Vancouver – The last hurrah!

Some call it Raincouver! This is definitely not the best climate to be cleaning and preparing a car for shipping to Australia – where quarantine standards are known to be some of the strictest in the world.

But clean inside the car we did, in the rain for the next 3 days. Every nook and cranny, box and piece of clothing was systematically washed, wiped, repacked or ditched!

After 3 days, we were tired of cheese and biscuit lunches and fairly happy with the cleaning effort. We found ourselves a car detailer and arranged for carpet cleaning to be done and did our best to find a car wash where we could give Troopy a good clean. It seems that in Vancouver everyone uses the drive-through car washes. We couldn’t find one where you clean the car yourself with a foaming brush and a high pressure hose. So instead we borrowed a hose from a fellow camper and washed the car in the campground with a bucket, some dish washing liquid & cleaning cloths – in the rain. It took 3 hours, it rained the whole time and we were wet and very cold by the time we’d finished despite wearing our wet weather gear. Ahh, living the dream!

That being said, Troopy looked pretty good underneath, inside and outside.

On Thursday 17^th October, we delivered Troopy to our chosen freight forwarder in Vancouver and left him in their care. From here on is an incredible exercise in trust.

Troopy has to be fumigated against the dreaded Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (true story!) to meet new strict Australian quarantine regulations. As of mid September this year, most things being exported from North America require fumigation by an approved treatment provider. Apart from being a considerable expense, this is a new regulation and hence there was some uncertainty about how long this would take and when it could be completed. So for the first time, we haven’t left Troopy secured in a container. At this stage, all has gone to plan and Troopy was loaded into a container on 1^st November and the process of fumigation began that day. Once the 5-7 day process is completed, the container goes back to the port and from there onto a ship. We hope to have him home before the end of January. A lot later than we had hoped or expected and it will be a very happy reunion!

We did it!

And so, after 12 months to the day we are finished. We did it! A 60,000km drive from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Ocean, from Ushuaia to Anchorage and boy, have we had an amazing year! We have more to say about our travels and we are certainly not finished travelling in Australia or overlanding overseas, so Notes from somewhere else will continue.

And thank you!

If you’ve been following our blog and sending us messages, we really want to say how much we appreciated the comments, likes and questions. Contact with family and friends from home as well as those we’ve met along the way who followed our blog, has meant a lot and has helped us feel connected.

Take care everyone,

Stewart and Ailsa