Our vessel was due to arrive in Darwin on the 20th August.
We, ourselves arrived very early on the 21st. We had tried to track the arrival date on the shipping company website but as they were literally in the middle of being taken over then, they did not update it. We found the website of the new company; they had an ambiguous date of the 25th August. Ambiguous as it was not clear whether this was the date the vessel arrived in Darwin from Singapore or left Darwin for Dili in Timor.
On the 20th August, whilst in Singapore, we checked the progress of the vessel using vesselfinder.com. But the last ‘sighting’ was offshore Singapore on the14th. Had it even left?
The process at the end of the voyage is that the shipping company ships the goods to the port and that's the end of it for them. The container is then taken from the port to an unpacking site where it is unpacked. The unpackers are a separate company. And all this is done under the watchful eyes of the equivalent of Her Majesty's Customs.
Whilst we were in Bali, Xavier had been in contact with both the local branch of the shipping company and also the unpackers. He had heard, unofficially, that the vessel was due in at 22.00 on Thursday the 21st. This then slipped to 0600 on Friday the 22nd.
So on the Thursday when we arrived we did not do anything as we believed that the vessel hadn’t arrived. All we did was pick up all the contact numbers from Xavier.
However on Friday we started. Nobody seemed to be telling us that our precious goods had arrived. By Friday afternoon we had been passed from the shipping company to the unpackers and we learned that the vessel had actually arrived, that it would be unloaded that day but nobody worked the weekend. It was suggested we ring up the Quarantine people at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and make an appointment for them to come and inspect the bike on Tuesday afternoon. Already our timing was slipping and this was when we decided to take a weekend break to Kakadu.
Nonetheless we did as advised and rang the friendly Quarantine people. Not so friendly...This wasn't the way to do it, we couldn't make an appointment without a Quarantine Number. We could only get one of these if we had paid the fee and the Quarantine people had all our paperwork, but we couldn't give them our paperwork directly as that had to go through Customs.
So we went to see Customs. But before going in we rang back the unpackers who said they could no longer advise us. Any queries should be directed back to the shipping company and they didn't tell us ...but their might well be some 'issues' with the Containers.
Customs were fine and they would pass our documentation on to Customs, but as it was four in the afternoon on a Friday it would be best to leave it to mid morning on Monday before giving them a ring.
Weekend jaunt looking at crocodiles.
Monday morning we rang and booked an inspection appointment for Tuesday morning. Spirits raised. Ten minutes later they cancelled it due to problems with the Containers. Spirits dashed.
We rang the shipping company in Darwin. They told us to ring their office in Melbourne. Melbourne not interested and very anxious to know who had given us their number. Paul not very impressed on the phone. Back to Darwin people and Paul continued in his not very impressed mode.
It would seem that there had been a small glitch with the paperwork regarding the containers and because of this, Customs would not release them from the port to the unpackers. It didn't sound a big thing and should be sorted quickly.
We decided that we should be in Darwin even though it was a three and a half hour drive from Kakadu. We drove straight to the shipping office who assured us they were working on it. But it wasn't a big office, three people, and it was very, very quiet!
We ascertained that the Bills of Lading, not a spelling mistake, think of the word 'laden', said that the vessel was carrying three empty containers aboard amongst all the others with some loose goods on deck. Unfortunately this was cobblers; there was no loose or break bulk goods onboard - the goods that were said to be break bulk were actually in the three empty containers. Customs had said that the BoL didn't correspond to what had arrived at port, so where were the break bulk goods? The shipping company replied that they were in the three containers deemed empty. Stalemate.
The motor bike was part of this mess.
Paul suggested that they just opened the containers to see what was in them. He was also a bit anxious about whether the bike was actually in Australia. For some reason this was not possible and it would be far easier if the paperwork was just corrected. But that was what they had said had lunchtime... Starting to feel time drifting away.
The shipping company said that it would be sorted out very quickly. Their Melbourne office would be correcting the paperwork and although they had already gone home for the day, they would be there half and hour earlier in the morning due to the time difference.
Just what sort of place has thirty minutes time difference, honestly you either don't bother or go for the full hour, but not Darwin!
Anyway they agreed that they would give us an update at nine in the morning. At nine in the morning nothing new had happened but the shipping company had passed it upstairs to put pressure on Melbourne. We agreed for an eleven o'clock update. We actually went to their office and told them we would be staying there till the issues were sorted. At eleven there was nothing new to report. Paul was getting irritated. They offered us a placatory lunch which we refused. "What I want is my bike."
Paul then suggested he would ring Melbourne. He was told it was a Singapore issue now, so he rang Singapore only to find they were doing nothing about it. Paul now started getting upset with the Darwin people. They rang Singapore and agreed it would be sorted in twenty minutes. After three hours Paul was more uptight and rang Singapore who said they had passed it to Kuala Lumpur as...well we never really found out as Paul got very upset indeed and didn't really need the telephone connection.
By close of play Tuesday Paul was running the office, Singapore had simultaneously submitted revised draft paperwork to Kuala Lumpur so they could formalise it and also to Melbourne so they could deal with the Customs using their extra matinal half hour.
Return rendez-vous fixed for nine, Wednesday morning. By ten on Wednesday all was well. The unpackers had sent a lorry to move the Containers and we had an appointment with Quarantine and Customs for 13.00. Then we didn't. But it only slipped to 15.00.
Customs were not that interested in the bike and stamped the carnet straight away. But then the Environmental Protection Officer from Quarantine started. She checked the velcro straps for non-velcro bodies. She meticulously checked all the bits and pieces we had left on the bike. She looked inside the empty top-box to find four grass seeds, the type you play Tennis on at Wimbledon, not the other stuff. We had to remove them with some Sellotape. Then she looked at the fusebox behind the side-panel; it was a bit dusty because the cleaner hadn't cleaned it. And then there was a wire underneath the engine which had a ribbed protective sleeve over it and there was some dirt in the ribs.
We were quite happy that this was it. But she wasn't. She rejected the bike. We thought that there would be a "but once you have cleaned these bits you can go addendum", but there wasn't! Second appointment booked for Thursday at 0830. Paul further cleans bike with a toothbrush (honestly!) late Wednesday afternoon in unpacking shed.
Thursday morning a different EPO turns up for inspection and starts all over again. She too finds some dust on underside of engine but says OK. Relief.
However although she signs it off we still can't leave because there is still a problem with Customs paperwork on the Container, which means that no goods in the container can be released. However this was only a thirty minute problem and by 1030 Thursday morning, over a week after we had arrived, we were allowed to ride the bike.
Onwards to the Motor Vehicle Registration department, where we had to queue up for ninety minutes under the (very hot) sun to have a mini-MOT. And the horn didn't work because it had suffered under the pressure wash in Singapore and sounded like a bumble bee in a jam jar. However the official limited his comments to it being better if we get it fixed, which meant that we could move onto the last step of buying Australian 3rd Party Insurance.
By 13.00 we were finished and could load the bike and take the hire car back. At14.00 we were at last truly on the Australian road and our tribulations were history. Sense of achievement.
Apologies for the not yet cathartic dirge.
Paul and Francoise
Do remember that you are having a motorcycle adventure around the world whilst most of us have just gone back to work for the long slog into winter. Feel better now?!
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