Wednesday 13th October - Nabiac

I’m afraid that we seem to have got out of the habit of writing the blog, although I’m not sure how interested you would be regarding the ins and outs of the Crabtree family gathering that has kept us occupied these last three weeks.

As for the Land Rover, it safely completed its 4000km journey on the back of one of Shaws Darwin Transport’s trucks, whereupon it stayed in their Wetherill Park yard until our shipping company could book passage and arrange for a container to be delivered.  We had to present our Carnet to customs at the airport, after which they would normally inspect the vehicle at one of their depots or charge to go out to an alternative location, but after hearing about the accident and the immobile state of the Land Rover they stamped the Carnet there and then, much to our relief.

Erich and Sheila, who had read about our accident on the Australia Land Rover Owners forum, kindly offered to help with loading the vehicle into the container, so we met them at Shaws’ yard last Thursday and they followed us and the Land Rover (which was on the back of a tilt tray) over to our shippers yard in Kingsgrove.  Spark Global had said that we could use their premises to load the Land Rover ourselves, saving several hundred dollars, so we’d been shopping for some man sized ratchet straps, and with Erich and Sheila’s help (and a push by a fork lift) we got the vehicle in and secured in the container.  With the doors closed and custom’s seal attached, we left N609 to its long journey home.  It was on the wharf the next day and has sailed on APL Peru (you can check its position online at http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?mmsi=304454000).

It’s due to arrive in the UK on 24th November.  I think Erich was itching to get his hands on our Camel as he rebuilds Land Rovers as a hobby, but we had to disappoint him.  Many thanks to Erich and Sheila, whom we’ll hopefully meet up with again next week.