Back from the Abyss

This blog post is dedicated to :

• Elias, Dumi, Sam and all the others who helped in the recovery
• Ruth at Reilly´s Hilltop Lodge
• Winnie at Mlilwane Main Camp
• Lunga, Zama, Vuyisile, Thabile, Jacques and Lucky at Sondzela
• Duncan, Craig and Corne

Thank you all for everything you have done for us.

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At the end of the first day we were simply relieved to be alive but there was nothing else good in our world. Henry was a wreck at the bottom of a cliff and everything we owned was crumpled inside him.

I had not been able to get the feeling out of my head that we should never have been able to get out of the wreckage through that rear window. I realised it was blocked by the kitchen units and drivers seat. Only later could I come to terms with it when I looked at the window again and saw that the space we had crawled out of was small but not impossible.

By the end of day two we felt as though our guardian angels had been working overtime – Henry was battered but alive and most of our possessions had come up from the bank unharmed.

James had driven Henry slowly and precariously down the mountain trails to the camp site that evening, his body hanging off and his roof leaning dangerously, and increasingly, to one side. By the time he was parked up outside our chalet we were both in a state of utter joy and ecstasy. When you think all is lost, finding out there is some hope to rebuild is all you need. We both slept well that night with Henry sitting outside our door, carefully and lovingly covered in tarpaulin to keep the worst of the elements off him.

He was a wreck, he needed rebuilding from the ground up, but his soul was in tact – his chassis was straight, his engine ran like clockwork and his insides were amazingly untouched.

How does this happen? As everyone through West Africa said…Strong Car.

The next morning we had the Swaziland Landrover Specialists over to assess the damage. Our mood went from one of determined jubilation to desolation again as they explained that there was no-one in the whole country who had the skills to rebuild him. They said we could find the skills in South Africa but we´d certainly get ripped off as soon as anyone saw the quality of the pre-accident build and our European passports. Plus there was a 2-3 month wait time for Landrover parts. They strongly advised that we didn´t even consider getting Henry repaired there but rather ship to the UK and start again.

We were back to the nightmare that is container shipping, back to the UK, back to square one. Timescales? 2-3 months just to get Henry to Southampton then another 5-6 months for James and our Landrover friend to rebuild whilst we lived in a caravan on their farm. Nearly a year out of travelling and then what? Ship back to Africa? Forget Africa and start again in Europe? This was not what we had been hoping for last night but we tried to stay positive – we could make him better, stronger, learn from experience.

But our hearts were not soaring with hope like they had been before. James in particular was suffering the after-effects of the last two days, now Henry was safe everything seemed to be sinking in and taking its toll – he stared into space for long periods, distant and just for the moment unable to really process what needed doing.

I contacted Duncan at African Overlanders who had helped us ship Henry from Cote D´Ivoire. He was a star. He immediately offered us a brilliant price for shipping Henry back to the UK from Cape Town. But he also offered his workshop and mechanic to help us rebuild in Cape Town if we wanted an alternative. He offered options for transporting Henry to Cape Town whether for rebuilding or shipping to the UK. He contacted a shipping agent in Durban for a quote for shipping from there and he offered space in a container he was soon to be shipping from the UK for parts if we needed them.

Duncan was the first but certainly not the last person in South Africa who went over and above to help us. Thank you to all of you, you have no idea how much it meant.

We contacted Craig from Landy World in George who had replaced the steering box a few weeks earlier. We hoped he might know someone who could transport Henry to Cape Town safely. Craig was devastated for us when he heard the news and leapt into action. He showered us with great contacts as well as advice about the risks of transporting a vehicle through South Africa. He then asked why we were not having him repaired there. When I explained what we had been told about lead times on parts and costs he suggested we might be pleasantly surprised if we at least tried. And to prove his point he inundated us with recommendations for who we could talk to.

He also put us on to Corne who runs a vehicle recovery business and is a Landrover fanatic. Corne was the third person who changed everything for us.

Between Duncan, Craig and Corne, by the end of the third day we had so many suggestions, contacts and good advice that I had lost track entirely. In between all this frantic activity, as well as being mentally and physically exhausted, we had had to move ourselves and Henry across the Mlilwane reserve to the Sondzela Back Packers Lodge as the Main Camp chalets were all booked up for the rest of the week.

Everything we had recovered had to be cleaned, packed up and loaded into the ranger´s Landrover then driven to Sondzela whilst James slowly and carefully drove Henry behind us. This short journey was almost more stressful than the drive down the mountain as Henry´s roof and body were looking increasingly precarious.

Sondzela was nowhere near as luxurious as the Main Camp chalets and the bathroom and kitchen were shared. At first we were feeling very vulnerable and unhappy about things but soon realised that we were actually the only guests there. There was a large lounge where we watched movies on our laptop in the evenings and a lovely outside space where we could dry all our belongings from clothes to pillows to shoes to electricals on the benches in the sun.

