27 Denpasar - Broome

17. Feb 2007

After 2 great days in Bali, I was back in the real world, after corresponding with the Australian customs in Broome in Australia. At first it was just about notifying them, that I would be coming the next day, Saturday, and providing passport details etc. That was all fine. They wanted me to pay out an hour’s fee, because I would arrive on a Saturday, but that was fine with me.
 

I had really looked forward to get to Australia, a country where I once lived for a few years – back to a place with a tradition for general aviation, without unnecessary bureaucracy.
 

But I was in for surprise!  A show stopper of a mail suddenly arrived, telling me, that I would have to pay a deposit equivalent to the duties and sales tax, as if I imported the aircraft to Australia! The reason for this, I was told was, that if I crashed with the plane in Australia, and therefore effectively imported the plane, the customs might miss out on the money!
 

I am not kidding. Neither where they!!
 

I wrote back, saying that if that was the rule, then I would have to comply, and I mailed information about the value of the plane, and asked to be informed of the amount of money they wanted, and an account where I could deposit it. I did not want this problem to interfere with my trip, or have to spend more time in Broome, than I had planned. The customs bluntly said, that if the money was not paid, the plane would not be allowed to leave Broome.
 

But they could not tell me the amount of money they wanted. They instructed me to go through a custom broker – and no, there was no such a person in Brome and no, they could not inform me where I could find one. I could look it up in the phone book I was told.
 

Having to deal with this sort bullshit ruined my last day in Bali, but Saturday morning I turned up in the airport, ready to fly to Broome. I had been in touch with Claude from “www.earthrounders.com”, and he said, hat he never had heard of such a requirement. He suggested I tried to go to Darwin instead, but I did not fancy that.
 

Going through the airport was smooth, but It took some time to get fuel. 
 

I had no more US dollars, and as they priced everything in US dollars and only accepted cash, I had to pay in Euro. In Jakarta they had converted US dollars directly to Euro. Here in Bali they insisted of converting first to rupees – and then to Euro. That alone cost me 50 Euro. On top of that, they managed to get 315 litres of fuel in my 2 wing tanks. The tanks only hold 322 litres, so I should have landed with 7 litres of spare fuel, if that was to be correct. But I did not do that, so somehow about 50 litres of fuel had vaporised?

Or could it be, that the way they measured the fuel I took on, with a dipstick into the barrels, was causing the difference?
 

Anyway, I departed, and requested a detour from the planned route to go up east coast of Bali. I wanted to fly VFR around the volcano Gunung Agung. The volcano itself was hidden behind a veil of clouds, so I went back south inland over Ubud, then past the airport, while climbing to 11000 feet en route to Australia.
 

I had a great trip, nice blue sky and few cumulus clouds below me. The wind was coming in from left, at up to 40 knots.
 

The only mishap was, when I was dumb enough to poke my head, with hat and headset, out through the window to see, if I could see the HF antenna I had trailing after the plane. I lost my hat, but managed to hang on to the headset!
 

For the first time on my trip, I got the HF radio to work. I was able to talk to Brisbane radio, on frequency 11396, and give positions. I have arranged it, so I use the microphone, that came with the radio, but have the HF radio headset outlet connected up to the planes audio system.

About 150 NM from Broome, I could reach Brisbane Center on the VHF radio. 30 miles out of Broome I called up on the local frequency, but realised, that their radio was not manned. So I called local traffic, and came in for a visual left downwind landing to runway 29.
 

And there they were, representatives for customs and quarantine. I was handed a little can of insect spray, to spray the cockpit, before I got out of the plane.
 

Arguing with the customs was of no avail, and they took the plane into custody. And for the first time on my trip, I had my bags and the aircraft searched as well.
 

Wonder what it will be like to hitchhike in this part of the world.? I have done it before! Years ago I hitchhiked from Darwin to Sydney.