Day 2 started for the main party at 39,000 feet, somewhere above northern Africa. After landing on time at 11:25 local time the team unfolded themselves from the various corners of the Virgin Atlantic 787 Dreamliner and blearily presented themselves to passport control. The main section of the group took great delight in clearing immigration before their teammates in the ‘Priority’ lanes. Baggage was successfully collected, and the team headed over to meet up with Glyn Barnett, who had landed slightly earlier from the UAE and had already prepped customs that we were on our way.
Another master class in communication and planning from James Watson and the baggage team meant that all rifles were checked and cleared, in order, inside 45 minutes. Sadly, it was here that our smooth planning met some opposition. The early group had warned us that our hire car company weren’t entirely on the ball with our booking. They had struggled with the wrong cars being prepped. We turned up to collect our reserved 5 vehicles, to find that (in a mirror of the Seinfeld sketch) they had only reserved 2 vehicles. After a couple of nervous phone calls 3 more vehicles were hurriedly summoned from the depot whilst, in true Grand Tour fashion, the first 2 vans set off for Bloemfontein with at least one having shut the boot first.
The second convoy set off some 45 minutes later for our hotel with Parag leading us off. James, clearly full of confidence after his perfectly executed customs plan, immediately challenged the route as we left the airport. Fortunately he realised that his sat nav was set to ‘walk’ before we followed his diversion. Jackie, having definitively proved the lack of toll booth tag in her vehicle, executed a very neat reversing manoeuvre back up the lane in front of some very impressed South African drivers, before we finally headed towards the now traditional half-way stop at Steers in Kroonstad.
Finally, after 27 hours of travelling the full team was reunited at the Southern Sun hotel in Bloemfontein. The early party had clearly been working hard, using their extra 2 days to sort and prep virtually everything in time for our arrival, leaving little else to be done today except checking in, savouring a relaxing welcome drink and perhaps a bite to eat before bed and some well-earned sleep.
