Bye-bye Cape Town

Time has come for us to say bye-bye to Cape Town. Finally! Our time in Cape Town has been nice, despite of the real South African wintery weather, but we spent most of it on the final preparations for our 4WD-trip through southern Africa. And it's good that the time has now come to leave Cape Town behind us and explore Africa.

The past few days we have started teaching Lasse and Sil. They both have to finish the final lessons of this school year, which helps us getting the hang of being teachers. This is not an easy job, and we will need some practiceat it! We formally opened the school year and welcomed our students into our traveling school with just one class: the combination class 3/5 (that will later turn into the combination class 4/6). We invented names for ourselves as teachers and set up a ritual to make clear when school is open or closed. Claudia wears a big ruby ring, Peter a scarf around his head (to suck up the sweat from keeping order in the class), and a picture of our queen Beatrix is put on the classroom table (just like in the old days, when each classroom had a portrait of our queen dangling on the wall straight above the board). Our sons nicely played along and during lunch told us stories about their teachers. It is clear that teaching our sons will indeed provide structure to our everyday life during our trip.

Equipping the 4WD is nearing its completion. The roof rack has been mounted and the second spare tire, 2 jerry-cans for petrol and a gas bottle are fitted on top of it. We have bought 2 zip-up bags, one that holds 2 plastic containers (so-called ‘ammo boxes') for our camping gear; these will be strapped on the roof rack. We bought 2 tents, a fold-up picknick table, pans, cutlery, dishes, cups, glasses, jerry-cans, camping chairs and a second-hand camping freezer (bloody expensive gear). We also got some tools to be able to carry out small repairs ourselves, as well as spare bulbs and fuses, some essential car-fluids (engine, gearbox, power steering, brake, cooling) and a high-rise jack (1,5 m high), so we can put the 4WD on its wheels again after tipping over (we could also use it to exchange a tire off course).

Finally, we have bought ourselves some detailed maps and are exploring the precise route. Where are the nicest places to camp, how long do we stay here and there, how many km's can we travel a day, is the road tarred and how many km's do we travel over dirt-roads, etc. Getting the basics around our decided points of interest right, so to speak.

All in all, we are slowly getting out of the hectic day-to-day mode into a more holiday-like mode. Finally we have to arrive at the ‘we-really-don't-have-to-work-for-a-year mode', but that'll still take some time. We have to first put some km's behind us before we reach that state of mind. Let's just start doing that!

Cape of Good Hope

Today we visited Cape of Good Hope. A special place, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans (nearly) meet. It radiates a peculiar kind of energy. We had beautiful weather, so it was a pleasure driving in our Disco. We stopped in Simons Town to watch the penguins and their nearly grown-up babies. Very odd to walk so close and in between penguins in their nests.

We drove up further towards the Cape; it resides inside Table Mountain National Park, which was open until sunset. We missed the sign to the actual cape, so we first visited the old lighthouse. Lasse and Sil stayed at the car park, feeding the red-winged birds as Lasse wasn't feeling too well. Peter walked up to the lighthouse, from where you have a magnificent view. It's not really the point where two oceans meet; this is further towards the east.

Finally we stopped at the actual Cape of Good Hope. A real nice landmark. Lasse and Sil climbed up the rock face, which was rather steep, so Peter followed suit, while Claudia performed some yoga. Great waves braking on the rocks, a pretty sight and place to be. We got out of the park just before sunset (and thus did not have to pay a R 500 fine). As it was getting late and dark, we bought some junk food and ate it in the car. There goes rule #1: never drive in the dark. We have to get better at planning. But it was all worth the effort.

Getting us a 4WD

Like the actual route, our ideas about the type of 4WD, and the necessary equipment, have changed a number of times. Land Rover Defender (the strongest), Land Rover Discovery (more comfortable) or Toyota Hilux Double Cab (more reliable and bigger)? There is so much to choose from! And what about the camping equipment? Rooftop tent (safe) or do we take a ground tent (more flexible)?

On the first day after our arrival in Cape Town Peter went for a test-drive in a Toyota Hilux D/C, equipped with rooftop tent and the basic camping equipment. The price for this 20-year old car was 90.000 Rand (~ 9.000 Euro). Not cheap, though sturdy and reliable, but a bit worn down. After some debate, we decided against the rooftop tent. This would mean that every time we want to use the car, we first have to pack all our gear. Besides, the owner of the Hilux was a German living in Berlin, and we were dealing through his local friend who would shortly leave on holiday for a month. At the very least a time-consuming route, and possibly an unreliable one. Exit Toyota Hilux.

