Shipping the truck to Africa
The plan is to get a Carnet, ship the truck to Durban. Pick the Landy up in Durban
and clear it through customs with the help of an excellent agent.
Drive to Pretoria where we are staying with family and visit the Eezi Awn factory
in Randburg to have our roof tent fitted. In the meantime we will visit the Outdoor
Warehouse and Safari Centre in Pretoria and get our last bits of equipment. Once
that is complete we pack the Landy and drive down to Knysna - visiting family along
the way and then spend Christmas in Knysna with our family before we go on our big
adventure.
Sounds simple! Little did we know...
Nightmares!
Nightmare 1: Importing vs Carnet
We thought there may be a few nightmares but didn't know in what shape or form.
After speaking to Paul Gowen at the RAC about a Carnet we realised importing a car
into South Africa would be very difficult. As a South African, you have to prove
you are returning to live there, amongst other things. But we were planning on going
back to the UK after our adventure. It is understandable how the whole process works
as each country wants to protect their local market.
We settled on applying for a Carnet and then shipping the Landy back to the UK once
our travels are over.
Nightmare 2: The rush
After our trip to Morocco, the Landy needed a few modifications. This took about
a week, but we knew as soon as they were done we were ready to ship the car. We
didn't have a lot of time to get the final preparations done. We found a few shipping
companies but most were very slow with information/quotes and we were ready to ship.
Talking to the shipping companies we knew they departed from the UK once a week
but wanted to receive the vehicle a few days in advance - that didn't give us a
lot of time to find the right shipping company, get the final supplies, pack the
Landy and get it to the docks.
In the end we settled for George Baker. Our contact, Tessa Wade really knows her
stuff and was able to help us swiftly. Our estimated departure date was Monday 16
November which meant we had to drop the Landy off in Felixstowe the Wednesday before.
Little did we know how much ESTIMATION goes into an estimated departure date.
The weekend before we were due to take the car to Felixstowe I was still frantically
buying the last items e.g. maps, guide books, a few spares for the Land Rover, "kitchen"
items, a new sleeping bag and mat for our daughter. Some of them I bought online
and were due to arrive that week. Some of it arrived in time to be packed in the
Landy but a few items arrived a day later - so we ended up flying with very heavy
suitcases to SA.
Dropping the Landy off in Felixstowe was a breeze... little did we know. A day or
so later the gale force winds started howling around the UK. Our departure date
became later and later.
Nightmare 3: Time line
The winds had such a knock on effect on our plans. The Eezi Awn Factory (where we
wanted to get our roof top tent) was due to close on 10 December for the South African
Christmas and Summer Holidays. Our original ETA in Durban was 9 December.
After talking to various agents in Durban we learnt it could take 2-3 days to clear
the Landy through customs. Looking at our time line, we were never going to get
to the Eezi Awn factory on time. We decided we would have to go to one of the Safari
Centres (Eezi Awn distributor) to get our Roof top tent.
The original plan was to pick the car up in Durban, drive to Pretoria and have the
roof top tent fitted at the Randburg factory. Not catching them before they close
we changed that to the Pretoria Safari Centre. We got a quote from them and it looked
like that was all settled. We would have a roof top tent.
Now all we needed to do was find an agent in Durban who understood Carnets and could
assist us in clearing our car through customs. Tessa Wade was able to recommend
Danny Daniels. He was very helpful and everything appeared to be arranged on our
side. Now we just needed to wait for the day our ship with our Landy container left...
and still the winds blew...
Nightmare 4: And the winds blew and blew
Our ETA became later and later in December. We were planning on spending Christmas
with our families in Knysna on the Garden Route (a few hours drive from Cape Town).
Our ETA for Durban was now 21 December. We would never be able to make picking up
the car, driving to Pretoria, get the roof tent fitted and make it down to Knysna
- all in time for Christmas.
What to do? We decided to change our destination to Cape Town instead of Durban.
Speaking to Tessa, this was possible as our container was still sitting on the dock
waiting for a ship. That meant getting a new quote from Safari Centre in Cape Town
and a new customs agent.
Another option we considered was to spend Christmas in Knysna and afterwards, when
we offically start our adventure, to go via Durban and get the roof tent fitted
there.
Our ship finally left on Friday 27 November – almost 2 weeks later than originally
planned!
Nightmare 5: Finding an agent
At first we thought how hard could it be to find an agent in Durban. We got a list
of companies from several people: Footloose, George Baker and a few other overlanders.
But after talking to them we realised a lot of them didn't know what a Carnet was.
As our Landy was loaded with all our supplies: camping gear, "kitchen", spares etc.
some of the agents wanted all of these items listed on the Carnet. Going back to
Paul at the RAC he explained to me that that is not what the Carnet is all about.
Trying to explain this to the agents was not easy. Some of them wanted all the items
to be taken out of the Landy and shipped separately in the container. What a nightmare!
Where would we pack everything?
