The beginning

A short time ago a very generous and concerned man named Peter Lobel recognized the urgent need for working fire equipment in Harare. The existing fleet was old and no longer worked, and a dear friend had lost his life. So he did what any extraordinary person would. He bought two fire engines in England.

The next problem was how to get them to Harare. Zimbabwe is land locked and the best option was to have the vehicles shipped to Namibia. From there, assuming he could find his intrepid crew, he would drive them across the Trans Kalahari Highway to Harare. This in itself is no small task. The route traverses Namibia, Botswana and a big chunk of Zimbabwe. The road quality is of uncertain nature and the communications are spotty. The crossing was to be at the beginning of summer in trucks with no air conditioning, no radios or sound systems and few creature comforts. No problems mate! He went out and signed up a group of immature fifty somethings who thought that this could actually be fun.  And that dear children is how the story starts.

 The fire engines were loaded onto the  good ship "Arcadia Highway"  in Sheerness, England in early November bound for Walvis Bay. Although you may think it looks like a bucket of bolts, it floats and moves.
 










All the paperwork was done and we even have a bill of lading to show that the machines are legal and registered!

Then in the dark and gloomy hold the wonderful machines gleamed and glowed with a spooky otherworld presence. All they wanted to do after being brought up in cold and gloomy northern England was get to the freedom of Africa, where they could roar across the desert, and make all the tourists (and the animals they were looking at) wonder where the hell they were.

Now with the great technological leaps we have taken, we track our ship on a daily if not hourly basis as it makes its way south down the coast of Africa