Venice-Alexandria ferry cancelled!

[emmaLF]

Thanks for all the information on ports and on shipping agents in Alexandria!

The latest news is that our car was offloaded from the Grande Europa in Antwerp, due to the vessel no longer stopping at Alexandria, and reloaded onto the Grande Napoli, which should arrive in Alex on 18th June. Depending on how long it takes us to get the car through customs in Alex, and on the bureaucracy in Aswan, making our ferry to Sudan on the 27th might be tight - but all we can do is hope for the best and enjoy Egypt (we're currently in Cairo) in the meantime.

We'll reach out to the shipping agent you recommended, and will let you know how we get on. Good luck to you all!

Thanks again,

Emma

[tweetyduck]

Watching this will great interest as we are meant to be starting the two year trip rtw in october and are stuck on getting to Egypt as both planned routes are scuppered.

I was hoping for the easier vehicle onboard option but it now looks like its going to have to be a container and its not exactly what we wanted to do. I don;t want to fly after it i want to drive as far as i can and then get a ferry.

At the moment i'm even looking at crossing Africa from Algeria into Niger, Chad but that looks a bit difficult to say the least. Should we go west coast....hmmm,,,miss out africa all together and go to South America. I wish we'd done this a few years back. We'd not be having this issue at least.

[Squire]

Here's the latest information received from the Egyptian Agent recommended by Grimaldi UK, MARINA SHIPPING, coordinates indicated above in this thread. I have posted the details for shipping a Defender from Alex to Southampton earlier, now I have received for Alexandria - Venice to ship to Europe.

Details:
P.O.L : Alexandria old port.
Destination: Venice (IT).

LAND ROVER DEFENDER 110 SW from 2006 - Van (H > 1.70 M) - RORO - We cannot accept personal effects inside the cars.
Weight (kgs): 2020
Length (mm): 4639
Width (mm): 1790
Height (mm): 2021

- Rate : Ocean freight : Euro 300/Unit + BAF Euro 47X lmt + Discharge Contribution Euro 60 /Unit = Total : Euro 578/Unit.

- L.THC : Approx. L.E 300/Unit.
- Telex release fees (If requested) : L.E 30 Per B/L.
- Custom clearance for shipper's care & expenses.

So, it actually costs about 220 Euros more to ship to Venice than to Southampton from Alexandria. The process is the same, relatively.

The other option consists of shipping in a 20' container
Rate for shipping in a container : Ocean freight : Euro 214 / 20'DV

- L.THC : Approx. L.E 250/20'DV.
- Telex release fees (If requested) : L.E 30 Per B/L.
- Custom clearance for shipper's care & expenses.

- T.T : Approx. 3-4 Days.

Sailing Schedule: Alex/ Venice on EUROCARGO VALENCIA leaving about every 12 days, with variations, be careful in planning.

CAREFUL with the container option, in addition one need to add port handling fees of about 200 euros. All in all, still cheaper than RoRo and having the possibility of shipping personal effects which is non-negligeable, to say the least.

I hope this is useful. Those in Cairo, pls feel free to PM, we're in Zamalek and it'd be nice to meet for a meal / drink and hear your story. Best, /C

[emmaLF]

Thanks for the info Squire. Sorry to miss you - we're in Luxor now, doing some tourism while waiting for the car.

Just heard that the boat's going to be two days late, so we'll likely miss our window of getting to Khartoum before our visas expire. If anyone has any experience with this, it would be great to hear your advice. We're thinking we might be able to get an extension in Cairo, but maybe this isn't possible. Worst case, we'll try to go through the process (and pay() again to get another visa.

Good luck to you all!

Emma

[Adri de Visser]

Hi to you all.
We we're planning to use the ferry end of october on our way from amsterdam to Kenya.
I read this bad news about suspending the ferry today.
Does anyone know if the RORO sevice visemar is offering means that you still can ship your car from Venice to Alexandria??

Regards Adri de Visser

[emmaLF]

Last we heard is that Visemar is no longer doing RoRo until October, but I would get in contact with them to see if you can arrange something...

Otherwise, you can try the Grimaldi RoRo that we are using. Only annoying this is that the car STILL isn't yet here - we're now going to be a week behind schedule at least. Fingers' crossed that the car gets here in one piece and we get through customs easily.

