An uneventful start

Uneventful – sounds a wee bit dull but in Africa sometimes it is all you can hope for.

The flight to Tanzania was uneventful.  KLM’s veggie meal option is still cheese & tomato six different ways. (Tomato tapenade, slice of cheese, sundried tomato roll, mini peppers stuffed with cream cheese, pasta with tomato sauce & cheese.  Then if you aren’t cheesed out yet – dinner is a slice of pizza with more cheese and tomato.)

Getting through customs was uneventful.  With five bags full of loot, the injector pump and Land Rover bushes was what caught the attention of the customs man who wanted to inspect those in further details.  The injector pump suitcase which we had closed with a cable tie, had been checked by security in the UK. Cable tie was removed and replaced by a random blue amazon lock that we had never seen before.  So when customs man demanded we open the bag – our look of confusion followed by ‘that lock isn’t ours’ was completely legit, and no bad acting on our part.  Luckily for us, there was another poor sod who was running the customs gauntlet by trying to take in multiple tv’s and play stations.  Customs man soon lost interest in us, and gave play station man his undivided attention.

Lying in bed that night we did say a little prayer that said suitcase with dubious lock didn’t have a lot of drugs in it or anything of the sort.  

Our first week was spent on getting Andromeda in ship shape.  After being picked apart for her paint job in April, the electrics needed some sorting out.  She was one muddled mess ie. window wipers going bonkers when you switched on the indicators etc.  Last step was to do a service, so off to town to get all the oils.  On the way back to base there was a sudden funky noise coming from underneath the car….  ‘Did you hear that?’ I am usually oblivious to such things but aye… I heard it too.  Suspecting it’s a clutch issue, we got Gerald, the mechanic fundi, who just happened to be at base, to have a look.  After checks & chitchat, Colin looked at me and slid his thumb across his throat confirming that the clutch was indeed fffff…… broken.  Gerald, who was ready to go back to Arusha, offered to help us out, and at 17:15 he and his merry men attacked the clutch issue like a rally service team on steroids!  They were amazing! 

Did I say uneventful? Maybe that title was a bit premature, but better to fix big issues at base, with a fab team of fundis, than be out in the arse end of nowhere and relying on Laura to help take out an engine, or drop a gear box to fit a clutch its all relative!

So on that note, with 0 KM driven, we have already tackled one monster problem without too much issue, hopefully allowing for plenty uneventful kilometers on the road!

Species to add to the list: 2 baby black-backed jackals, and a spotted hyena all sighted in the coffee around base.