Australia at Last!

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Monday 14 June 2010 - Queen’s Birthday

So here we are, now in Australia having had a series of emails during the middle of last week from our Malaysian shippers to say that the customs people had cleared the way for the car to be shipped to Australia thus allowing the next stage to be taken forward- the booking of the container, arranging the delivery of the car to stuff into the container , and then shipping to Fremantle.

John and I spent two days sorting out the contents of our Hillman and then taking the car to be steam cleaned so that the car was as clean as possible for shipment. And we are so glad that we have taken the advice received - an email received by me from our agents in Fremantle who will deal with the arrival of the car set out in no uncertain terms the sequence of events our car will have to go through to be able to be driven on the Australian roads. There are eight different agents that we have to deal with. The most difficult will be the Australian quarantine organization who have the power to demand that the car be further cleaned, and if that event happens our shipping agent has said that the car could take as long as four weeks to be released because so much is referred on by the quarantine people for extra cleaning that the cleaning organization are now overwhelmed! John and I are holding our breath that this is not the case.

Taking a step back to Malaysia, on our arrival in Johor we first stayed for three nights in a hotel that was obviously very much for local people. It sufficed for our layover while waiting for the news about what to do with the car, but since we were to be there for more than three days, and I had only booked for three nights initially, when I went to enquire about extending, I was told that the hotel was full up. So we had to move. Fortunately there was a nice looking hotel to the front of the one we were staying in, overlooking the straights of Singapore and using Agoda we were able to book in for the rest of our time in JB bed and breakfast for a very reasonable cost. It turned out to be a good hotel with very friendly and helpful staff who ensured our car was looked after and were even happy for us to dump all our kit from the car onto the area around the car in front of the hotel, while we prepared it for its steam cleaning. Saturday a week ago, we travelled into Singapore, first by taxi from JB across the Causeway to the nearest Singapore metro station, then by train all the way into the centre of the city. We returned that evening after visiting one or two places highlighted in the photographs, by local bus, which proved to be cheap and efficient, despite the on off on off routine we had to go through to negotiate both sets of customs documentation to get back into Malaysia.

We had one amusing incident involving the local Malaysian police. On returning from getting the car steam cleaned last Tuesday, I was map reading - again - and when approaching the option of a flyover or side road, I chose the side road, we ended up in the bus lane for exiting the country! We were suddenly surrounded by local police but I put my hands up and said we are lost! Help get us out of here. I think they took pity on us in our pretty car because we soon had a police motor bike escort to take us the wrong way but out of the customs area.

Then on the Wednesday, we began to hear positive news that we would be able to stuff our car into a container on the Thursday. Once we had confirmed that, I went onto the internet to book flights out of Singapore; we had both decided that with such a long period to wait for the arrival of the car, we would fly to Adelaide, where I would stay with my son and family for a few days and John would see some of Adelaide and then visit a distant relative of his some 3-4 hours east of Adelaide. So flights were booked for the following evening, flying with Emirates from Singapore to Melbourne, and then a Qantas flight to Adelaide arriving in Adelaide at a pretty decent time of 10.00am on Friday morning.

We don’t expect to be meeting up with the Hillman now until about the Tuesday 22 June because the ship with our car in its container only left Johor Bahru yesterday (Sunday) and the sea voyage will be about six days arriving next Saturday and assuming that no one works on Sundays! extracting the car and taking it to the warehouse will be a further two days at least, so John and I will plan to fly to Perth on that Tuesday to stay with some friends of Elaines while we process the car. It has to be said that we are now behind our schedule and are unlikely to be hitting Sydney until around 12/13 July, a week behind the original estimated time.

So there will be a pause until we reassemble to complete the final, and long haul around the top of Australia, that should produce some interesting moments as we drive and camp our way towards Cairns. I have put some photos on this entry’s blog, of our final couple of days in Johor Bahru and if anyone can come up with any good tips as to how we get our car out of the clutches of Australian officialdom swiftly to complete our last leg, I think we would both love to hear from you!! So until around the 22/23 June, enjoy the break.

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