Great support from Europe and South Africa
In Germany, October 3rd, the Day of German Unity was of course celebrated traditionally yesterday and of course many people would not have to work. Here in Tanzania, 10.000 km away from our home country, the workshop lights would not go out although we had a reason to celebrate, too.
Whether chassis and motor of he Touareg would celebrate unity again, was up to Ronald, our expert from South Africa. He and the result of his work on the car bench were to decide if we could continue our world record drive. Finally, the redeeming words came: "If your team keeps speed bumpers and rough gravel roads to a minimum, the Touareg should survive the last 4000 km to South Africa, but then, it will be in need of a major repair."
In the evening, there was another surprise for us. Egon Kochanke, the German ambassador in Tanzania, invited us to join the celebration of the Day of German unity. More than 100 guests came together in Dar Es Salaam and celebrated the Day of German Unity with fries and German bratwurst. In these calm moments, we were really proud of our supporters in Europe and here in Dar Es Salaam as well as of all helping hands in the last days.
The large package of parts was completed in great teamwork of Mr Viermau and Mr Akyl from the Volkswagen´s parts storage in Kassel and Mr Klinger from the Volkswagen dealer in Vienna. Of course this logistic challenge will again be conducted by our partner Kühne+Nagel. This time, the department in Austria supported us greatly. Many thanks go to Herbert Krejc for compiling all parts and the delivery by air to Dar Es Salaam tomorrow.
And again and again we have to thank Juray and Lubor from the Volkswagen factory in Bratislava. As rallye drivers these two, are really with us and did not even think of giving up. Thats great work - thank you guys!
This evening, the Touareg parts will be on their way to us. We will spend the waiting time here in Dar Es Salaam, a typical African city. We remember the words of Mr Wayne McIntosh, the head of the Volkswagen importer here in Dar Es Salaam, well:
He would need 2 hours through the heavy traffic of Dar Es Salaam, if he would start at usual office hours, 7:30 a.m. That is for 23 km. And just as this, everyone is improvising in Dar Es Salaam. Working hours are adapted, in the traffic jams you can buy everything you need for daily life from your car window and if you are completely stuck, you just sound the horn.
We´ll be back on Monday, when the parts have arrived at the airport.