Action at last

I woke up at 3 after a solid five hours of sleep. Les had my computer so I couldn't even catch up on email. However I am now an expert on the elections in Egypt and the Congo. We started at about 8 and bought coolers, grill equipment and other paraphernalia. We got to the clearing agent and the first bad news. Although the ship had docked the fire engines were still on board and were in no danger of imminent offloading. After a while we got a call saying that the batteries on the trucks were dead, so we had to arrange to have new batteries installed on the ship. next step was getting the documentation done and after a lot of toing and froing that was complete. Then we were told that the police clearances to drive in Namibia had to be obtained before we could take the trucks out of the dock area.  Big fee attached to that! Peter was the absolute executive burning up the phone lines ( is that still a relevant expression if one is using a cell phone).

The mural on the wall of the Seaman's Mission

In all of the time spent at the dock entrance the sole comfort was the seaman's mission. I am not sure how much business a place like this does any more because the ships get in and out of port pretty quickly, but it is a friendly place and they sell sim cards.










The day was stretching on and the six of us had invaded the clearing company's office. Its not a big office with only four employees, so they were overloaded. We eventually went to lunch while Peter went back to the docks, and when we got back we were told that although we now had paperwork, police clearances, new batteries, and good looking t-shirts, the ship owners would not release the trucks until all of the 400 odd vehicles that had been transported were ready. So I sit here in the company offices typing patiently and waiting for the fiasco that is called clearing to end. Maybe we will leave today or maybe tomorrow.

We have just heard that even though we have grovelled well, we haven't been successful, we will now only leave tomorrow. Bummer!!!!. It means we are now going to run at least a day behind schedule. We also have to rearrange all of our accommodation and find somewhere to stay tonight, not an easy task in a megalopolis the size of Walvis Bay

And so we start

We made it! Despite a myriad of routes and connections through a variety of airports in the US and Africa we have all arrived in Walvis Bay on time. I landed yesterday afternoon after sitting around Tambo airport in Johannesburg for a few hours. It was there that I realized something interesting. I was watching the monitor in the lounge to make sure that I didn't miss the boarding call. I didn't want to miss the only flight to Walvis of the day, and they tend to be pretty rigorous about boarding at least 30 minutes ahead of time because for short flights they use shuttle buses to get you to the plane. Sitting daydreaming it suddenly dawned on me. They only posted the flights 30 minutes before departure. The TV screen wasn't big enough or sophisticated enough to show more than about a dozen flights. So in essence if you were there long enough to see your boarding call on the monitor you were too late. The shuttle had already gone. I made it on time

The flight to Walvis was uneventful but flying across Botswana and Namibia you get a sense of how big the distances are and how little there is to fill them. Just miles and miles of nothing. Boulders and rocks are the scenic interruptions.

As I was coming through passport control I discovered that Alan had been on my flight, and there to greet us were the shining countenances of Peter and Johnnie. Peter rented a minibus to so we had wheels big enough to hold us and our stuff. So the good news was that all of us made it in one piece.







The bad news was that our trusty steamship, the Arcadia Highway, was arriving on time, Africa time, exactly 28 hours late. That means that it was berthing at aboput 9 p.m. Monday. No trucks until Tuesday. We also tried to get permits to allow us into the docks so that we could film the trucks as they disembarked with headlights wide open. looking around their new land. Unfortunately we were non grata, and so we decided to go back to Swakopmund, and get settled.

On the way we stopped at a huge sand dune on the side of the road. There was a flat road about 300 yards long leading up to the base, but the attraction was that there were about 20 people parasailing off the dune. The wind blows from offshore onto the dune, and if you know what you are doing, all you have to do is unfurl yur sail and the wind will pick you up, take you to the top of the hill, and then you glide back down, turn around and do the same thing all over again. Incredibly tranquil and beautiful. The folks who knew how to do it were jsut hanging out gliding in huge sweeping arcs across the dune and then back up to the top.Matt Lauer missed out on this one.

The next critical stop before the hotel was the butcher shop to stock up on biltong. ( For those of you who are all enough educated to not know what that its, it is a staple of southern African life, a spiced dried meat that you can eat liced, or just rip off the main piece with your teeth. Dentists love it). I bought some springbok and some kudu, and the we we were ready to check in.





We stayed at a really quaint little hotel, the Hotel Eberwein,  with the nickname Villa Hille, a vestige of German colonial days. I guess I am lucky because I didn't have to argue about who shared with those of us who snore. I got a single.

Before we arrived the other guys had gone to the docks  to check on the progress of the ship and our treasure. While there was very little in the way of actual information, they did come to know the seaman's mission. I would bet dollars to donuts that none of this crew had ever been into a seaman's mission before. They are typically run by a church organization, and provide some creature comforts like clean accommodation, hot food and a little entertainment like pool and darts to sailors in port for a few days (fewer and fewer of those as the technology of marine transportation changes).They stumbled upon an interesting art source. There were a team of painters doing large murals on some of the walls of buildings near the docks.

They also got to know the security team at the dock gate, who function as policemen, firefighters and EMS people.Nothing like having a multitasker in an emergency. Who needs specialization anyway. Their fearless leader is a man by the name of Rassie who took a shine to us because of what we are doing







We went for dinner to a restaurant built from the remains of an old tug. Guess what it is called - The Tug. Its attached to a jetty and you overlook the waves breaking on the beach. It was so good that the guys went there the night before also.Then back to the hotel and an early night.

The precipice

Well the time has come,
the walrus said to speak of many things.
Of ships and trucks and ladders too
Of fire pumps - Ka - ching!!!!!

I think we hit the jackpot doing this trip, and its something that we will look back on  as a Mastercard event, priceless.

Two of the guys, Peter and Johnnie, have already left and are establishing our foothold in Walvis Bay. Steven, Les and Alan get there Sunday and Errol on Monday. The ship should dock on Sunday so assuming that nothing broke on the way down, we will be able to leave Tuesday.

Our route is final, and the little blue dots are our waypoints. Our next post will be from Walvis Bay or Swakopmund where I know we will have internet access

Slow and steady progress

Bit by bit our steadfast ship is meandering down the west coast of Africa. She is now in Accra, Ghana.  A stop here, a detour there, taking on cargo, offloading all manner of things that a tramp carries. The transponders are only switched on irregularly, so it makes tracking difficult and frustrating. Nevertheless our eagle eyed watchers assure us that the ship will berth on the 26th in Walvis Bay, just a few hours behind schedule.


Armed with that confidence we have made dinner reservations for the two nights we will be in Swakopmund, a beautiful little town just a few miles up the coast from Walvis Bay. This is the original resort built by the German colonials when they settled in what was then German West Africa. Their influence is still seen and tasted all over, from the great beer to the quaint and a little dated European architecture.

Bags are being packed, medication of all sorts together with a defibrillator carefully stowed, bug spray checked. We are all leaving from our respective homes on Friday and Saturday. The plan is to be there in Walvis Bay when the trucks are driven down the plank on Sunday, have them thoroughly checked out by Monday night, and leave on Tuesday. I have just found out that there are cigarette lighter outlets on board, so we can charge iPods, computers, phones, cameras and all kinds of other bits and pieces. This is very good news since there are few other creature comforts on the trucks. Too bad you can't run an a/c unit off 12v outlets. Oh well, the fresh air will be good for us.