- Joined
- Mar 8, 2007
- Messages
- 1,346
- Reaction score
- 23
- Location
- Swahilistan, East Africa
- Bike
- Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin
It all started in March, coincidentally the month of my birth, when I decided i need a newer toy. I had flogged my two XRR's, a KX650 and an XR400 and just had an old XR400 left to play with which is pretty long-in-the-tooth now. My mates are spooning around on ultra-lite plastics and I'm ploughing the fields, just didn't sit right. :-[
So I see Blauth is flogging this very pretty looking 525 and I'm on it like a fly on crap and make him an offer. He says YES, then NO, but because we've got down the road a bit he says he'll help me find another bike for all the hassle. OKAY, but I'm not impressed with all the CRF's he's finding, I'm tall and I find the 450 a little cramped, my heart is set on a 525. I keep looking and find one on OLX which just happens to be down the road from Blauth and he's off to inspect it. He comes back with a healthy report and I end up purchasing it, sent all the moola and started the paperwork.
Bugger me, about 2 days later Blauth says his 525 is back on the market ??? A little bit of seething but I buy that one too as I've already lined up a mate who is also looking for one.
So Blauth, who's conscience is badly annoying him, says he'll help get all the paperwork together and find a crate from the local bike store and he stashes both bikes into it, lashes them down, job's a goodun! In the meantime he has had both bikes micro-dotted and inspected and got both sets of papers ready to go. Good lad.
Now my turn begins, Plan A, I've identified a road transporter and with much ado and lateness they eventually get around to Blauth's spot and cart them off to their warehouse with strict instructions not to load for the trip till customs evaluation has been cleared up on the TZ side.
Now begins the sh1t! Customs double the value of the bikes and taxes are 25% import and 18% VAT on full value and transport cost. Then still to pay is clearing agents fees. Fark me! I say NO and start the bargaining process with customs...you see, everything is negotiable in Africa, but just this once they're not budging, and I can't afford the $400/day penalty if the truck is stranded at the border because my load is not cleared and payed.
Plan B, get them sent by sea via Zanzibar. Sea-freight is relatively cheap...to Mombasa of all places, then has to be trans-shipped to Zanzibar for future "alternative arrangements" to Dar. Now that's where you best get the economy pack of Vaseline!
Plan C, sea-freight direct to Dar es Salaam, reasonable, so crate needs to go from road transporter to sea transporter which means they now headed eventually to Durban to catch the next vessel out...which only takes three weeks to arrive in Durban and turn around with new load to the Africa's!
No rush in Africa mate.
So now we're into May already and bikes haven't left SA soil, but there is light at the end of this tunnel and the bikes in crate are eventually loaded and on the high seas, to Mauritius???!!! but they did get to Dar eventually. 25 days for a 4 day trip up the coast!
Bikes are in Dar harbour for almost two weeks before we are informed...the clock's ticking, there are storage charges and then demurrage charges the longer they hang around.
Now this is the time best to go on holiday, switch off the phone and don't check mails because it's the "dealing with customs" time. Best left to your fixer.
May saw it's ass, June disappeared at sea and July/August in the port and the process continues.
Mr Fixer needs money. He needs money for warfage charges. He needs money for unloading container charges. He needs money to move around and grease the extremely rusty processes of clearance and associated charges. Then he needs money to pay duties. He needs more money to pay some shithead at the port to change a year of manufacture from 2006 to 2005! He needs money to pay harbour charges and storage levy, and finally he needs money to pay people to pick up the crate and place it on the bakkie and he needs money to transport the crate to our workshop and pay some wanker at the gate to open it! I forgot, he needs money for all these services that have now brought us to the last week of September but now the bikes are out, uncrated, started, tested, ridden and approved of, we can start calming down again...until the next time!
Well next time it'll be brand new and flown in from Europe! :dousing:
So I see Blauth is flogging this very pretty looking 525 and I'm on it like a fly on crap and make him an offer. He says YES, then NO, but because we've got down the road a bit he says he'll help me find another bike for all the hassle. OKAY, but I'm not impressed with all the CRF's he's finding, I'm tall and I find the 450 a little cramped, my heart is set on a 525. I keep looking and find one on OLX which just happens to be down the road from Blauth and he's off to inspect it. He comes back with a healthy report and I end up purchasing it, sent all the moola and started the paperwork.
Bugger me, about 2 days later Blauth says his 525 is back on the market ??? A little bit of seething but I buy that one too as I've already lined up a mate who is also looking for one.
So Blauth, who's conscience is badly annoying him, says he'll help get all the paperwork together and find a crate from the local bike store and he stashes both bikes into it, lashes them down, job's a goodun! In the meantime he has had both bikes micro-dotted and inspected and got both sets of papers ready to go. Good lad.
Now my turn begins, Plan A, I've identified a road transporter and with much ado and lateness they eventually get around to Blauth's spot and cart them off to their warehouse with strict instructions not to load for the trip till customs evaluation has been cleared up on the TZ side.
Now begins the sh1t! Customs double the value of the bikes and taxes are 25% import and 18% VAT on full value and transport cost. Then still to pay is clearing agents fees. Fark me! I say NO and start the bargaining process with customs...you see, everything is negotiable in Africa, but just this once they're not budging, and I can't afford the $400/day penalty if the truck is stranded at the border because my load is not cleared and payed.
Plan B, get them sent by sea via Zanzibar. Sea-freight is relatively cheap...to Mombasa of all places, then has to be trans-shipped to Zanzibar for future "alternative arrangements" to Dar. Now that's where you best get the economy pack of Vaseline!
Plan C, sea-freight direct to Dar es Salaam, reasonable, so crate needs to go from road transporter to sea transporter which means they now headed eventually to Durban to catch the next vessel out...which only takes three weeks to arrive in Durban and turn around with new load to the Africa's!
No rush in Africa mate.So now we're into May already and bikes haven't left SA soil, but there is light at the end of this tunnel and the bikes in crate are eventually loaded and on the high seas, to Mauritius???!!! but they did get to Dar eventually. 25 days for a 4 day trip up the coast!
Bikes are in Dar harbour for almost two weeks before we are informed...the clock's ticking, there are storage charges and then demurrage charges the longer they hang around.
Now this is the time best to go on holiday, switch off the phone and don't check mails because it's the "dealing with customs" time. Best left to your fixer.
May saw it's ass, June disappeared at sea and July/August in the port and the process continues.
Mr Fixer needs money. He needs money for warfage charges. He needs money for unloading container charges. He needs money to move around and grease the extremely rusty processes of clearance and associated charges. Then he needs money to pay duties. He needs more money to pay some shithead at the port to change a year of manufacture from 2006 to 2005! He needs money to pay harbour charges and storage levy, and finally he needs money to pay people to pick up the crate and place it on the bakkie and he needs money to transport the crate to our workshop and pay some wanker at the gate to open it! I forgot, he needs money for all these services that have now brought us to the last week of September but now the bikes are out, uncrated, started, tested, ridden and approved of, we can start calming down again...until the next time!
Well next time it'll be brand new and flown in from Europe! :dousing:
