We're still in Perth, Western Australia, but we'll be back on the road soon. Yes, we've added to the family and purchased a 2002 Freelander TD4.
When we arrived in Perth we found out that our promised 3 week shipping time was more likely to be a 4-5 week shipping time. In fact, as far as we know, our container was shipped from Chennai on 4 May, but will have a transit stop in Malaysia for a week, before continuing its journey to Adelaide. This time, together with an up to 2 week period in Adelaide for customs and quarantine, meant we were possibly looking at a 7-8 week break without a vehicle! And we have places to go! So it meant renting a car or possibly buying one.
... and that's how Piggy became part of the family.
Piggy is an orange-bronze colour. She is a diesel automatic. Our main reason for buying an automatic is because I (Mirne) haven't driven for nearly 8 years, so we thought an automatic might help ease me on to the road again. We also wanted a vehicle with some comfortable road presence, hence the smaller, but still sturdy, Freelander. It certainly can't be worse than the Beast (in terms of sheer size), because driving the Beast feels like driving a truck to me! (Yes, Craig drove the entire way from Amsterdam to Chennai.) As a bonus, our Lynx diagnostic system can also be used for Piggy ... once we pay an extra fee to "unlock" the Freelander diagnostics.
Today Piggy is getting some new tyres as well as getting an interior and exterior clean. We have to send off the paperwork for transfer of ownership as well. Once we get that done, and do some grocery shopping, we will be ready for the remainder of our journey. Yes, we are going to drive from Perth to Adelaide. We hope Piggy is up for it. It will be a 2,793 km test drive :-)
Neither of us have driven across the Nullarbor before - we have flown across numerous times and I have also done the trip by train (the Indian-Pacific) too many times. Check out this site for more information about this fascinating stretch of Australia.
So, we are keenly anticipating the continuation of our journey. Let's hope that Piggy is up for the trip.
Here is a photo of Piggy.