The operations manager, Jaques, even popped in to see us and bought data for us to top up our sim card and keep us connected.

As time went on we fell in love with Sondzela and the wonderful staff who all made us feel like family.

We have very fond memories of our stay there and will be eternally grateful to everyone for making the next two weeks of our lives a whole lot better than they could have been.

Once settled in, we started the process of getting things organised. I set up a spreadsheet of all the contacts and recommendations that we had been given, trying to get some sense and order into it. Eventually, out of the mass of information we had been given by the amazing Duncan, Craig and Corne, I had concluded that we had four potentially good options :

• Pon Steyn – top quality Landrover specialists based in Cape Town but likely to be expensive
• Gateway 4×4 – highly recommended for quality, more affordable, also based in Cape Town
• Andrew Robertson – highly recommended for quality, affordable again, based in Pretoria
• Landy Net – recommended for quality and price, based in Krugersdorp, Johannesburg

This was feeling so much better than trying to ship to the UK, it felt right.

Over the course of the next few days I contacted all of them and got wonderful responses from everyone. Apparently we were now famous within the Landrover community in South Africa! Everyone knew about us and wanted to help. I contacted one company with a short one-liner about rolling our Landrover and needing help with extensive damage to the body. In response they sent me our own photo of Henry on his roof and said ´This is you, yes??´ Urm, well, yes!

We were now sure that Henry could be rebuilt and that he was going to be rebuilt in South Africa. Best estimates on timescales were around 3 months and the estimated costs were coming out significantly less than we had feared. It was still going to take all the savings we had, the money put aside to furnish our forever home when we were ready to stop travelling. But tomorrow can take care of itself, today we just wanted to get Henry back on his feet no matter what.

Cape Town was nearly 2,000km away, Pretoria 325km and Krugersdorp 425km. We had a strong preference to find somewhere in Pretoria or Johannesburg to save on the exorbitant costs of transport (over €2,000 to Cape Town!) and reduce the risk of looting or worse enroute. But wherever we took him, he couldn´t travel in his current state.

So whilst I worked on organising someone to do the rebuild, James spent every day working on Henry, documenting the damage in detail to inform the quotes and trying to secure him ready for transport.

He worked miracles! He took Henry down to the workshop at Main Camp and, using pullies, wooden planks and ropes, pulled his roof back over as far as he could without doing any more damage and secured it with ropes. He strapped all the doors and wings up and cut out the remaining broken ballistic-lined glass.

He then investigated the damage to the pop-top and, after some effort and gentle persuasion, finally managed to get it to pop up again. He came running in to get me and we both jumped up and down grinning from ear to ear to see him looking more like our old Henry again.

Zama and Vuyisile, the lovely ladies looking after us at Sondzela, came over with big smiles on their faces. Zama said it was a miracle and a sign that all would be well in the end.

Zama had apparently been working in the restaurant at Main Camp the evening after the accident when we had gone there for some food. She told me she had been very sad to see us both in such a state and had told the other staff she thought I would have a lovely smile in other circumstances. When I was so excited about the roof she said she was pleased to see she had been right!

By the time James had strapped everything up and taped tarpaulin over the sides and windows it was hard to see the extent of the damage from some angles.

The awning had sheered straight off in the accident so we opened it up to assess the damage.

A couple of tears and a few bent arms but, as with everything else, not as bad as it could have been. We decided to transport it to South Africa with Henry to see whether it could be repaired as well.

By now we were down to two options for the rebuild – Pon Steyn in Cape Town or Andrew Robertson in Pretoria. We liked them both. Pon Steyn gave us a bit more confidence and sounded great over the phone. But they were in Cape Town. Andrew Robertson was far closer but didn´t seem quite so robust when we spoke to him. He came very highly recommended though so in the end we decided to have Henry transported to him first and only go all the way to Pon Steyn if we couldn´t satisfy ourselves about Andrew when we met him in person.

Corne was ready and waiting for the call. He leapt into action as soon as we told him of our decision and was due to arrive with his trailer first thing on Monday morning after the week-end.

We had our first hiccup at this point. We were belatedly advised that we would need a Police clearance letter to get Henry over the border into South Africa. It then transpired that we should actually have called the Police as soon as the accident happened before we did anything else and had broken the law by recovering Henry without telling them! We headed straight to the Police station with Elias to see what could be done.

In true African style, we were shouted at for half an hour, told it was too late now get a clearance letter, shown the law book and glared at. Actually, Elias was subjected to most of this, the Head of Police was actually quite sympathetic towards us! And then we were suddenly told to come back first thing on Monday morning when we would be given our letter!!

