Tag Archives: South Africa

Hurry up and wait!

Ship tracker Cuthbert passing DakarSo after a great few days stop-over with our friends in Dubai on the way back to Europe from Africa, we had a long and frustrating process trying to establish which numpty is to blame for Cuthbert not being loaded onto the scheduled ship. It seems that the Port Elizabeth port staff are probably the lucky winners of this month’s “It’s Friday and I couldn’t give a s*#t” Award. Anyway…Cuthbert is now finally on his way north and the tracker shows he is just passing Dakar, West Africa.  Confucius say… “he who waits two more weeks will get nice truck from ship” 🙂

In the meantime, we have used our ‘sitting-around down-time’ wisely, enjoying great food and wine with family and friends. This included some very enjoyable ‘sitting-around down-time’ with Steven and Gilly, who are also in UK on a short break from their round-the-world expedition in their Bocklet truck with their young daughters Alisha and Lucy (see their excellent travel blog at www.overlandingfamily.com ). We have been corresponding with Steve and Gilly for a couple of years by email swapping travel and truck info, so it was great to spend some time with them in person.

Once we get Cuthbert back, we have a bit of euro-touring to do over the summer and some work to do preparing for the next stage of the adventure: Cuthbert Hits South America in September.

Watch this space, and keep all your digits crossed, for Cuthbert’s safe (and uneventful) arrival off the ship from Africa in a couple more weeks!

Cheerio Africa… over & out!

Cuthbert waiting to board his 'luxury cruise' from Port Elizabeth back to Europe

Cuthbert waiting on the dockside, ready to board his ‘luxury cruise’ from Port Elizabeth back to Europe

Finally, after an enjoyable few days in Port Elizabeth catching up with Gavin and Lee and preparing Cuthbert for the voyage, we handed him over to the shipping agent at the port.  After a small volume of inevitable bureaucracy, we said our farewell to Cuthbert and were then dropped at the airport for our flight to UK via Johannesburg and Dubai. The end of a terrific adventure 🙂

Thank you Africa, you are a truly amazing place. We’ll be back… one day!

Click here for the full story of South Africa – the Final Leg and click here for our look-back over an amazing year: Africa Highlights