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Trip Preparation When preparing for a trip like this, do not underestimate the amount of time, paperwork and red tape that you need to go through. While we have prepared ourselves for paperwork and hassle at boarders, a lot of the stress and hassle actually occurs at home. Carnet You will need one if you are bringing your own car. They are available at automobile associations such as the RAC here in Western Australia once you work out just who handles them. They are not available from the usual offices. Watch out for when they date your carnet. Ours was forward dated (without our knowledge) for a date that was after we needed to load the car. The consequence of this is that the carnet cannot be released to you until that date and customs need it to inspect the car before it is shipped. We got tangled up in a stand off between the RAC who said customs didn’t need it and our shipping agent with 20 years experience saying that they did. We finally got hold of someone at customs who confirmed that customs did indeed need the carnet. We would like to formally thank Gary Pratt at ACS who was able to accept a faxed copy of the carnet to do the inspection until we were able to come in with the original. He saved us considerable cost in additional shipping charges and extra accommodation due to the prospect of the car being delayed by several weeks. We would recommend that you allow 4-5 weeks for the carnet before your ship departs with your car. Shipping The best way we found to get the car from Australia to Africa was in a 20ft sea container. We thought about the RORO option but decided that Truckasaurus would be safer in a steel box away from thieving eyes. Get quotes on shipping because they vary quite a lot. We ended up going with a company called Global Transport. Contact Trent Thornett at trent@globaltransport.com.au if you are planning to ship anything. If you have raised suspension, roof rack and larger tyres, make sure you keep an eye on your vehicle height to make sure it still fits height-wise into the container. We had to remove our roof top tent and spare wheel from the roof to get everything into the container. If in Cape Town look up Clive Chetty at Earlington Freight Management, Suite 1102, 11th Floor, Picbel Parkade, 58 Strand Street Cape Town. Email clive.chetty@earlington.co.za or phone 021 421 8855 / 084 499 6212. He is true five star material. Immunisations We have travelled into the 3rd world before, so we were prepared for the needles that no one likes. We were jabbed for TB, Cholera, Typhoid, Influenza, Hepatitis, Meningitis, Tetanus, Polio and Rabies. Add on to all this anti-malarial drugs, and we have basically been protected against everything. Some might opt not to have some of these injections, but having been seriously sick in Africa before, it is not something I would like to go through again. We have also taken a good first aid kit with us in addition to each doing a first aid course before we left. Vehicle Preparation This took a lot of time (refer to the pages that outline the modifications that we have made). We need the vehicle to be comfortable yet tough and able to cover any terrain that we might encounter. We also took the approach that we would rather spend a little more and get the best equipment than save a few dollars and have something break or let us down along the way. We cannot thank our sponsors enough for all their support.  |
