Mombasa, Kenya
11 / Dec / 2010 Filed in: Kenya
Good morning Tiwi Beach! You are gorgeous but what happened to our morning cup of coffee? Last night, we arrived just before midnight at the cottage that we had booked for the last few days in Kenya and at this time it is of course dark. For once, we did not drive in the dark ourselves, we were dropped off by our shipping agent. Some weeks ago, we decided to ship our car back to Europe after having been on the road for 11 months. The initial idea of settling down somewhere in Africa along that trip has changed for us. We still love Africa, no doubt about all it has to offer as a unique destination, but we came to realize we couldn't live here. Yesterday was then the day we had to say goodbye to our trustworthy Land Cruiser.
On the day of the shipment in Mombasa, we arrive around 14:30 at the office of our shipping agent and meet a few nice people in there. After a fine cup of coffee, we take off to the harbor of Mombassa to have the car checked by customs in order to get the Carnet de Passage stamped. After the usual questions by the customs officials, it's time to go to the container depot, not far from where we are. But traffic by now is crazy and making us arrive late at the depot. A few phone call and the people that had already gone home come back to work and provide us with a steel box aka 20ft container to squeeze our car in.The tent, spare tyre and the tool box have to be taken off the roof-rack before we can drive the car in. All our personal belongings that we want to take back with us to Europe are on the street now. Around 21:30 we are saying goodbye to our car: it was a painful and difficult exercise this shipment. It's still feels strange and unreal. The car has been our home with all that we own in it.
When packing for a relaxing week at the beach before jumping in a plane back home we forgot to take the coffee with us and wake up this morning with 2 questions: how is our car and how could we forget to pack the coffee when going to a self catering cottage on the beach South of Mombasa? The lady at reception quickly solves our problem: 2 cups of coffee are made and 2 hours later a taxi arrives that would take us to Nakumatt supermarket in Diani Beach, only a few miles down the road. A complete shopping done in about 30 minutes that will last for the rest of our stay on the beach.
On the day of the shipment in Mombasa, we arrive around 14:30 at the office of our shipping agent and meet a few nice people in there. After a fine cup of coffee, we take off to the harbor of Mombassa to have the car checked by customs in order to get the Carnet de Passage stamped. After the usual questions by the customs officials, it's time to go to the container depot, not far from where we are. But traffic by now is crazy and making us arrive late at the depot. A few phone call and the people that had already gone home come back to work and provide us with a steel box aka 20ft container to squeeze our car in.The tent, spare tyre and the tool box have to be taken off the roof-rack before we can drive the car in. All our personal belongings that we want to take back with us to Europe are on the street now. Around 21:30 we are saying goodbye to our car: it was a painful and difficult exercise this shipment. It's still feels strange and unreal. The car has been our home with all that we own in it.
When packing for a relaxing week at the beach before jumping in a plane back home we forgot to take the coffee with us and wake up this morning with 2 questions: how is our car and how could we forget to pack the coffee when going to a self catering cottage on the beach South of Mombasa? The lady at reception quickly solves our problem: 2 cups of coffee are made and 2 hours later a taxi arrives that would take us to Nakumatt supermarket in Diani Beach, only a few miles down the road. A complete shopping done in about 30 minutes that will last for the rest of our stay on the beach.