A fairground life(cyprus adventure ch7 part1)

Jan 5th 1999 PART1
After having breakfast and leaving the BB we went to the docks. At the docks where a couple of port a cabins. One for customs the other for the shipping agents (Baldan). First off we had to show the registration documents for the vehicles. I think this was to prove that they did belong to us. Then we provided all the other information regarding chassis numbers, trailer numbers etc. Most of the rides didn’t have serial numbers so they had numbers chalked on. After we measured the vehicles for length, breadth and height. They asked us the approximate weight of each. “d” said his was about 38ton, I think this was too much for it, they asked me mine and I said 28ton (a white lie as I had never weighed it until September 2007 when it came in at 29.5ton). We later found out that this had nothing to do with the loading of the boat but was how the dock charges were calculated. To be honest I had guessed this and originally thought my ride was about 32tons. In the end it didn’t make any difference to me, but Mr”a” saved a few quid. The shipping agent went around and gave all the vehicles an adhesive sticker with reference numbers on it. This was stuck on a prominent place on the trailer and on the lorry windscreen. After about 2hrs we were cleared to move into another part of the docks. As we went down to the birth where the ship was I could see a hive of activity. There were forklifts and vehicle moving all over the place. The ship wasn’t as big as I had expected. I was glad to see it was RO-RO (roll on roll off), as I didn’t fancy it being lifted by crane onto the deck. I have seen pictures of rides suspended before and all their owners said the same thing-it made them physically sick to watch the ride hanging by a thread. The first items loaded onto the ship were agricultural gear. Large combine harvesters and other farm equipment. Then they started to load us.