Tessa recommended a few people but in Durban we liked Danny Daniels the most. He
was able to answer all out questions without saying "I'll get back to you" and then
not doing so. We may make use of his services if we ship the Landy back from Durban
to the UK.
After deciding to change our destination to Cape Town we needed to find a new agent.
Tessa could recommend only one company: Advanced Transport. Charlotte Kilian is
the contact there. After all the agents I spoke to she appears brilliant. Tessa
said she is the only agent she uses. Having had to explain to other agents we are
not importing the car to South Africa but have a Carnet, she instead asked all the
questions. I was so impressed with her from the word go. We will see if it all works
out when we collect the car.
Waiting...
18 Dec 09 – We are now at the stage where we are waiting to hear when we have our
appointment with the customs officials. Our ship arrived on Monday. It takes 2-3
days to offload all the containers. Then it gets taken to a warehouse. Charlotte
has already started the clearance process as I sent my passport and Carnet to her
over a week ago. She then makes an appointment with the customs officials to go
through everything and we can collect our car. We are hoping to get our car on Tuesday
(22 Dec).
Then it is off to Safari Centre to get the roof tent fitted. Do a bit of final supply
shopping in Cape Town and then to drive back to Knysna (6 hour drive from CT) in
time to spend Christmas with our families.
YEAH!!! We finally got our Landy back on 28 December. What a story that was.
Charlotte said our appointment with customs will most likely be on Tuesday 22 Dec.
We decided to drive to Cape Town from Knysna on the Sunday 20 December. We would
break the 6 hour journey into 2 and stay with friends in Witsand who were on holiday
there. We had a lovely day there. The next morning (Monday) we headed for Cape Town.
We got half way and stopped in Riviersonderend to refuel when we received a call
from Charlotte. She had managed to confirm our inspection appointment but the first
appointment available was Thursday, 24 Dec. Then she went on to explain because
of Xmas and most companies running skeleton staff we won't be able to get the car
that day. The way the system works is, the customs officials inspect the goods arriving
in a container – in our case our Landy – and then they process the paperwork to
clear the paperwork. That normally takes a day. So we can only physically drive
our Landy on 28 December. We were gutted! Charlotte also mentioned we did not physically
need to be at the inspection appointment and if she were us, she would wait in Knysna
and wait till the 28th. She will be our representative at the appointment. We probably
sat at the petrol station for 20 minutes debating what to do when we decided to
turn around. So we headed back to Knysna. We made Charlotte promise us to phone
the moment she has seen the Landy just so we know it got here ok and doesn't look
like a ball of crumpled tinfoil.
What a lovely phone call /Christmas present that was on the 24th when Charlotte
phoned to say the car didn't even have a scratch! We had a lovely Christmas with
our family in Knysna and on Boxing day, hit the road again headed for Cape Town.
This time to fetch the landy for certain! What a glorious week we spent in Cape
Town catching up with old school friends and drinking far too much wine... It was
so exciting when the Landy pulled into the drive way (afternoon of the 28th). Vanessa
was jumping up and down for joy and ran to give the Landy a big hug! Frank mentioned
that they didn't even go through our boxes or ask what they contained. We had all
the keys for the roof box and drawer and they didn't even ask what was inside. Guess
we were just lucky!
The next morning, bright and early we headed for Safari Centre (I hate driving around
Goodwood as I always get lost there – even though I grew up in CT and we had the
Garmin – wrong coordinates). We got to Safari Centre when they said the Eezi Awn
Ttop Tent we ordered won't fit on our roof rack – there wasn't enough space. They
were trying to explain how much it will overhang and how far this part sticks out
etc. etc. but because we had only ever seen a small picture of the Ttop, and the
only Eezi Awn we'd seen physically was the little ordinary one, we couldn't grasp
what they were telling us. Our blood was just to start boiling when they said, they
will put it on the roof and we can have a look. And what do we know... it fitted
perfectly! We are now the proud owners of a home away from home: Eezi Awn T Top
Tent 1.6m.
That evening we climbed into it – I'm glad we opted for the 1.6m as I don't know
how they say you could fit 2 adults and 2 children in there. We'll be 2 adults and
one small child? Mmm, makes you wonder.
January 2010 – We are now back in Knysna. Our families have gone back to their jobs
and lives which leaves the 3 of us to do the final bit of research, route planning
and preparation.
Documents
- Carnet de Passages en Douane (CPD) – the old RAC website re. Carnets was much clearer.
They have changed the layout so it isn't as easy as before to find the information.
Paul Gowen can answer all your questions. His number is 08000 468 375 – you can
leave a message. He is generally very good at getting back to you. http://www.rac.co.uk/plan-atrip/carnet-de-passage
-
International Driving License – can be obtained from the RAC, AA etc.
- Ownership
Papers for the Vehicle (V5 in the UK)
- Travel Insurance papers – make sure the
travel insurance company is affiliated with SAS or Europe Assistance
- International
Certificate of Motor Vehicles – obtained from the AA (quite a disappointing silly
document, but it may just come in handy)
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/icmv.html