When we arrived back there at 7:30am on Monday, with Corne due to arrive at Sondzela at 10am, we were treated with friendliness, sympathy and a speedy issue of the letter we needed. We were back at Sondzela for 8:30am and waiting for the trailer to appear.

We couldn´t enter South Africa with Henry and Corne. We had booked flights back to the UK for ten days later and, having used up all of our 90 day South African visas, could only secure a 7 day transit visa back into the country. So we organised a hire car from Mbabene, the capital of Eswatini, and Corne kindly offered to drop us there enroute so we could collect it. After that we would have to come back to Sondzela and stay for another four days before following Henry up to Pretoria and meeting Andrew. That, at least, would give Andrew a few days to fully assess Henry and firm up on his quote.

Corne arrived and Henry was carefully driven onto the trailer.

As he mounted, his weight lifted the wheels of the Amarok off the ground!

But eventually he was safely on board and strapped in ready to go. As Corne pulled out of the gates it felt as though a new stage of all our lives was starting, heading into the unknown.

We jumped out of the Amarok at Mbabene and waved Corne and Henry off. I watched for a long time as they pulled back onto the main road, my heart pumping with a combination of terror about the potential dangers of Henry´s long journey and excitement that by the evening he could be in the hands of the people who would save him.

I needn´t have worried, Corne was a very safe pair of hands. He sent us regular updates and location pins as he travelled and, finally, at 6pm, we received a photo of them arriving safely at Andrew Robertson’s workshop.

The next four days dragged by. We had no idea whether Henry would be staying in Pretoria to be rebuilt or if he needed to undergo an infinitely longer and more dangerous journey all the way to Cape Town. Worse still, whilst we didn´t doubt that having him rebuilt in South Africa was the right decision, it meant putting all our faith in strangers – strangers who would be 6,000 miles away once we boarded our flight back to the UK.

Jacques, Lucky, Zama, Vuyisile and Thabile at Sondzela kept our spirits up whilst we waited. Vurisile went above and beyond by doing all our washing for us! Zama reassured us our guardian angels would not let anything bad happen. And Lucky kept us safe each night with kindness and smiles.

We were also thrilled to meet Lunga in the main office. Lunga was the person who had taken the calls from Helen and Cate when the accident first happened and who had coordinated the rangers from their side. She was delighted to see us both, especially James whose head injury had concerned them all. She said how pleased she was to see us safe and well and smiling and we were able to thank her personally for all her help.

Meanwhile, James´ bruises were coming out well…

But the infection he had picked up from a tick bite in the dense vegetation was dealt with quickly by the antibiotics given to him by a fantastic doctor at the local hospital.

We watched endless movies, binged on chocolate and crisps and paced up and down a lot.

And eventually it was time to go. Our hire car turned out to be the smallest car on the planet so squeezing all our luggage in was a challenge!

But by 6am that morning we were ready to set off for the border.

We said a final goodbye to Sondzela and the lovely staff there and left with a small tear of sadness to be leaving the place that had been the scene of one of the worst moments in our lives but also the kindest and most inspiring.

As we left Eswatini and re-entered South Africa our emotions were high. We had never anticipated going back into South Africa but then we had not anticipated anything that had happened over the last two weeks. We were rejoining our beloved Henry but what would we make of Andrew and would we be able to trust him with our most precious possession?

We drove for four hours, sometimes excited and optimistic, other times worried and gloomy. But when we arrived in Pretoria and pulled up to Andrew´s workshop first impressions were good.

The place was beautiful, welcoming and pristine.

We were greeted warmly and ushered straight in to see our baby.

He looked well taken care of and comfortable.

The workshop was spotless and there was a proper, professional spray booth – reassuring James that the quality was likely to be good.

We met the whole family – Andrew´s two sons, Felix and Alex who work with him, and his lovely wife Naomi who looks after them all. Naomi is also a fabulous cook and kindly invited us in to their home for tea and canopes so that James could take his antibiotics whilst we talked. After tea we were shown some of the vehicles Andrew had worked on before. The workmanship was outstanding and the finish on the paintwork second to none.

James and I stepped outside to talk privately. ´Well?´ I asked – I am no judge of these things and have no eye for detail. James, on the other hand, has the unwavering ability to see everything and allows no compromise on quality, especially when we are talking about Henry. He is tough to impress, if he is happy I know we´re in safe hands.

´This is perfect´ he said, ´it´s a yes without question!´. My heart swelled, a huge weight seemed to drop off my shoulders. James was smiling the biggest smile I had seen in a very long time. I threw my arms round him, we had done it! Henry was in safe hands, he would be rebuilt better, stronger, faster.

Thank you to Andrew, Naomi, Felix and Alex….we owe you a debt of gratitude we will never be able to pay back.