So finally after a month of delays tomorrow we will be leaving Chennai IN THE TRUCK!

We have been tested along the way – by the shipping line who decided not to ship the vehicle, by the vessel itself which arrived in Chennai a week behind the revised schedule, by the fascinating people in Indian customs who seem never to have seen a carnet document before (I could say more).

But pride of place (drum roll) has to go to the person(?) at Southampton docks who decided to get into the truck and rifle through our possessions stealing whatever took their fancy. Shirts, T-shirts, shorts, trousers, tracksuits, waterproofs, all Leishia’s cosmetics (that’s a lot!), a multimeter, various tools, our malaria prophylactics (useful in the UK), our penicillin and even a couple of dry towels. This piece of pond life even ripped out a wireless tyre monitoring gauge, took our locking wheel nut socket (both of which are of zero use to him) and unbelievably stole the two AA batteries from the winch remote! He also tried very hard to get into a locked compartment where our main tool kit was stored. Luckily in that endeavour he failed.

(We know it happened at Southampton because the ship’s crew secured the truck with strops which made it impossible to access the rear doors. The left-side strop wouldn’t come off on arrival so the crew left it in place and I took it off myself after the vehicle had cleared Chennai customs. Several of the stolen items were inside that left-side rear door which was inaccessible after the vehicle left Southampton).

So we are not the happiest little bunnies in the world right now. Leishia is much more accepting of of it than am I but it will definitely be good to get moving tomorrow!

…. And never again will I ship a vehicle Ro-Ro!