Registration and SHOE DROP #1

Waking up on Sunday the 15^th nerves were high and excitement building! We ‘stickered’ The Erwinator with all our Sponsors’ logos (19 sponsors!!! Francistown was SO generous!), did a last minute shop for what we thought were essentials (we ended the trip with about 60% of that shop still in the car) and headed to Weltervreden for REGISTRATION!       

 

  

Sponsors: Kalahari Insurance Brokers, Impex Fasteners & Tools, Donaldson, Filtration Botswana, Suspension Clinic, Naledi Motors, Minetech, Vocardo, UV Botswana, Contact Maintenance, Mack Air, AccPro Accountants, Salaam Sand, Flying High Operations, Taurus Batteries, Aquarite Botswana, Becor Bricks, Senyati Safari Camp, The Old House

Bundu & the Bundu Bashers "here for the ADVENTURE"!

We stopped along the way for more WIMPY COFFFFEEEE and to fill up The Erwinator’s long range tank. There may have been a tear or two in my eye as I paid that bill for the first time (R1500!) but that long-range tank was such an advantage, especially for later in the Rally in Zambia and Malawi, where the price of fuel would make many a grown-man claim there was something in their eye.

After trying to go the wrong place (expect nothing less from the Bundu Bashers!), much hand-waving and shouting we pulled into the car park at Weltervreden and immediately clocked the  QAR Bentley, Triton, Bookmark Africa,  Missing in Africa and SuzuKings.

We were greeted by relevant-George’s smiley face, signed in (where we were mistakenly called “Bush Bangers” – which would unfortunately stick), stickered The Erwinator some more, shared peace-pipe with some of the teams and got colder and colder. Even the downing of some Zoe-juice sachets couldn’t warm our numbing fingers and toes!

Daryn made a great speech & got us all excited about what was to come. Some poor girls did an incredible traditional African dance in almost NO clothes – making us all more cold than anything. The Norwegians popped many a bottle of champagne (which would become their trademark) and we made fast friends with SuzuKings. We learned that about 50% of the teams for 2014 had dropped out in the last 2 months for various reasons. A good indicator of the tough times a lot of people are experiencing at the moment.

Did I mention IT WAS COLD?! Cold like we’ve never experienced. We were meant to camp at a school ground near Weltervreden that night, but we were pretty sure we wouldn’t survive the night, so an SOS call was made to Stephen who kindly hosted us that night. BEST DECISION.

Early Monday morning 16^th June we were up to get back to Weltervreden to catch the convoy to our first SHOE DROP! and to see who had survived the night camping. (I’m glad to report that there were no casualties, that we know of). A great team photo (I think this was the only time we were all together on the whole trip) and then we were lining up to officially start! (We had a small delay while Polar Bear Express changed a tyre and replaced some other essential bits on their half-loaf).

 Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

We were meant to have a police escort to the school in Khayelitsha, but for whatever reason that didn’t happen, and so we were frantically following as-close-as-possible-without-bumping-the- car-in-front-of-us so that we didn’t get stuck at a traffic light and lose the convoy – we had no idea where we were going!

Obviously we lost the convoy IN THE MIDDLE of Khayelitsha.

This was not a pleasant experience, and I would urge Pug Foot HQ to give out GPS co-ordinates in future to save grey hairs, gnashed teeth and good humour.

We drove around the Ghetto for quite a while, totally lost, blind leading the increasingly anxious blind, until we were found and lead to where we were meant to be.

We parked all 29 vehicles at the Department of Education, said fervent prayers that they would still be there when we got back, and boarded huge buses that would take us to our Shoe Drop destination - Entshona Primary School.

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Here is where we first met Simba – a hilarious, wonderful guy from Gabs (we’ll forgive you for disrespecting Francistown) and the Queen Anne’s Revenge guys.

 

16^th of June is officially National Bare-foot day in South Africa, and so we all de-shoed and went barefoot for the morning. National Bare-Foot Day encourages people to go for the day without shoes to experience what thousands of people, especially children have to endure everyday – freezing ground on toes. I am proud to report that I didn’t hear a single moan or gripe about having to do this (and I’m only half deaf), and everyone got into the spirit in a big way.

"Idiots Abroad" rocking bare-foot day. Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

"Torque of the Town" Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

I don’t really know how to describe the Shoe Drop to you.

I felt awe at the sheer number of shoes we had managed to raise enough money for.

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

It was chaos – HQ basically said ‘there are chairs, there are shoes, there are children – go sort it out’.

ROBERT!!! Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

I was proud of everyone – EVERYONE got stuck in and involved. I didn’t see anyone slouching in the back or hiding behind a hangover. We put shoes on over 800 beautiful kids that morning.

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

I would really like to know what those kids thought of us, of us putting shoes on their cold feet, and what they thought of being given shoes as opposed to anything else.

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

From there we convoyed slightly more successfully to Mzoli’s for lunch, where, as Daryn aptly put it: ‘I’ve never seen so many worried white people in one place’ J We had an incredible feed, the Norwegians popped some more bottles and then we hit the road towards Clanwilliam. 

Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

Queen Anne's Revenge! Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

Jos excited about his feed! Photo (c) Che Overmeyer

 

 

Many thanks to Mr Shibbly at NALEDI MOTORS FRANCISTOWN for sponsoring this leg of the trip! Your sizeable contribution and kindness are humbling. Thank you.

 

Getting lost in the dark, a place that almost didn’t exist and Namibia….. NEXT!

Yours in adventure

Rox