Close shave as Desperate Dan escapes from Rosebank Clinic

Well, well. I got discharged on Thursday morning not looking so much like Desperate Dan as I did when I was admitted. Best thing was getting rid of that drip that pinned me down for 5 days!! I had to go under the knife again on Wednesday as they irrigated my neck with antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Good job I was knocked out!!

Kaz, the veteran hospital visitor was fantastic as always, holding the fort at home, keeping things moving ahead for our trip and being there when I came back to the ward after the op. Thanks also to everyone who visited and kept the command centre busy with calls and text messages.

Right, so the plan is...last visit to doctor on Monday morning and then straight off to the highway north to catch up with Matt and Sue who are patiently biding their time in Kruger. Well, there are worse places to be!!

" Tom Cruiser does Clarens"

An auspicious and a "less-than-auspicious" send-off

Sunday 11 May, our revised departure date, came too quickly for all of us.

Saturday morning had been frantic as we tried different ways of loading the back of Tom Cruiser. We’d only picked the car up from Gerald at Alu-Cab on Friday afternoon after final snagging. The wheel arch hidey holes were quickly filled, the ammo box for spares was cunningly packed, only to find that the engine oil had leaked out, so back to square 1. Tents and groundsheets were in and tied down. The pile of things to pack got bigger and bigger, so too did Richard’s jaw and neck! But more of that later! 

 

At 10 o clock, our designated departure time, the road in front of the house was full of family, friends and neighbours coming out to wish us well. There were balloons and streamers everywhere and two very tidy looking Land Cruiser Pick-ups. Coming up the road, Matt and Sue had probably thought they were driving into a road block, naaa, just our manic mates.

 

Loads of photos are taken, the vehicles are closely inspected and finally… one Land Cruiser is revved into life and chugs slowly up the road (it is a diesel, you know) to begin the trip.

 

To find out what happened to the other one, well, you guessed it, it’s back to Richard, the “pain-in-the-neck”. To cut a long story short, after our first postponement Richard decided to have some preventative dentistry done. This involved taking out a Wisdom tooth that was starting to play up. (Easy, peasy) Saw the maxo, facillo surgeon chappy on the Wed, quick 20 min procedure in the chair on Thurs, no problem there. Straight out of the chair and on with the preparations, into work on Friday to get some scanning done, drinks at granny Friday night, starting to get more swollen, Saturday, swelling spreads to the neck, sees MFS chappy again Saturday afternoon who prescribes antibiotics and says: sorry, see me Monday morning. Sunday: even worse, so much so that while all the festivities are going on in the road, Richard is being admitted to Rosebank Clinic where he languishes still as he types this (Monday 12th, 1pm).

 

Where would I rather be?… well Kruger Park would be nice…but hey we’ll get there soon!!!

 

 

Time to reflect...

With only a couple of days to go before we set off, I thought I'd better get some of the behind-the-scenes detail down (as well as trying to upload some photies).


1. Vehicle Selection



Very tough decision and taken in soft whispers so as not to let our trusty 10-year old Landrover Discovery know that, after 283 000 kms, it was about to be replaced as our expedition vehicle by a, wait for it, LandCruiser 4.2 diesel pick-up.
Why? I suppose because Toyota is well represented all over Africa, used by the UN, accessibility of spares, lack of electronic stuff, and the ongoing niggle about LandRover quality although luckily not ever really experienced by us.





2. Modifications





The pick-up was bought new, BF Goodrich AT tyres replacing the split-rimmed marie biscuits, and delivered to Meano & Sons in Krugersdorp to be turned into a double cab.


Couple of pics showing work in progess.


Ouch!!

That's looking better.

(oh, so that's how you get a bigger picture!!) The almost finished article.

3. Mods II

Then it was off to Alu-cab in Kempton Park to add some more touches. Oh yes, while all this was going on we were trying to get it registered in the Free State. Marius from Mortimer toyota was valiantly trying to get the licensing authorities to use the new Natis number to register as a double-cab. Result...misery! Bureaucrats 1 James's 0

Their answer, No, you cannot have it registered as a "Toyota double cab", you can register it as a "Toyota Meano", now that in our opinion would alert all customs officials from here to Cairo and beyond.

Alu-cab then got stuck into (very slowly) adding the following (from front to back):

Onca bull bar with T-max Winch, IPF spotlights, dual battery system, Outback roof rack, Howling Moon 1.6 m tent, 70 W solar panel, 2 safes under back seat, Alu-cab canopy, 55l water tank, Outback drawer system, table, kitchen compartment, hi-lift jack and spade carriers, 2 jerry can brackets, IEF back bumper with dual spare wheel carriers.

4. Mods III

Tom Cruiser (aka The Beast) is currently being fitted with a radio (no, not standard equipment) and having his windows tinted, what a poser.

Sorry, no more photos on my flash drive to add at the moment.

5. What else have we done while waiting for the vehicle to be sorted?

Got jabs for yellow fever, Hep A & B, Rebecca got a cocktail of all sorts of stuff. Packets and packets of malaria tabs.

Organised carnet for the vehicle, travel insurance, foreign exchange, new digital camera Canon 400D, (Mr. Gradwell, how about lending me your lenses for 7 months??), tried to sort out Parkhurst house, sold the Noddy car (Renault Clio) to Kaz's dad (it's already talking with a Cape Town accent apparently). Taken stuff down to store in Clarens and delivered some stuff to the orphanage there. A lot of cyber squatting at Triba and anywhere else I can find a fast internet connection, thanks Sheens!

What do I miss about the bank...? Oh yes, fast network connections and my guys!!

6. What do we still need to do?

A lot!! Get Arabic translations of our passports for Libya and get the visa thing moving, visit Alu-cab to sort out some minor mods and Rob to get a list of spares to take and a crash course in fixing cars (oh, I forgot, it's not a LandRover)

Get a haircut and start packing!!