Dubai to North America - 6 May 2014


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Published: May 6th 2014
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Well here we are again just about to start another long journey and feeling really excited about setting off again. We so enjoy departing for new countries and meeting ‘new’ friends along the way. Even after four years of ‘living out of suitcases’ we still love travelling but miss our family and ‘old’ friends but it is always good to catch up with them again when we can.



PROBLEM LEAVING SOUTH AFRICA

In our last blog we were just about to leave Cape Town, South Africa having enjoyed travelling around nine countries in three months but we unfortunately left the country on a very sour note!



We were stopped at Passport Control as we had overstayed our Visa and we were told that we had to pay a fine. We had unintentionally overstayed the 90 day visa by 2 days! We were taken by two custom officials into a small room where they took copies of our passports, entered our names on a computer and also in a manual register. We were told that we had to sign a form before we could leave but we could pay the fine at any SA Embassy. We were actually only in South Africa for 48 days in total during our trip and thought that the 90 day Visa ‘clicked in’ when we entered the country and stopped when we left the country at the various borders. We therefore ‘assumed’ that we were following the correct rules and regulations!



We had indeed ‘checked their website’ before we travelled and nowhere did we see any mention that we would have such a problem and nothing was ever said to us when we re-entered SA at the various borders we crossed. Having now researched the situation on the internet it is very ambiguous, even depending on whether you leave SA by air or overland and the border officials you deal with - all our crossings were overland. We tried to get more clarity from the custom officials at the time and asked what was the difference between a ‘re-entry’ or a ‘new visit’, but they were very unclear themselves. They said that it depended on whether we travelled to bordering Sub Saharan countries - as we had travelled to Malawi which does not border SA this was more confusing particularly as they then said that if we had travelled to Tanzania we would have been OK! This left us totally confused and annoyed but we did not want to argue the point at the airport as we had already been kept waiting for a supervisor to see us and were worried that we would then miss our flight to Dubai to visit family for Christmas.



Since December we have been trying to Appeal against the Administrative Fine. However we are now somewhat frustrated having written 11 emails to various personnel and departments in London & South Africa. As well as unsuccessfully trying to see someone at South Africa House when we were in the UK recently and we even considered paying the fine but the office was only open for two hours a day. Finally by email we were informed that the SA Home Affairs Office UK could not help us further as they had no control over fines and that we would have to contact SA Home Affairs in Pretoria. We emailed them in January and March this year and sent another one last week but have had no response to any of these.



We must say that we have been somewhat surprised that we have not been able to resolve this matter as it is now nearly five months since we returned. You may remember from our blogs that we had some really bad experiences with corrupt officials in Lesotho and on emailing that country we had a extremely swift response from the High Commissioner herself apologising for her countrymen's treatment of us, such a different response from two such close African countries…….…



Yes, we realise that we did overstay our Visa by 2 days but it was a genuine mistake on our part, not at all deliberate and indeed had we realised we would have left the country 2 days earlier as we were just relaxing in Cape Town before our flight to Dubai. Whilst we appreciate that measures have to be taken with regard to Visas we do feel we were treated badly, particularly as tourism is so important to the economic development of any country and all we wanted was the courtesy of a reply.







SINCE OUR LAST BLOG



Anyway back to more pleasant matters, since our return from Africa we spent Christmas in Dubai with Sharon, Geoff and Maisie. We joined them and their South African friends for a delightful Christmas Day lunch ‘African style’. James and Rae were very welcoming hosts it’s a shame they do not work for the South Africa’s Visa Office!





We caught up with many close family and friends during our brief return to the UK in March but did not manage to get around everyone but maybe next time - we do intend to come home for a longer period soon! Thanks to all of you who ‘put us up’ during our visit and a special thank you to Eddie and Alison who are going through a difficult time but were still happy to have us stay. A special thank you to Christine and Peter for lending us their little apartment overlooking Bournemouth beach it was delightful and also enabled us to look around the area for somewhere to put down a few roots…..



The UK had been battered by violent storms and heavy rainfall had caused several years worth of erosion along the coast in just a few months. One of the famous coastguard cottages at Birling Gap, near our friend's Judith's house in East Sussex had been left teetering on the edge of the cliff. A team arrived whilst we were out on a walk to start dismantling the Georgian building before it fell over the edge taking the last few remaining cottages with it.





