Can you believe this?

I’ve been very busy lately. The certification of my Savannah’s radio and transponder expires this month and I need to fly the aircraft up to the testing station at La Rochelle airport in the Charente in order to have the equipment recertified. If I don’t I can still legally use the aircraft but not the equipment and especially in controlled airspace, so it’s essential to get the job done.

As I haven’t flown my Savannah since I flew it to the UK and back last August I’ve had to give it a thorough clean, do a small repair to its windshield and give it a thorough check-over, all of which I completed as of yesterday. Indeed, I topped up its tanks yesterday evening so it’s ready to fly and ran the engine for several minutes to check that all will be well for the La Rochelle flight when I can eventually get around to doing it. But that may not be for another week or two.

One of the reasons for that is that we’re having visibility problems here with lots of thick haze, but the other is that having been to Istanbul twice since the beginning of this year and once to the UK, I’ve also been spending lots of time making plans to visit Australia in the autumn. The reason is that I have a cousin living in Victoria who’s about the same age as me but who I haven’t seen since we were little children of about five or six years of age. She returned once to the UK several years ago but I missed her at the time and a few months ago I had a sudden urge to try to get in touch with her again.

The parents of both of us have gone now and we are almost the last of our generation in our two families. I thought it would be difficult but I managed through what was almost a miracle to speak to her on the phone within 48 hours. We’ve kept in touch over the months and as she would have difficulty travelling we decided that I’d go out to Australia to stay with her for a few weeks. Compared to a short break in Europe, planning for the trip has been very detailed. As of now I’ve booked just about everything – air fare, travel insurance, hotel, car hire – you name it, and all being well everything should go off without a hitch

I say ‘all being well’ because I’ve booked and paid for all the above before obtaining my visa, which I applied for on-line yesterday. And I’ve been totally gobsmacked by how difficult it is to get into Aus and I’m just hoping it’ll be forthcoming. The visa application alone cost just under $200 Aus which I understand is non-refundable. It was the best part of 30 pages in which I had to reveal almost my whole life and family history including telling about my son who has no plans whatsoever to travel to Aus, mentioning my ex-wife from whom I’ve been divorced for over 13 years, my finances, health, travel plans, who I’m visiting including her details and DOB for goodness sake, proof that I’ve travelled elsewhere and returned home again, proof I can return to the country I’m coming from ie France and lots more beside. To be honest I found it highly intrusive and much of it bloody impertinent but if you don’t comply you don’t get in.

But that’s not all of it. I’ve been told I have to provide biometric data ie finger prints and a certified photograph. If the Aus authorities knew their stuff they’d know that the French authorities already have those and could easily send copies, presumably at my cost. But no. As there’s no Aus authority in France who can collect the data – the nearest is Australia House in London – I’ve got to go all the way to Paris for an approved agent to do the job. This will take a full day as it means travelling from south-west to north-east France and will cost me in excess of 100€ in train and Metro fares (pensioner reduced cost) and 45€ for the service. Plus although I thought it’d be a good idea to apply early for the visa I’ve only got 14 days to provide the biometric data otherwise my application will be automatically rejected. Scandalous. Common sense says the time limit should be linked to the planned travel date, not the date of visa application.

But it gets even worse than that. I’ve also got to have a medical by an approved doctor. The closest one is in Bordeaux which is in completely the opposite direction to Paris, will incur me a further cost and will again take the best part of a day to get done. However, very ‘generously’, this time I’ve been given 28 days to comply. So in order to meet these conditions I’ll end up having to travel the whole length of France at substantial additional cost and inconvenience and have less than a month in order to do so! So no wonder my flight up to La Rochelle has had to go on the back burner!

I said to my cousin that if I hadn’t already booked and paid for everything already I wouldn’t bother but I’m committed now. It seems to me that Aus wants to make it as difficult as possible for people to visit so only those who really need to will do so. But I have to admit that it’s taken the edge off my visit which I was really looking forward to 🙁