Monday morning we rode the mighty Symbas through Mississauga morning rush hour traffic to Pack-All Crating. This crating company was recommended to us by our contact at British Airways Cargo. We arrived around 8:30 am and met with our contact who directed us around to the warehouse. We rode in, and the foreman found us a safe spot to park the bikes. We had to explain our plans a couple of times before everyone understood how we wanted them crated. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and let us get to disassembling the bikes.



While I removed the front wheels and fenders from each bike, Re disconnected the batteries and also acted as a counterweight. We then unbolted the handlebars and folded them so they were parallel with the front forks. The handlebar mounting bolts are partially hidden below the speedometers and were a pain in the ass to remove. I then zip-tied the handlebars in place, and we arranged the bikes as they would be fitted in the crate. Once we had them arranged, measurements were taken and the crate size finalized. The whole process took about 1.5 hours. The good news of the day was that due to the small size and light weight of our bikes it was determined that we could use a lighter weight crate (apparently the depleted uranium option wasn't required). Our crate will now only weigh 212 pounds instead of 275 and at $3 CAD per pound, it adds up rather quickly. We left our bikes in their capable hands and walked the 3 miles or so to the airport terminal where we picked up our rental car. We are out of the habit of walking so far, especially carrying all of our riding gear in hand. We drove back to the hotel and collapsed. The shipping issue has been the most stressful part of the trip so far and getting this far was a relief.



Tuesday we wrote some blog posts and RRs and generally hung out. We did go out for a really delicious thali lunch at some Indian restaurant and sweets shop in a strip mall across from the airport. They were doing renovations so we had to get our food to go. We tried to find a park to eat in but settled for the bleachers at a ballpark next to the Powerade Centre. I always take Re to the nicest places! At least the food was excellent, with one of our favorite taste treats, soan papdi for dessert. We called the crating company later in the afternoon and were told that we could come by the next morning to put the last few items in the crate.



Wednesday we headed back to the crating company early in the morning. When we got there, we found our bikes loaded in their crate and the top waiting to go on. We put our helmets and riding gear in the crate and then watched while they closed it up and stenciled on all the appropriate markings. Shortly thereafter, the cartage company arrived and loaded it into their truck for the 3 mile ($100 CAD!!) ride to the British Airways Cargo facility. We followed in our car and met with Desmond Green who was filling in for Savio that day. In less than 20 minutes, we completed all the paperwork and paid for the shipping and were on our way to lunch. Our crate came in at 70x44x38 inches and 301 kilos, which meant that we had to pay for 320 kilos since that was our weight by volume (length X width X height in inches /366 is the formula to calculate volume weight in kilos, and they charge you whichever is heavier, actual or volume weight). Including the $250 CAD dangerous goods fee and $25 CAD in paperwork, the total was $2364.60 CAD. Add in $389 for the crating and cartage, and our grand total was $2753.60 CAD. Since we have an address in the US to invoice, we are not subject to the 13% HST, which saved us a little bit on the crate cost. More than I hoped for but less than I feared, my original guesstimate was around $2400, but after we heard the crate weight and HST when we were in NC, I was figuring closer to $3000 CAD. . This is still far better than any quote we could get out of the US. We were offered our own 20 foot container by sea to Durban for over $4000 or airfreight from New York for $8300!!

Our flight for Cape Town leaves at around 11 pm on 9/15, so between then and now we have laundry to do, and we have to completely re-pack our luggage for the airplane.

Our trip so far has covered a combined 10484 miles. We have used 113.25 gallons of fuel over that distance for an average of 92.6 mpg. We also averaged 327 miles per day of riding, which ain't bad for 100ccs!