Death of the Tuk Tuk - Sam

So buying a tuk tuk is not going to happen. It is impossible for foreigners to register a vehicle in South Africa. It is something we did not anticipate and something the guys at Atul did not anticipate as they have never sold a vehicle to foreigners. The reason is that we don't have any proof of address so we would have to apply for a vehicle registration number that would allow us to register our vehicle. We thought "great!" and headed to the department of transportation. When we arrived the woman behind the desk informed us that the office was closed until mid-January and the rest of the branches in the country were either already closed or about to close. Welcome to Africa.

There is one last possible way we could still make it happen, but it 's a long shot. Paul from Atul said he would be willing to register the vehicle in his name and sign the liability over to us. The catch is that we would not be able to legally sell the vehicle in Cairo. That means we would have to pay for the vehicle to be shipped back to South Africa. Paul would then sell the vehicle, take a cut, and give us the rest of the money. We are trying to get a quote on how much that would be, but are getting nowhere. Welcome to Africa.

At this point, unless we find out it is affordable to ship the tuk tuk we are planning to head north by renting cars and riding buses, trains and ferries, but we are not giving up on the tuk tuk completely. There are Atul dealerships in a few other countries and we are going to try and get their contact info before we take off. It's disappointing that we won't be able to tuk across Africa as we have so much time and effort invested in this idea. We would be the first people to ever complete the Cape to Cairo trip in a tuk tuk making tuk history. The guys at Atul were really excited about the idea for the marketing benefits it would mean for their business. They even offered to contact the owner of Atul in India to see what could come of that. I also have a friend who has offered to make the trip into an amateur film for the BANFF mountain film festival and a local magazine in Matt's hometown of Sandpoint, Idaho has even written an article about us making the journey. So it goes.

As for now, Matt and I just finished co-instructing a four day course in the beautiful Graham Beck Reserve situated in a valley between two mountain ranges. The course was a lot of fun and the kids were great. Matt will be writing a post on our experiences there in the next couple days. Pictures will be coming with his post.