Today’s Blog is going to be a short one, mainly because we just sat in the waiting area at the Customs Office from 9h00 to 18h00. And at lunch time we sat in the Canteen, and then we sat in the waiting area again. All the bikers we had met were there and two new Americans, a great couple which chatted away with us for hours. I feel guilty that I did not get involved in all the conversation, but I just felt so depressed today. We have had some days similar to this. In Russia when our bikes were in storage in Samara they bikes went over the 90 days allowed and we had to brief Lawyers to negotiate with Customs on our behalf. In the end the Lawyers bought Vodka and Perfume for the ladies of Customs, which we could have done if we knew better, but we still wasted a few days in Samara with customs. We also wasted 5 hours to cross into Ukraine when we arrived by ferry at Odessa, but today broke me. We arrived at 9h00 and we sat there until it became dark. I was not in the right frame of mind and I hope the lovely American Couple will forgive me.

Peens’s Brazilian Paraglider Friend was there again and he had some clutch issues which everyone helped him with, explaining to him bolt by bolt what he had to do. peens bought him lunch at the canteen but he is a Vegan and could only eat the rice.

Below is the lovely couple from Arizona and a Professor from Utah also riding South which shipped his bike with ours:

Below is the view I had today for 8 hours, and then we walked to some office, signed some papers and walked to another spot and then found our bikes in some warehouse.

Lunchtime we went to the canteen and had a change of scenery :

 

As the hours passed we changed our seating positions a little but it did not help lighten our mood, we were in for one hell of a day.

And as the sun was setting we were led out to our bikes:

The bikes had to be brought down from the warehouse by Forklift:

Smiles all around, we earned the freedom.

As the hours ticked by today we re-worked the route, making it shorter and shorted as the daylight ran out. So tomorrow we need to make up some lost time. We are eating breakfast at 6h00 and hitting the road by 6h30, we have lost so many days and will have to change our route and miss out on a lot of the places we were planning to see. Not only did we lose some days, we are also anticipating more problems in Ecuador (they have a State of Emergency) which might influence our passage through the country, and we would rather arrive 1 day earlier should we run into problems.

Tonight we went out for a local meal and some Argentinian Wine from the 7-11 and we are back into being in high spirits. Really looking forward to some rural Colombian roads tomorrow.

Lekker Slaap jullie !!!!!!

Fleisch