Mountains of bureaucracy

So I've been on holiday. Well that's not entirely true. For the last 2 and a half months I have been out in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa working at a lodge. Its fair to say that its been a bit of a culture shock coming back; from 40 degrees and stunning views of Zululand to drizzle and roadworks around Daventry. Given that the lodge was an hours drive from the nearest town along dirt roads, I've been fairly out of it communications wise. This has meant that Charlie and Harry (Behrens) have been left, rather unceremoniously, with the task of 'getting the show on the road.' Now, sadly driving all this way isn't quite as easy as turning out of the drive and heading in an eastern direction; as the blog title suggests, there is a fair amount of paperwork to get your way through. We have to get a total of 8 visas, a carnet de passage and a whole lot of other letters of invitations and permits. However, true to the task, Harry and Charlie have done a brilliant job of sorting through this mess and so we are making good headway. Onto the car. Had we had a significantly larger budget we would have taken a Toyota Landcruiser with all the bells and whistles, but alas not and so we have the task of preparing a 2006 slightly dented Subaru Forrester for the task. Given that its also a little difficult coordinating this from rural Natal, Harry has been left with this task as well. Once again, the man has performed superbly. We now have a sump guard and a roof rack, with the engine area being sorted out as well. Some of you may ask "who is going to fix all of this stuff when in inevitably breaks in the middle of the Gobi desert?" Well, I would answer that we don't really know but apparently most things can be fixed with a little fencing wire and a Haynes car manual. All this leaves me to say is that please donate to the Lotus Children's Centre through the link on our website and here are a few pictures of the car and rural Zululand to make you wish you weren't in the UK in February.