Bike and boy booked – beyond the border

Strangely, it was the airport – not the docks – to which I took my bike this morning for Customs to give it an official stamp.  The stamped CPD – or Carnet De Passages En Douane – serves very much like your (human) passport, but for vehicles.  It needs to be stamped on national exit and entry, just like your passport at international airports.  Without the CPD, the bike would attract both an export and an import tax every time the bike crosses a border.  With 20 countries en route between Melb and London, that’d be a pretty ridiculous proposition.

Other than taking 45 minutes to find where I was supposed to go, and the “5 minute wait” that somehow took 45 minutes, the CPD signing process was surprisingly straightforward, human and pleasant.  So I was a little surprised that the helpful official became the first person on my trip to decline a request for a photo for the diary.  I guess Customs have reason to be cautious about such things.

Talking about costly processes, it’s kinda crazy cost and schedule shipping the bike to Timor.  In fact it will cost both less time and less money to get the bike back to Melbourne from London than for this hop-skip-and-jump across to Timor.  Can’t help feeling a little bit cheated, especially since I really liked the idea of sailing across on Allan’s yacht – which would have been significantly quicker and cheaper than either of those aforementioned journeys.  But that’s moot as I’d have had to wait until May for Allan.

The bike’s boat schedule has already slipped a couple of days, so I’ll now deliver it to the docks this Friday.  I’ve booked Qantas flights for this coming Monday, with a couple of days’ accomodation in Dili.  I’ll use that as a landing pad, but probably go exploring while I wait for the bike to arrive a couple of weeks later.

I’ve got a comfortable schedule ahead of rearranging my packing.  I’ll stow the helmet, gloves, boots and bike pants in the panniers sent with the bike.  The camping equipment will come with me in the newly-purchased check-in duffle bag and carry-on back pack.  Some stage this week I’ll make sure I’ve got a dozen paper copies of passport, Aussie and international driver’s licenses, CPD, etc.  And then I think I’ll be pretty set.  It all seems a bit of a non event after months of build up.

Trev’ll need his flat back from my house-sitting before Monday, but I’ve been bold enough to ask if I can hang around on the couch rather than mess with new accomodation just as I’m finishing up my time in Darwin.  Thanks for your hospitality, Trevor!

If you’d asked me in Melbourne how long I’d be stuck in Darwin, I wouldn’t have believed any suggestion of “the end of Jan”.  I would no doubt have snorted something along the lines of “I’d pack up and come home well before then.”  But there’s been plenty here to keep me locked in a sense of “imminent”, and so I’ve allowed the time to drag on without pulling up stumps.  If I were to be (overly) generous to myself, perhaps I’d call it a case of growing patience.  Yes, why not – let’s run with “patience” – and not let truth in the way of that good story 😉.  Regardless, it has been a much-needed wind-down period, which has no doubt recharged batteries for the 20-25,000km ahead.

I don’t really feel like I can justify calling this an “adventure” yet with just the ride from Melbourne to Darwin, and two months staying with new friends. I think that adjective (“adjectival noun” in case you’re a grammar nut) can get plastered on the itinerary from this coming Monday.

Bring it on!