Cape Town (Preparation & Frustration)

Early Monday morning we get a call from Ross at Rohlig, he  urgently needs our passports in order to arrange the slot with customs! This was really annoying as we specifically asked if anything else was required when we took the Carnet in on Friday!

This wasn't the only other bit of bad news, on Friday Ross had told us that due to bad weather Rupert's vessel was due to dock yesterday (Sunday) but it now turns out that in Port Elizabeth he was transferred to another vessel and it had only docked that morning! 

In consequence we cannot get a slot with customs until Wednesday at the very earliest and even this is not guaranteed! We were now really up against the clock in terms of getting the additional kit fitted before the Christmas shut down but there is nothing else for it but to once again trek into Cape Town with the morning rush hour traffic. When we eventually see Ross he promises to call us the next morning with confirmation of the customs slot.

Next day, Tuesday, we hang around for Ross's call, midday arrives and still no call so we ring to find out what is happening only to find Ross has taken the day off! Eventually we find out from his boss that the meeting with the customs is setup for 2pm the following day.

Since arriving in Cape Town we had spent nearly all our time either traipsing backwards and forwards to the shipping agents or to various camping stores buying things like a ground tent, gas lamp, cooker, even a portable loo, the result being we had not had any opportunities yet to do the touristy things like go up Table Mountain.

Even when an opportunity had arisen the weather had been against us so as the weather is good today so after finishing in Cape Town along with many others we drove up Chapman's Peak where the views out to Sea are stunning for some well deserved sundowners.

Wednesday the 12th Dec dawns and once again we are up early to check out more camping gear and then to head downtown to  hopefully collect Rupert from the docks. Rohlig outsource the customs clearance bit to another company so at 1.30pm we met a new contact Lance and travelled in his car over to the customs building to collect the customs officer on whose goodwill we are now heavily reliant. On the way Lance tells us clearance can be either easy or hard depending on who you get to inspect the vehicle so when he comes back to the car with a rather stern looking lady then our hearts dropped.

On the way over to the docks we try engaging her in conversation and eventually she starts to lighten up a bit so by the time we arrive at the inspection area we are feeling a bit more relaxed. All around us was a sea of containers and we are wondering how in all this they will find the one Rupert's in.

The customs lady already has our Carnet and we give her a copy of the bill of lading but she wants some other document which Lance doesn't have which puts her back in a bad mood so he scuttles off to try and get it. Meanwhile the she barks out instructions to the dockers in Zulu and as if by magic our container suddenly appears on the end of a hoist on this huge truck looking like some giant preying mantis.

The container is set down and the customs officer quickly checks the serial numbers against the seal then suddenly it is cut off and lo and behold there is Rupert. We were mightily relieved to see him and to us he looked fine but then the senior docker pointed out that the lashings used in the UK to tie down the back had snapped so looking concerned he squeezed in to check out the front. Now we suddenly had visions of Rupert rolling violently backwards and forwards in rough seas so it was with great trepidation we awaited his report!

It was with a huge sigh of relief that he reported everything seemed ok, thankfully the big wooden chocks placed under the wheels had done their job although an old tyre placed at the front to cushion any impact had been squashed almost flat! 

After knocking out the chocks I was invited to squeeze in and nearly a month after we had dropped Rupert off at Foleys I slowly backed him out onto African soil -  the Rupert had landed!

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