There was no real rush to get up this morning. All we had to do today is arrive at Port Khalid in Sharjah by 12 noon and then hang around until the boat would leave. So we slept in and went out before packing up to have another dead cheap Deira breakfast.

On our way back, we checked the copy shop again, but it would not open for another half an hour. I had painfully grabbed an ok version of our business card design from the web (the original is on my PC in Germany), since we were running out of cards pretty fast. It was only 9.30 am once we had packed and the shop promised 30 minute turnaround, so we stuck around a bit longer and got a new batch printed.

The whole procedure in the port ran pretty much according to the great instructions we got from Al Hili Marine Services. There was one brief moment of terror when the cashier at the customs office looked up from my paperwork and said: “I have one more question: …” After a pause that seemed eternal, the relief came with “ … why Honda and not BMW?”. Because I can buy 3 of mine for the price of one GS, my friend. 😉

By 11.30 am we had done everything we could and got into waiting mode – right after an overpriced lunch at the Seamen’s Club (no kidding) at the port. As we were just abode to nod off for our afternoon nap, I heard the clatter of a large displacement single nearby. I looked up and saw a new Teneré coming towards us, with the unmistakable overlander outfit of aluminium panniers and bag roll.

Turned out that there would be two bikes on this boat, Rocinante and Jan’s Teneré. Jan is a young German guy on his first long distance bike ride. He had just shipped his bike to Dubai from Bremen to ride it back home to Germany. Most likely he will be taking the same route as we will.

And so the afternoon went by, chatting, blogging and finding other ways to occupy ourselves. Around 5 pm, we loaded the bikes onto the ferry. It took only a little bit of convincing, then the ship hands did a fine job in the end. Next up we walked over to the shack labelled passenger terminal to be processed and hauled back to the ferry in an ancient bus.

The ferry could take up to 375 passengers, but today only about 50 would sail with us. Everybody had plenty of space and we could spread out in a corner of the family section (Jan was “adopted”). We had to wait another couple of hours till 9 pm for dinner and departure. A good time to start studying the lonely planet to make up a route. The lights were turned off at 10 pm and we all spread out over multiple seats for a good night’s sleep.