Ravuma crossing update

I just chatted to a girl who did the exact same route some time ago (the ferry was just out of order at the time), did the crossing on fishing boats and planks and had their car fall into the river just as they were unloading on the opposite embankment.

Theirs was the only vehicle of four that ended up submerged. Cost them a fortune (in Dollars and years of their lives) to get a tractor form nearby, the vehicle exhumed :-) and transported to the nearest town and finding a place safe to stay for the night (apparently this is a local lion haunt).

But after extensive effort by a local mechanic, they left driving it!! LOL (nervously), not sure whether this is good news or bad!?

M-L

Midnight Packing and Virtual Bridges

After a long night of trying to force a bridge across the Mozambique – Tanzania border (Rovuma River), using nothing but Google Earth and Garmap, I finally decided to try my hand at something more basic like … packing.

As you might imagine building virtual bridges strong enough to carry my Syncro (with the stuff Mari-Louise had me put in it) takes time.  Add to that the usual underestimate with regards to packing and here is me at 12:30 Friday morning. 

…taking break and about 1 hour away from sleeping.

(Note the purely accidental bear trail, courtesy of a over exposure on my camera)

Seriously though, it is amazing to think that along the 600 km (odd) border between Tanzania and Mozambique that there is only two places to cross the border.  The first is a Ferry Crossing in the west, on the coast.  Sadly this recently sank and lets just say that nobody seems to be in a hurry to fix the situation. 

The second is virtually on the Malawi lake.

This really has thrown our route into flux and frankly we do not, at this point, know where we are going to be driving.

Earlier tonight, this somewhat upset me, but at this point I must honestly say that I am fine with it.

There is a change we will commission a ad-hoc ferry crossing using tied together fishing boats.  COOL!

Ciao CHM

Car trouble…..and some more hick ups.

Well, it is just one more day before we depart on our African Syncro Odyssey. The past week we had a few serious show stopping moments. It all started last Saturday when Adri was informed that our Syncro’s engine had a MAJOR problem (something about compression and a fourth cylinder, serious damage) and that there was no way that we could embark on this journey with the engine as is. We had two options: Either try to fix/rebuild the engine in time or have a plan B lined up. It turned out that fixing the engine was not an option so plan B had to kick in. There we once again had three options: (I dread the day when we run out of options!!). The first was to go in the Touareg but we agreed that it was one, too small and two, way too luxurious for an African trip and three, it would again mean a change to our logo as this was after all a Syncro Odyssey and with one Toyota already cross dressing as a Syncro we could not afford another…

Our second option was Mimi, she is a beautiful 1975 bay window VW combi and have travelled extensively in Africa but unfortunately she is not very capable when it comes to rough terrain and she is after all a collectors item. That left us with our third option: Adri’s Doka. For those of you that don’t know, a Doka is a Syncro Kombi double cab bakkie. It is very unique vehicle and this one is the only original Syncro Doka in SA. I however, like to refer to it as The Half-loaf. Will post pictures soon.

The next set-back came yesterday when Adri had to apply for the Carnè (again, but this time for the Doka) when he realised that the engine number of the Doka did not mach the engine number on the registration certificate. Now this could be a serious show stopper at a border post if a diligent customs official picks up the discrepancy. The problem is that the Doka is registered in the Freestate. The registration certificate had to re-issued in the Freestate and then original had to be back with us on Friday. It was a stressful exercise but Ladybrand is fortunately a small town and it helps to have connections in town and in the Vehicle Registration Office and to cut a long story short…we have just received the original, correct, registration certificate for The Half-loaf!

In the meantime I have started to investigate the border crossing from Mozambique into Tanzania and the outcome was not positive at all…Apparently, the ferry that carries motor vehicles over the Rovuma river has sunk last year November! When contacting the Tanzanian Consulate, I was informed that the ferry has not been replaced and that there is no other ‘official?’ options to cross the Rovuma river. So we might need to make a small change on our route planning but will keep you posted.

Anita