A picture tells a thousand words…

This picture we snagged from the computer screen at the custom broker’s office. We never got to see it get packed so this was awesome to see. This photo was taken during the customs inspection. The freight forwarded seems to have done a terrific job securing the car. You see where the money goes. It looks to have been bolstered by timber fixed to the floor. Those straps alone are seriously heavy duty and we are fortunate to have inherited them.
You can see they got it in there with the roof rack on – terrific!

0900 – Late breakfast to avoid the huge crowd
1030 – Irena emailed informing us that the port manager had left for the dock to drive the car out.
1045 – Unable to wait, and uncertain of how we’d get there, we walked from the hotel and discovered a taxi. We’d written down the street name before leaving and showed it to the driver.
”сьрельниковаб, 5” 
1100 – Arrived at ‘The big blue building’ and waited in the customs office. The port manager dropped in and realised we were waiting.
We received a call advising that there would be some delay (can’t recall why) but something to do with port congestion.
1100 – Sat on the wall overlooking the terminal entrance
1200 – Had lunch
1300 – Pacing like an expectant father.
1500 – It drove up the street towards us (video below)

After picking it up, we drove to the next fuel station. The process for fuelling is you take the nozzle from the bowser, place it in the filler hole, estimate and pay for the number of litres you need at the ‘babushka window’ and she starts the pump. I did the car end of this procedure whilst Cassie payed. As expected we hit the “145L – can’t be!… that car over there, are you sure?”.  I hadn’t told Cassie about the ‘dva tank machina’ clue. Meanwhile all this time an irate bunch of cranky tradesmen were furious that I was holding up proceedings (for literally one minute). Oh well, there’s rude people the world over. So, we took 130L and were refunded the rest. For those interested, 27.8R or 84 cents a litre. Hopefully future fills are more relaxed.

So tomorrow morning early we will set off before the peak hour traffic. As far as we can see, there is only two turns between us and freedom (The M60)

We did a bit of driving today around town as we dropped off some gifts to the shipping company. It was easy as! The roads are rough and the locals know where all the pot holes and man-hole’s are.

… and there it is. WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo! We found a big tree for shade and spent roughly an hour putting everything back together. Easy as. There’s a part in my mind that keeps thinking something should have changed between when we dropped it off and now. Naturally nothing has happened, it’s just been a box for a few weeks!

Quorn jumped onto Cassie when she opened the door and has hung on for HOURS!

It seems we are the Australian record holder for importing a car ;-)
Midday Monday to midday Thursday. I say that entirely tongue in cheek. But really, it’s a credit to the shipping company, and all those who have been before us and helped us to minimise mistakes.

One thing I’m terribly sad about, is that all the relationships we have formed will just be dust in the wind. We’ll all go back to our lives as if they never existed It makes you think; that if this is what happens when you leave a town, the same must happen when you die. It’s all gone and you were nothing in the whole scheme of time. That’s not meant to be a bitter end to an otherwise exciting story, I’m just sad about losing contact with people we’ve shared time with. I’m also sad in advance knowing we’re going to meet some stunning people who will touch us, but even these memories will eventually fade. One last ‘sad-point’ is that everyone we have talked to would love to visit Australia but for a wealth of reasons will never get the opportunity. Why did we land in a prosperous developed country and others not? It’s a shame that even 1% into the trip, I know what we’ve had such good fortune and opportunities that 99% of the people we meet may never have. I’ve very grateful for everyone and everything we have.

This will cheer us all up. (The dust in the wind reference)

Movie: Old School–Will Ferrell