D-Day had arrived....I had waited the long wait, applied for that elusive iranian visa everyway I could. Right at the beggining in Wellington, New Zealand a Mr Abdul or whatever his name was, said there would be no problem as he handed me back my passport with only 2 days before my flight to london...and he had my passport for a whole month with promises of tommorrow tommorrow. I rang the London iranian embassy with no luck and employed 2 agencies to aquire that god forsaken visa, I even wrote a letter to the Iranian consulate in Turkey. This was a bitter pill to swallow.
I felt miserable about the whole thing. My venture wasnt stopped by a mechanical failure, illness, theft, injury, kidnapping - no a beurocrat with a ball point pen.
I conseled myself with the fact that across 10 countries I had driven the 1967 MG and the stories and journey itself would remain with me forever - dogs chasing me, paragliding, fresh fruit gathered in unknown ochards, bathing in hot natural spas, had met with Gertrund, Dagmar, Roger Michelle, Nasco, Justin, Tugba, Nuri, Pietro, Nenad, and many others, I had samples of a wide variety of local food and many other wondrous things....
I still had too many beers that night and what a hangover...I got up and sat down on the chair and hoped in hours I would be able to move to the other chair...the day after I was planning to stand up. It had been a dark 48hours, knowing that this was my last chance to make my time frame for the Pakistan and Indian visa requirements and that the was no real alternative across...(I had considered dispatching the car to another driver, but again the paperwork was not feasable...and I had heard of a Swiss guy trying to go across Turkmenistan. He lost the car and my contact in Pakistan found him and his wife riding into town on a donkey looking like Jesus and Mary, seriously)... I looked out at the Black sea, quite fittingly and wayed up my options...
It was time to make a new plan. I rang my contact at the port of Hydapaşa in Istanbul and explained that the car has now to be shipped back to New Zealand...Auckland... and arrangements were to be made. I was to drive back from the Black sea to Istanbul and rendezvous with Serhan from TENET LOGISTICS...there was a container loading warehouse that the car was to be prepared in for the journey by sea via Hong Kong reloaded to another ship and then sent to Auckland...the car would have to be washed, fumigated, customs checked, certified, chocked and lashed to the inside of a 20 foot container and a Kings Ransom paid to achieve all this....my bank account was to recieve a huge punishment thanks to the Ayotollah...(I am with Bush Now!)..and the process was likely to take 4 or 5 days of immense paperwork...
This would mean that for the most part the road trip was over until Auckland.
I would then find a cheap flight to somewhere in Asia while the MG took 6 weeks to arrive on New Zealand soil.
For me the journey would have to take a different route, one involving an aircraft.
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As with all big projects its the support from friends that makes the difference,so I would like to say a big big thankyou to Paul and Mike and Linda and Emily for helping with the specialist parts and for being so efficient and swift and proffesional.
So I shall raise a glass to MG BITS when at my first port of call in Belgium where I am reliably told they sell the finest Beer in the world brewed by none other than Trappist monks......DING DONG!!!!
So I shall raise a glass to MG BITS when at my first port of call in Belgium where I am reliably told they sell the finest Beer in the world brewed by none other than Trappist monks......DING DONG!!!!
1 comments:
Great to read your updates and to hear about the amazing trip you are having, but disappointed for you that the Iranian visa has eluded you. I wonder where this aircraft will be taking you ... look forward the next chapter. Continue to travel safe. Love from the Olsens, Stairmands and Nan.
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