Fugitives?

5am came very early this morning! After showering and packing, we headed to breakfast to get the scoop on if and when we were leaving Swakopmund today. Let me explain...

Remember the crash that took place in Etosha? Well, the rental car company based in Winhoek (Capital of Namibia) took swift action, like the day of the crash, to go to court and secure a judges order to hold both the driver of our truck and the truck itself from leaving Namibia, actually not even to leave Swakopmund. They were hoping to ensure they could get some money out of ATC (the company running our trip and happens to be the largest overland company in Africa.) There must have been some palm greasing going on because all this took place over Easter and 2 Namibian National Holidays! After counseling with Lawyers our tour leader and driver decided "Let's make a run for it!"...not really their lawyers said it should be fine but you never know...

So, we left Swakopmund a little after 730am feeling a little jittery about how far we might make it before the police would catch up to us. And in fact it was only about 20min outside of town when we hit a police road stop. The whole truck went silent thinking that Mwangi (our driver) was going to jail and the truck would be impounded and we would be stuck on the side of the road! Did I mention we are literally in the DESERT!

Our fears grew as we tried to listen to the conversation out the windows and Dominika proclaimed "I think they have the court order!" Then we heard the officer ask Mwangi " Can you please step out of the vehicle?" Oh Crap! Then the 2 police officers walked around to the entrance and boarded the truck!

2 well dressed ladies bordered the truck and asked Ruth (tour leader) for a manifest and her passport. The second lady asked the whole group "Do any of you have anything to declare?" (like what, that we are fugitives on the run?) Then she clarified "I'm a Customs officer, do any of you have any items to declare for customs duty?" Without blinking an eye we all said "NO" and she promptly replied "Thank You" and exited the truck. She didn't even look around. Pretty thorough eh?

The second officer looked through Ruth's passport, scanned the manifest and said "Have a nice day!" We all collectively exhaled and figured out this was one of many stops posted around Swakopmund during holiday's to check for vehicle insurance and driver's licenses. It would have been good to know this before now!

We pulled back onto the road and headed for the desert hike later in the afternoon. We'd be dealing more with the legal issues later...