Shipping a bouldering pad to South Africa

23Nov09

The maximum girth for a box shipped by sea (with the postal service) from Australia to South Africa is 140 cm. My bouldering pad has a girth of 161 cm. I found this out at the post office in Lorne where the Postie said that he would still squeeze it in and ship it for me. I didn’t ship the pad at that time because I wanted to use it a couple more times. By the time I made it to Sydney it was too hot to think about climbing so I visited another post office but this time I got the goody goody Postie who wouldn’t let the extra 10 cm squeeze by. Frustrated I continued my journey with my car chockablock with surfboards, camping gear, food and a bouldering pad. Today I gave another post office a go. The man looked at me and instantly started shaking his head. “That is too big…if you stand it up and it is taller then this counter we can’t send it”, said the man. I quickly eyeballed the counter and it looked taller than the pad. Sure enough the counter was a couple cm taller then the pad. “I guess we can take it”, said the Postie. Just after all the paper work was filled out and I had paid another more important Postie showed up, eye balled my pad and told the original Postie that is was too big – the girth that is. There was a bit of awkwardness between them and since it was already entered into the computer the more important Postie turned a blind eye. We will see if the pad makes it to South Africa.

The wheels have been set in motion for South Africa 2010. If anyone is interested in traveling half way around the globe to boulder I would be stoked to see you and climb with you in Rocklands. I hope to arrive sometime in May and will stay 4 months. The World Cup is also taking place in South Africa during June and July.

Image: This is Point Plomer where I’m staying. The beach in the distance that is in the top right corner of the frame has a wave that is protected from the northeasterly (top secret info!).
www.aaronblack.com

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