From Claudia’s niece Elena, who lives in Cape Town, we got the tip of a local second-hand car dealer down the road who specialises in 4WD. They had a number of Land Rover Discovery’s for sale and 2 of them suited our budget. We fell in love with a blue Discovery 1, automatic, with a 4 liter V8 petrol engine, and about 127.000 km on the clock. The other one was a diesel with manual shifting and much more mileage. We took an option on the petrol version and took a day to discuss the sort of tent and equipment. The next day, after de decision on the tent was taken, we bought the car for 80.000 Rand, including 2 new tires, a dual battery and a second spare tire. Via the Internet we acquired a used aluminium roofrack, which we will pick up after the weekend. The car dealer helped us arrange a third-party liability, theft and fire insurance. Relatively easy, the only prerequisite was to be able to give a resident address. Now we only have to buy some camping equipment (tent, cooker, mattresses, chairs, table, pots, cutlery, plates, etc), and off we are. Africa, here we come!

Comfort zone .....

There we are: tired after a 28 hours flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town, waiting at the airport for our airport shuttle that will bring us to our apartment downtown. So far, so good. We get in a mini-bus with about 4 to 5 other clients. Everybody has to tell the driver where he or she wants to go to. The driver then decides the route, and off we are. We are first in line to be dropped-off.

When we near the place we need to be, Canterbury Square in Vredehoek, our driver stops the mini-bus, takes out a big roadmap and takes some minutes to see how he needs to drive. After 3 more stops and a couple of u-turns, our driver decides to ask people in the street for directions. Then we arrive at our apartment, or at least, what we believe to be our apartment, but we are not sure. How do we really know if this is the right place? No clear sign on the building.Get out the mini-bus with our luggage? No, first make sure we are at the right address. We press the intercom button and a whispery voice answers, but it takes some time to make clear who we are and why we are here. Luckily, the housekeepster appears to be informed about our arrival and allows us in. There is, however,nobody waiting for us and we have no keys. Luckily (again) for us the cleaning lady is still working in our apartment so we can bring in our stuff and ourselves. After some time the assistant to the landlord arrives, gives us some brief instructions and our keys.

Nothing to eat or drink in the house. Still time before it gets dark (6 pm), so Peter heads for the nearest shopping mall. It's not far, only a 10-minute walk. After enthusiastically loading his shopping kart, Peter finds out that shopping in South Africa is more expensive than anticipated. The bill is too big for his wallet and he has to take out part of the essential shopping and everything left needs to be scanned once again. And the line-up is getting longer and longer.....

After dinner and when Lasse and Sil are deep asleep, we lie in bed contemplating how we feel. A bit drawn out of our comfort zone, but wasn't that exactly what this was all about?

The first leg – flying to Cape Town, South Africa

11.15 am - while our boys are sounding the car's horn relentlessly, we are slowly driving out of our street, waved goodbye by friends and neighbours. Finally, it took us days packing our stuffandcleaning our house, but we have now actually started our trip around the world! Still hard to believe. One thing is clear: a month holiday prior to embarking on a year's holiday is not sufficient for all the preparations!

We are met at Schiphol airport with Tineke and Marieke and Marie (or 'Aunt Polly', as you like), along with Jos, Benno, Boris and Sam. Checking in and dropping off our luggage went very smoothly, so we meet with them again quickly in the Panorama restaurant. Enough time for a cup of coffee and for saying our last good-byes.

Already during the first flight from Amsterdam to London, it is clear that this will be a special year, being so close to each other and spending so much time with each other. It's amazing to see where just spending time with each other leads to. It's so different from our normal day-to-day life.

Farewell party

Saying goodbye to friends and family

Shit, things are going quick now! Busy with cleaning, throwing away old stuff, puttingtogether packing lists, disecting schoolbox (safes weigth), ripping CD's, chatting to neighbours in between,....., before weknew the day of our farewell party had arrived.The date was right, but according to our planning some days appeared to have vanished in between .....

Getting a bit nervous now. Only one week togo and then our plane leaves for London, Johannesburg toCape Town. ProvidingEyjafjallajökull allows us off course (revenge ofIcesafe?).

We have very much enjoyed our party - thank you all for coming, forthe nice presents, your kind attention and friendliness and the special moments wesharedon the dancefloor. It was fun having you all together at our party; for some it even seemed like a reunion. We also deeply enjoyed seeing our kids playing with their friends. It wasn't easy to get them to go home with the babysitters when it was their bedtime!

Our party also set another process in motion. Up to now, we were mainly busy with practical preparations. Too busyactually, so we have not given much thoughts to where this journey will take us andwhat it will do to us.Because of the party we have started working on this in our minds. Some tears have flown, we said good-bye to many of you and some we will see once or twice before we leave.

Thank you once more for this very nice evening. Danke. Dankjewel. Obrigado.