Documents Continued

Shipping

Shipment from the UK had been managed by Foleys but as they usually ship their vehicles to Walvis Bay in Namibia then we had to make our own arrangements in Cape Town.

As a major seaport there are no shortage of shipping agents in Cape Town but it was difficult getting most to answer our emails as the weeks leading up to Christmas are their busiest time of the year.

We eventually narrowed our search down to two companies and settled on a company called Rohlig Grindrod for no other reason than they were the cheapest! You can see how they fared in the December 2005 journal.

Money

One of the major headaches whilst we are away will be carrying sufficient funds to support us for the year. The plan is to use credit cards wherever possible but even in South Africa where they are widely accepted they are not accepted in petrol stations so we will have to use cash.

Equally in the game parks you have to pay cash in US Dollars and at $100 per person per night on average to camp then you need a lot of hard currency.

Also in many places we anticipated it would be difficult to change travellers cheques therefore we decided to carry the majority of our funds in $US cash, with some travellers cheques in GBP as a backup and some South African Rand in cash to get us started.

We have arranged for all credit cards to be paid by direct debit and most we can monitor online when the opportunity arises, ditto our bank accounts.

Update: In Malawi and Tanzania we found it virtually impossible to use credit cards so we changed our modus operandi and started to use ATMs wherever possible saving our dollars cash for the game parks as they don't accept payment by foreigners in local currency. ATMs are pretty widespread nowadays and straightforward. We find on average each withdrawal costs about £1.50 - £2 in service charges, which is more cost effective than changing forex, so we no longer carry Travellers Cheques.

Certificates/Backup Documents

It is a good idea to take sufficient copies of identity type documents such as birth & marriage certificates, passport, driving licence, also some confirmation of your blood type.

Also don't forget to take things like operating instructions, manuals, PC repair discs, software for special PC applications etc etc.  

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