The adventure starts a little early!

The adventure starts when we drive away from Cape Town with the G, we thought. In Rotterdam we are already faced with a surprise. That is just the beginning, it turns out.

Customs control
The carrier advises to wait a while before booking the flight until the container is on the ship. Good advice, customs select our container during a random check. We know exactly what that means, because all actions are clearly stated on the invoice that we are allowed to pay. Re-load the container on a truck, drive to customs, break the seal, carry out a check by customs, re-measure gas and seal. Fortunately, the boat is slightly delayed and our container can still be taken. Relieved we book the flight to Cape Town.

Container ship sails past Cape Town
Bad news. The Santa Rosa deviates from the sailing schedule and ignores Cape Town. The weather conditions at Cape Town are not optimal and the shipowner has decided to first sail to Durban, then return via Port Elisabeth to Cape Town for a second attempt to moor. The car is put ashore two minutes later in the capital. In other words, we hand in 14 rest days on the overland trip. The forwarder promises to handle the car urgently and hopefully the damage will be limited to 10 days. We are happy to keep the four days won for any future setback. We decide to spend the waiting time in the Netherlands on extra preparations, and rebook our flights and the hotel.