Successful collection from shipping agent - October 30th

At 6 o'clock this morning we headed off for the warehouse just south of Los Angeles and about fifteen miles from the docks. We had hoped that the cars would have already been unloaded from the container, but that was not to be.

The journey down from our house just north of Santa Monica took about an hour. Typical rush hour traffic on the LA freeways but, as there were three of us in my son's car, we could use the Car Pool Lane and as the traffic snarled up we were able to keep going at a fair speed.

The fact that the cars were still in the container meant we had a two hour wait whilst they took them out. Of course both cars had flat batteries after being in the container for over a month. We used two fork lift trucks to jump start each car as the Landcruisers have two 12v batteries.

The car was nearly out of fuel so a quick stop at the first garage with diesel to refuel was in order. Not that many US garages sell diesel as so few cars are diesel powered. It is quite an eyeopener to see how little the Americans pay for their fuel compared to us Europeans. At $2.70 a US gallon for diesel, they are paying 39p per litre for diesel compared to 95p in London!

On the way back we stopped on the Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and took the picture below. A gloriously sunny afternoon, with the surf below us, made for a perfect photo location, ahead of our adventure through Central America.

Overlooking the Pacific in Malibu, California

In today's Los Angeles Times there were headlines on the civil unrest in Oaxaca which resulted in the police fighting with demonstrators in the centre of the town, and several people were killed, including a US journalist. Our route has been altered and we will bypass Oaxaca and stay in Acapulco instead.

Just a few days left before we head for the Mexican border on Friday. The time will be spent doing final checks on the car and making sure we have the equipment, spares, first aid etc that we need.

Cleared US Customs!!!

Great news! After nearly two weeks in San Pedro Docks Los Angeles waiting for customs clearance into the US, and only a week to go before we head across the border into Mexico, the US customs have cleared the car for temporary importation into the US.

We head out for the US tomorrow on British Airways from Heathrow and then on Monday we will drive down to collect the car. Our arrangements for the following weekend have had to be changed as we have just learnt that the US Customs Commercial offices at the Mexican border do not operate at a weekend. On leaving the US, with a temporary imported vehicle, the Bond you have to pay on entry into the US has to be cancelled and this can only be done by the Commercial office of US Customs. As a result we have decided to join some of HERO's event cars that will be crossing at noon next Friday. We will leave the cars at a depot in Tijuana and then return by taxi across the border into the US for the party being held by Stuart and Sheri at their house in La Jolla on the Saturday evening.

All this means that we will have two nights at the 5 star hotel, La Valenica in La Jolla, which should be a great way to start the tour. On Sunday morning we will head back to the border by taxi and cross to Tijuana and collect the cars for the short drive down to Ensenada and the start of the tour on Tuesday 7th November.

Landcruiser arrives in USA

Just received notification from the US Shipping Agent that the ship docked in San Pedro, California on Monday 17th October. The agent says we should know today (20th October) how long the US Customs will want the car to carry out their inspection. Apparently, other cars brought into the States have taken up to 10 days to clear customs. I'm hopeful that mine won't take that long and I can have the car collected by my son early next week.

We are doing the final preparations before we fly out on the 28th October, buying medical supplies, special clothes and photographic items.

We have just received the latest list of entries and about half are people we have travelled with before. A great crowd and a good number to make the event go really well. We have been informed that there has been a route change due to civil unrest in Oaxaca, Mexico. Apparently both the US and British governments have issued travel advisories informing tourists to stay away from the area of unrest.

Car shipped to Los Angeles

Our two Landcruisers were loaded onto the container ship Arabia which was docked in Felixstowe on the 25th September. As far as I can ascertain the ship then left port. According to the shipping line's website the Arabia is estimated to arrive in San Pedro in just over two week's time, on the 17th October.

Last week we met several of the participants at the launch of the HERO 4x4xplore Indian tour which takes place in October/November 2007. This was held at the Indian High Commission in London.

Not much else to report at the moment but with less than four weeks to go before we head out to the States we are now making our final arrangements regarding items we want to take with us and those that we will buy when we get out there.