Dili to Darwin

Overland Travel A Brittish couple, Maz and Alex and showed up at the Backpackers Guest House in Dili a couple of days ago. They were driving a Toyota Landcruiser from England to New Zealand. It was a great trip across Europe, the Middle East, through Iran and Pakistan, across China into Laos and across Indonesia via Borneo and Sulawasi to East Timor. They have a good website with a lot of useful information. www.overland-underwater.com Getting from Indonesia to Australia is a challenge. Vehicles could be shipped from Surabayah in Java to Freemantle In Australia as an option. But you would miss driving across Flores and seeing Komodo and maybe Kelimutu and Bajawa. The people of Flores are very friendly and full of smiles and laughter so it would be a shame to miss that part of the world especially since you were that close anyway. There is a ferry from Maumere to Kupang. You could go all the way to the east end of Flores to Larentuka and take the ferry to Kupang in West Timor from there as well. From Kupang it is a 10 to 12 hour drive to Dili crossing the border near Atambua. This page is mostly going to deal with shipping a vehicle from Dili in East Timor to Darwin in Australia. Perkins is one of the shipping companies in Dili that will transport vehicles to Australia. SDV is the local agent customs agent. There are usually at least 2 ships a month leaving to Australia. The Australian customs people have very strict control when dealing with imported vehicles which have to be cleaned of any foreign matter that might be inadvertantly introduced to the country. All dirt, mud, seeds, stalks, insects and any other organic matter must be removed before shipping the vehicle. There are a few companies in Dili that provide the service or the tools and support staff to do it. It is a bit more involved than a regular car wash. All the trim was removed to facilitate the cleaning. Each piece was meticulously scrubbed and then dried in the sun. Some parts were reinstalled but some were put in plastic bags to allow for inspection by the customs people. Even if the vehicle owner does a lot of the work it will cost between 500 and 1000 dollars. You need a pressure washer and air compressor to blast the dirt from hard to reach spots. The vehicle should stay in the yard till it has been cleaned completely top to bottom and then loaded into a 20' container and sent out. The process could take up to 5 days or so to get everything in order remembering that all the baggage that is going to be shipped has to be gone over as well. A-1 Services has a big but dusty yard and can facilitate the cleaning or you could contract out to a local freelancer for 45 to 55 USD an hour. The whole procedure is quite expensive with port fees on both ends plus the cost of shipping and cleaning. Missed a spot! A rough estimate of charges: Aprox 600.00 USD for shipping the container A BAF charge of 125 USD (some kind of port fee) Port charges in Darwin 335 AUD Quarantine fees in Australia 157 AUD for the first half hour - 80 AUD per half hour thereafter plus a 37 AUD admin fee Cleaning and prep charges 500 to 1000 USD dependend on your haggling skills Passengers are not allowed on the boat so you will have to figure in the cost of a flight to Darwin as well. Air North is the carrier and the fare can fluctuate greatly so be sure to check this out before you use this info. On the internet it was possible at this time to find a flight for 159 USD plus 30 USD tax. Always check the fares on the internet before you come all this way because they can vary greatly. Be sure to check out Alex and Maz's website! www.overland-underwater.com Left - Container being loaded on a ship bound for Darwin. Here is an update from Maz: Sorry in the delay in reply....we finally got our car through quarantine and custom and into Aus!!! customs actually seized the car in the container, took it from the port to a customs inspection house and took it to pieces! Thankfully, we had already done most of it and left it all loose for quarantine to inspect, so they only managed to break the back door handle. While customs had the car, quarantine also had a route through (we were kept in the dark for most of it which was extremely stressful, we only found out about it as we asked where the keys were), but in the end I think it worked in our favour. They seized the blowpipe which we knew they would and also codeine tabs which are illegal here. It hadn't even crossed my mind!! Ironically they allowed us to keep our mandau (knife) which with a 10inch blade obviously isn't as dangerous as a beautifully carved piece of bamboo with a hole in the middle! However, we were not actually allowed to take the car home that day, even though it had passed all quarantine inspections....as they lazy buggers up here don't work full days and the shipping company knocked off just as the inspection started at 3.30pm! All an anti-climax which is a shame. We then took it to Toyota, who after a month or so of Alex writing to them about all the serious problems with her, said no problem bring the car in.....after 5 days and lots of calling, we eventually got to speak with Toyota who said "oh, we don't do automatic transmissions" this is the main problem with the car (i.e. the gear box) What?!?!?!?! Thankfully it is all fixed and we could get to the outback (even if it was a month after arriving in Aus). So we have now driven and walked around Kakadu, canoed down part of Katherine Gorge and just finsihed the Gibb River road. We have just arrived in Broome and hoping to meet up with my mum and dad in the near future for Xmas. Where do you think you'll be? Hope to hear you news. All the best Maz & Alex 2006 www.dutchpickle.com

 

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