Category Archives: Shipping

grande nigeriaPutting your home and your most prized possession onto a ship and waving goodbye for several weeks is a testing time. We’ve sent Cuthbert unaccompanied to and from Africa (see Planning and getting to Africa), and we’ve also sailed with him for 5 weeks on a cargo ship from Europe to Uruguay. Sail with your truck tells how we did this, but only after our Planning and getting to South America. For the full diary of life on-board a cargo ship for 5 weeks, read on below…

To Montevideo… by freight ship

Montevideo from Hamburg by cargo ship… Done!  Yes, we’ve spent October 2015 on a freight ship Europe to Montevideo. We’re bringing our camper-truck Cuthbert to Uruguay to start our tour of the Americas. No scrubbing of decks, peeling of potatoes or climbing of rigging – we took one of six fare-paying cabins on the Italian Grimaldi freight ship ‘Grande Nigeria’. And in anticipation of the obvious question… we’re doing it because we can, and because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Freight ship Europe to Montevideo

All aboard the Grande Nigeria to Montevideo!!

So was it such a good idea… over five weeks at sea with minimal facilities and no internet??!! Well… at least we had plenty of time to write all this bog-blurb stuff 🙂  Read on and see what you think. Continue reading →

Ship Ahoy!

Grande%20NigeriaHere it is at last… our home for the next 4-5 weeks! Grimaldi’s Grande Nigeria is on its way into Hamburg tonight and we’re joining it in the morning for our ‘Grand Voyage’ to Montevideo. Hurrah! Much anticipated…. we had to book it a year ago to get one of the few passenger cabins on the cargo ship to sail with Cuthbert! Continue reading →

Hurry up and wait!

Ship tracker Cuthbert passing DakarSo after a great few days stop-over with our friends in Dubai on the way back to Europe from Africa, we had a long and frustrating process trying to establish which numpty is to blame for Cuthbert not being loaded onto the scheduled ship. It seems that the Port Elizabeth port staff are probably the lucky winners of this month’s “It’s Friday and I couldn’t give a s*#t” Award. Anyway…Cuthbert is now finally on his way north and the tracker shows he is just passing Dakar, West Africa.  Confucius say… “he who waits two more weeks will get nice truck from ship” 🙂

In the meantime, we have used our ‘sitting-around down-time’ wisely, enjoying great food and wine with family and friends. This included some very enjoyable ‘sitting-around down-time’ with Steven and Gilly, who are also in UK on a short break from their round-the-world expedition in their Bocklet truck with their young daughters Alisha and Lucy (see their excellent travel blog at www.overlandingfamily.com ). We have been corresponding with Steve and Gilly for a couple of years by email swapping travel and truck info, so it was great to spend some time with them in person.

Once we get Cuthbert back, we have a bit of euro-touring to do over the summer and some work to do preparing for the next stage of the adventure: Cuthbert Hits South America in September.

Watch this space, and keep all your digits crossed, for Cuthbert’s safe (and uneventful) arrival off the ship from Africa in a couple more weeks!