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Here it is…
After speaking about it over a year, every single month, weeks and days, we are today at Brussels airport – ready for boarding!
It’s like a dream becoming true, but it’s still very hard to believe. We have our backpacks with us, waiting with patience in the boarding area, on the screen it’s written “Bogota, Colombia”. So, it’s seems true today!
What are we expecting on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean?
No idea! We haven’t done that much of researches about places to visit, landscapes to see… as we prefer to keep the surprise! We heard too many bloggers doing too much researches and pictured the countries they wanted to visit as marvelous places. But sadly, their expectations were too high and they have been disappointed once arrived in the country! We will prefer to listen the advice from local people, from the ones who will cross our road and the wishes we will have.
But do not think these last weeks have been boring!
We have left our jobs. We are now without salaries and professional obligations!
Then, it was the rush for preparing the departure. The last appointments with the doctors for blood analysis and vaccines, the administrative paperwork to update our addresses, the appointments with banks to open a new bank account and/or upgrading our account with an international option, subscribing to an international insurance… Without forgetting our moving and packing all our belongings! We have stored all our boxes in our parents houses for a year. Plus obviously, enjoy our families and friends as we won’t see each other for a year.
Anyway, busy weeks which ended too fast!
What about our sidecars?
We have finalised the last preparations of our sidecars: adding net storage pockets, fixing water tank, some frame adjustments and managing our luggages.
We have driven with our sidecars fully loaded and tried some sinuous roads, steep paths on a field and crossing rivers.
We have finalised the sidecars luggages with all the equipment for camping (tents, mats, sleeping bad) plus the cooking equipment (portable stove, small saucepan, plates, cutlery…), the first aid kits, a few hygienic products and a few warm clothing which we won’t need at the beginning.
For the full list of our inventory, it’s
.
Once the side-cars ready, we drove to “Fos sur Mer” – a city in the South of France to deliver our vehicles in the storage place of our sea freight agent. We have organised all the transport with Wave VS who is taking care of everything including loading and unloading the container, freight, customs…
The cargo ship left France on Friday 7 September so we have delivered the sidecars on the previous Monday. A last kiss and we said “Hasta Luego” before to see them again in Cartagena in Colombia at the end of September.
Today, there are on the cargo ship named Cap Jackson, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
What’s next?
We will board in a few hours. We should arrive in Bogota in Colombia, late during the night of Wednesday 19 September. Once landed, the first step will be to cross the border and customs to get our Colombian visa for 90 days – tourist visa given to a French nationality person. Then, we will spend a few days to visit the Colombia capital. We will spend the first nights in a hostel, in a dormitory. On Friday, we will meet a Colombian friend that we met in England. We will enjoy her advice for the first weeks! Then, we will go in Cartagena on Monday to sign some paperworks for the sidecars arrival. We will enjoy Cartagena and should be able to collect our sidecars on Wednesday 26 September. Once collected, the first step will be to get some petrol as it’s forbidden to ship them with full tanks and then…. let’s go for the adventure! No plan yet, we wish only to discover the country and follow the advice of local people.
Here we go… the plane won’t be long now!!
We will leave our keyboard, get our backpacks with a little heartache as we won’t see our families for a year, a little bit of worries as we do not know what’s waiting for us in Colombia and a lot of excitement and happiness as here it is, the adventure begins now!
