Cape Town Week 3 Continued

After checking the chassis & engine numbers matched the Carnet, the customs officer then wanted to see inside. We had been dreading having to unload everything, but thankfully by now we were on good terms so after a cursory look she was just highly amused to see we had brought everything but the kitchen sink.

It was nearly over, all we had to do now was wait whilst the customs officer went back to her office to make out her 'report'. Lance who by now had re-appeared without the mysterious document which seemed to be no longer important promised to return in about 1-2 hrs with the necessary sign off so we could get Rupert past security.

Two hours went by then three but still no Lance, whilst waiting some old white South African gent came over inquisitive about Rupert and to just generally shoot the breeze. He was a nice old boy and when he mentioned he was there to send back some tea which had been over delivered to Cape Town we just assumed he was a local businessman.

It was now nearly 5.30 and the local supervisor came over to ask we move Rupert to the front entrance as they were closing for the day. By now we were really concerned as we had no way of getting back to Hout Bay other than by driving Rupert plus if Lance didn't make it we didn't want to leave him overnight in the open even if it was behind the security fence. After more frantic calls to Rohlig we eventually found out customs had released Rupert's clearance over an hour ago but nobody knew where Lance was so we had nothing to prove it! 

Seemingly unconcerned we could be stranded Rohlig suggested we try and find a guy called Leon who may let us take Rupert away without the paperwork, we couldn't believe how unreliable Rohlig had been but couldn't deal with that now.

We went over to the security guard to ask for Leon but after checking he came back to tells Leon had left for the day, shit! I tell him Rupert has been cleared to leave but are still waiting for the guy with the clearance to come back, he tells us he cannot let us leave without the ok from "the boss", "Whose the boss I asked?

Imagine our surprise when he points out the old boy who we had chatted to over an hour ago and who by now is deep in conversation on his mobile. Africa is all about who you know and unbeknown to us this old gent just happened to be the chief honcho for the whole of Cape Town docks so it was pure luck we had met him and took the time to chat.

As soon as he heard our tale he straight away ordered the guard to let is leave.. that's what I love about Africa, the 'rules' are there but they are never taken as seriously as they are in the 'developed' world like UK.

Now we could leave but we still had a big problem, just after our arrival in Cape Town the whole area began running out of diesel and by now none was to be found anywhere around Cape Town and reports were coming in that even Botswana, Zambia and Namibia were starting to run dry.

It transpired two years before the SA government had set a deadline of the 5th January 2006 for all the oil companies to upgrade their refineries to produce cleaner fuel but as usual in Africa nothing much had happened until the twelfth hour and now there had been some cock-up and production had all but ceased so stockpiles had all but run out. 

To make matters worse Christmas/New Year is the busiest time of the year on the roads so every man and his dog was on the road trying to get fuel and even worse we had only left a small amount of fuel in Rupert when we shipped him, partly for safety reasons but also because we knew fuel is far cheaper in SA however we never in a million years imagined we could not get any once we arrived.

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