammed shut and sealed up, the realisation that the trip was really over set in and thoughts of the Winter weather facing us in the UK and Joerg and Anja in Germany made us all shiver!!!
Safely back at home now, we have been looking over our photographs and the website, it is surprising how much you forget even in a short period of time, and reminding ourselves of the wonderful places we have seen and people we have met along the way.
It has been a pleasure to have you all with us on our journey. Thanks for all of your messages. We will let you know when we are off again.