Can anyone shine some light on how to ship a bike from Darwin to Bali? Have contacted the main provider - Hellmann's - who said that no flights go directly out of Darwin anymore, but via Brisbane or Sydney which of course adds to the price. Also because it is classed as dangerous goods all fluids need to be removed from the bike.

We also contacted Perkins who ship by boat. However they don't go to Bali - only some of the other islands.

Please help!

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Boy and Girl. RTW. 2 Suzuki DRZ 400s. http://handfulofthrottle.blogspot.com

We ended up airlifting our bike from Bali to Perth with Qantas in March-2008. But it had to be routed via Melbourne, so the flight time (of 3 hours) got to almost 10, and so it ended up costing some 1200 euro. Probably would´ve saved a lot of money, if we could´ve persuaded them to take the bike on the direct flight, but we were unable.

Were planning to use the Perkins cargo-boat from Dili to Darwin (and in case you didnt know, that line starts from Singapore), But we were travelling at exactly the wrong time, as the day we reached Bali, there had been the assassination attempt on the president & prime minister of East Timor! That´s why we opted not to go there.. (and it was a good decision in hindsight I think, as there had been widespread lawlessness in that country during the days following the attack). But under normal circumstances, I hear East Timor should be ok to visit, and plenty of bikers have gone that way, so that´s where I´d ship to. Island-hopping west from there to Bali must be wonderful.

I believe that Perkins line is by far the easiest option, the only downside being that you probably cannot go with the boat, so you´ll need to fly. But if you´re feeling adventurous, there might also be some other options.. like small cargo-boats, or even private yachts going between Kupang (West Timor / Indonesia) and Darwin. Try to find, if a guy named Bob La Macchia is still in the business in Kupang. I talked to him on the phone whilst in Indo, but he said he didn´t have any boats going to Darwin at that time (it was the rainy season).

We tried to find, but didnt seem like anything was going by sea from Bali to Oz, maybe it´s just too far away from there. I don´t know if the dry season would make any difference.

If you can, get as much visa-time as you can.. we only got 30 days on entry, that´s simply not enough for Indonesia. Extending the visa might be possible, but costly.