Update from the Marine Expedition

http://www.marine-expedition.co.za/

Hi everyone

This past month has proven to be a very difficult and testing time for the expedition. Who knew you could make it across West Africa with so much ease, only to be flummoxed by Europe.

Since our last update from Morocco, we have left the African continent and driven via Portugal to Madrid, Spain. Leaving Morocco was interesting, but with all the required documentation for the extension of our visas in hand, we were back on track. A few days behind schedule we entered Tarifa, Spain.

Unfortunately due to some mixed information we were not allowed to purchase vehicle insurance in Spain for a South African vehicle. There was no issue getting into Spain, but if the police stopped us, we were essentially driving illegally. Not one South African insurance company was interested in helping and we were refused vehicle cover. Running further behind schedule we had to leave Spain and enter Portugal, as we had some dives lined up.

We were lucky that a Dutch company was able to insure the vehicle all the way to Russia, so after 2 weeks of driving around Europe illegally we managed to get the required green card, though some help from Mr. Schonknecht, for which we are extremely grateful.

Arriving in Madrid we secured meetings with Oceana, a huge marine based conservation organization and with ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna. The meeting with Oceana was excellent and we were brilliantly received. Not only were we able to interview the Director and chief scientist, Oceana supplied us with a huge collection of images and video footage for our documentary. We are grateful to their generosity and passion for which they conduct their work. As Oceana is looking forward to branching into Africa, and will keep in contact offering advice from our side to the hopeful inception of Oceana in South Africa (Oceana Africa Program), this would be fantastic.

Our meeting was delayed with ICCAT until the 8^th of June due to Linda and my visa application for the UK been denied. We do feel it was denied unjustly and look to make a comment about the situation at a later stage. This problem was huge for us as it blocked our entry to a country where we would get the car serviced, acquire visas for the next leg of the expedition, and would allow us to ferry across to Norway. Furthermore due to our Shengen days running out we had to fly to Croatia where we could bunk down in our house and work on all the admin to change our flight plans to the US, figure out how the vehicle would get to Norway etc. The circumstance has unfortunately necessitated our need to return to South Africa briefly, firstly to organize our US, Russian and Japanese visas, and to lay an official complaint with the Ministry regarding the UK consulate in Madrid. I may depart SA after a few days and use my Croatian passport to drive the vehicle into the UK (as no visa is required) and then meet Linda in Oslo, either or, the British have really dented a smooth passage for us and have throw us into administrative hell. What this means is that we are currently back in South Africa and are in the process of getting all our visas for Asia, and it looks as if the UK will have to remain off our list of countries to visit as we simply do not have the time to still get the visa and make it to the conference in the USA, and get to Russia by October.

If anyone wants to get hold of us our new numbers down here are Linda 083 348 8474 and Mike 0785218478. We should be around for about three weeks while we pull ourselves towards ourselves and possibly begin work on a new trailer for the Documentary.

Hope you are all keeping well, were disappointed that we will not be seeing everyone in the UK ,but im sure well meet up soon.

Till then

Happy travels

Mike and Linda