Our daughter Kerry returned with us to Dubai and we spent a wonderful few days with her before she returned to the UK - it was lovely having both our daughters and granddaughter together again. We even managed to celebrate Paul and my birthdays with all three of our girls together, cannot remember the last time that happened….





We spent the rest of our time in Dubai planning the route for our next journey, it is so hot here now it will be nice to have some cooler weather ………





OUR NEXT JOURNEY - WESTERN USA & CANADA



Well that brings us up to date with what has been happening since our last blog and as mentioned it is really exciting to be starting yet another journey. We will be flying from Dubai to San Francisco on 8th May. After a few days in the city we will hire a small camper van and head for Yosemite National Park.



We hope to visit many National Parks in WESTERN USA, travelling through eleven states; California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana and Idaho. We will also be visiting many national monuments along the route.



After three months touring Western USA we will fly from San Francisco (via Seattle) to Juneau and onwards by light aircraft to Gustavus located on Glacier Bay, set amongst the mountains and towering glaciers of Alaska, America’s 49th State (our 12th). We journey around Alaska by train before boarding a 7 day cruise, crossing Prince William Sound and heading along the Inside Passage to Vancouver which embarks us in Canada.



In CANADA we plan to hire a car and travel along the Rocky Mountains through the Canadian Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta and then to Winnipeg, Manitoba and finally into Toronto, Ontario to visit the magnificent Niagara Falls.. We then head back to Dubai at the end of October in time for our granddaughters 11th birthday which we promised not to miss this time……….



We will be using various means of transport including; plane, train, campervan, seaplane, helicopter, kayak, canoe, boat, ferry, bike, coach, bus, taxi and car but hopefully we will be spending lots of hours hiking the many trails in both countries. Although a few days ago I managed to fall down a few stairs and strained both ankles! - bad timing on my part!!



We hope to explore the city highlights of San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Salt Lake City, Juneau, Anchorage, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg and Toronto as well as visit many smaller ‘old west’ towns, wagon trails and parts of the iconic Route 66 exploring native American culture and history, particularly the Arizona’s Navajo and Hopi nations.



In addition to some breathtaking scenery we are hoping to encounter an abundance of wildlife including Black and Grizzly Bears - both hopefully hunting for salmon if we get the timing right. We will also travel to Churchill, a small town on Hudson Bay again hopefully timed to perfection to see Polar Bears. We would also like to see Bison, Bighorn Sheep, Bobcats, Lynx, Mountain Lion, Elk, Moose and Deer as well as smaller mammals and lots of birds. In the icy straits we hope to encounter humpbacks and other species of whales including greys, minkes and orcas which are high on our priority list.



Of course, we will also visit parts of California’s wine country and it will be interesting to see how this compares with South African, New Zealand and Australian wine regions………. Paul is hoping this time to visit some microbreweries which he missed out on in Africa, I am sure we may be able to find one!



Well that’s our itinerary in ‘brief’ for this six month journey. As a matter of interest the Visa rules for the USA are similar as those in SA but their website explains this quite clearly and we are hopefully more aware! We are flying with Emirates and our flight time from Dubai to San Francisco is 16 hours which I must admit we are not looking forward to but we cannot wait to arrive and get started - see you there.


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17th May 2014

latest blog
So glad to hear you are both "back in the sadddle" again and looking forward to even more adventures in far off lands...every fairy story has its "baddies" and it seems as though you found him at the visa office..but hopefully it will soon all be resolved,because it always ends in,"happily ever after"...have another wonderful trip and keep taking care of your incredibly fit bodies...I marvel at your stamina and fortitude..Much love and joy to you both alwaysxx
18th May 2014

Hello Lyn
So lovely to hear from you and do hope that you are keeping well - the bodies are just about holding out - we have just arrived in Death Valley!!!! and it is so hot, had to sleep outside the van last night on a couple of chairs but just could not get cooooool - how we long for a lovely cold english summer..........Hope to catch up with you when we get back to the UK sometime, Love P&SX

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