After many months of preparation our van is ready for our next journey. Having had a major refit and a good deal of money spent we are happy to announce that we will be travelling to Montevideo, Uruguay. Then to drive south down to Ushuaia at the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego. From there we intend to drive the length of the Longest Highway in the world. The Pan American Highway! Also known as The Pan Americana, that’s because they speak Spanish! This highway runs from the southern extreme of Argentina, along the Andes through Patagonia and Chile, then all the way up to Alaska, which I believe may be quite a long way. Actually it is about 30,000 miles long, that is about 48000km.
With such grand plans in mind we have to be aware that what we achieve may be somewhat of a different picture, but nevertheless that is what we aim for. The highway passes through or near Peru, Equador, Bolivia and Colombia.
At the top of South America, between Colombia and Panama lies an area of dense swampy jungle known as the Darien gap; jungle and swampland with no roads and is populated by drug smugglers, terrorists and man eating insects. As well as there are some communities that have remained untouched by the mainstream over the centuries.
So we will have to make another sea voyage into Central America. It may be that we will leave the van and return home for a time. We both feel that spending more than a year away from home is a bit too long.
Then we intend to tour Central America and then through Mexico and into the United States. Up to Alaska and thence to return home via Canada.
Anyway that’s the plan, right now I am nervously waiting to depart for Dover and to take the van to Antwerp Docks where it will be put on a ship for Montevideo Uruguay.
This time is really nerve wracking, as we have spent so much time trying to ensure that all is as it should be in the van. It is now that whatever is in, or on the van is how it will be as I drive to the docks. Once we deliver it to the port, well we are then truly committed! It should all be fine, but I have said that before.
I am reminded of the film “Around The World In Eighty Days”. They are up in a balloon high above the world when Foggs French valet, Passepartout realises that he has left the gas fire on! I am sure there will be something.
 Dover for the docks at Antwerp. |
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Happy Birthday Eric!
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| 6am start !!!! |
So at 6am we set off all bleary eyed from Bussum to do the 3 hour journey to the docks at Antwerp. Despite both of us feeling lousy, we had an uneventful drive. As we got into the port area we found it to be huge! We soon discovered that there is no public transport in the port and that the railway station in Antwerp is more than 20 km away. The weather had suddenly turned cold and windy which took us by surprise. The port staff were horrible and unhelpful, failing to give us any instructions and then being irritated by us not knowing the routine in the dock.
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About this point we realised that we had no idea at all how we were to get from the dock to the station to get home. Cold and carless we were realising that there was little point in asking the port staff to call a cab even.
Here is one of the beautiful aspects of overland travel. When faced with a problem the most surprising things happen! At that very moment a man came up to us and told us that he was bringing the same kind of van as we have, to ship to the same destination. They were glad that we could talk them through the process we had just gone through. Not only that, his friend had just pulled up in her car. We were so happy and grateful to accept a lift to Antwerp Central Station where we got a train to Brussels and from there the Eurostar takes an incredible 2 hours to St Pancras. It was a long day but mostly satisfactory.
The van is now ready to ship in a few days and we are flying out on the 31st October. A few weeks later that we had initially intended, but we hope to still be able to take advantage of the better weather of the Southern summer which begins in November. I am about to post this today, Friday 7th October and tomorrow I will sing in a concert with my new choir the Lovely ‘Mill Singers’ and we then start to prepare for our flight to Montevideo.
So to continue I didn't manage to post it due to computer problems and time has moved on. The van has now sailed.
The ship has sailed and we are now days away from flying out. It does seem that every time we think we are all organised something comes along and lobs a spanner in the works! On our flight out we have a stopover in Miami for a couple of days. We had assumed that we would just request a visa waiver for the United States which is a simple process. However as we got to the end of the application we discovered that you cannot have one if you have got a Sudan stamp in your passport! So we had to go through the lengthy process to apply for a visa, it took hours. Then we had to find a time when we could have an appointment for an interview so a week later we had to make a trip to London to make our application and be interviewed it took all morning and then we came back to Dorset.
On return, I discovered a technical problem with our computer. so I sent it off to Knowhow and when it did not come back at the appointed time I discovered that they had lost it!!!! we have had a few days of unmitigated grief as we have tried to make sense of the business of realising that all the photos and information was lost.
Anyhow after all that we are off in just a week ! Excited and very nervous we shall soon be going to pick our van up and start for real.
I shall endeavour to write up our peregrinations as often as I can.
So Adios Mis amigos!
Hasta la proxima.