If anyone is interested in using this service, here are the details of the contacts we have (sorry if there's some repetition):

Grimaldi ships Grande Europa / Grande Napoli - we went through an agent in the Netherlands (shipping from Antwerp) called Marico Shipping: Home

In Alex we are in contact with:
Dina Abdallah
Import Manager
Marina Shipping Agencies
13, Salah Salem Street
Alexandria-Egypt
Tel:002-03-4863647

Hope this helps!

Emma

[emmaLF]

Nobody told us that we couldn't shop personal effects, so we just did it. The ship's about to arrive in Alexandria, will get the car Thursday - will let you know if all our stuff is still in it.

Emma

[priffe]

Normally they don't accept anything inside the car on a roro. It will be driven on and off, and will be unlocked the entire journey.
In a container you can put anything you like.

[emmaLF]

Hi all,

Sorry for the radio silence on this. We finally got our car in Alexandria, and then had to race down to Aswan to make our ferry to Sudan. In the end, the car came in fine - not a scratch - but we did have a couple of things stolen from the cabin (our fault for not being able to fit everything in the back to lock it up) and it did take a lot of time and money to get the car through customs.

Here's the lowdown:

Total delay (accounting for reloading from the original Grimaldi ship, whose stop at Alex was cancelled, plus delay of the replacement ship) = 6 days.

Total time and cost taken to get through customs, etc = 4 days, around 500 euros:
Day 1: delivery order (E£467) and letter from the Egyptian Automobile club E£300
Day 2: access passes for the port (free)
Day 3: ship arrives and unloads, wait and do nothing
Day 4: customs and traffic police. All in all took 5 hours, which apparently is "quick" (some other overlander friends of ours took the whole day). We paid (all E£): 535 for the carnet stamp/customs, 160 for mandatory insurance, 240 for storage of the car (in our case only a day so this quickly adds up), 100 for Egyptian license plates. We paid our fixer EUR 300 for his services. If you are unlucky you have to buy a fire extinguisher too (even if you already carry several...).

Every step is accompanied by lots and lots of waiting, handshaking, handing out tips, endless inspections of the car and its contents... and an incredible amount of photo copies of passports, carnets, etc.

All in all, we are now just relieved to have the car in one piece. It took a while to get there but the process is not that complicated if you are patient, are willing to pay and can lock away all that is in the car. If you're on a tight budget and tight for time, this may not be the best option for you.

Hope this helps!

Good luck, and let me know if you need more specific info.

Emma

[frenchian]

I spoke with Visemar about a month ago - they are supposedly restarting the RoPax service in October - that's fine for us - we haven't booked yet as dates are still a bit fluid - has anyone successfully booked this recently?

Ian

[Squire]

Emma, thank you.

This is a fantastically detailed post, and so "polite" . This information is most needed to the community of overlanders, a certainly food for thought for those interested, who knows, maybe some of us would know personally high level Egyptian authorities and would be willing to engage into policy level discussion with them to put an end to this non-sense. Have a good trip, Be safe.

[tweetyduck]

Originally Posted by frenchian

I spoke with Visemar about a month ago - they are supposedly restarting the RoPax service in October - that's fine for us - we haven't booked yet as dates are still a bit fluid - has anyone successfully booked this recently?

Ian

If thats true my problems are sorted but i doubt it is. Can anyone confirm this for sure???

[tweetyduck]

So i decided to be proactive.....NOTE the "probably" statement.

Dear Mr Neill,

Cargo and Passengers Service will be probably resumed in October.
All information regarding departures from October will be available at the end of July.



Best regards


Jihane El Yakout

Passenger Customer Service
Punto Franco, Santa Marta, Mag. 16 - 30123 Venezia
VAT n.: IT03961450271
Tel.: +39.041.2712509
Mob.: +39.3457221320
Fax: +39.041.2712507
e-mail: pax@visemarline.com

[Roman]

Originally Posted by emmaLF

... If you are unlucky you have to buy a fire extinguisher too (even if you already carry several...).

That's progress! Under the previous regime you had to buy two (apparently the factory making extinguishers belonged to the then minister of transport). His successor is learning pretty fast!

[frenchian]

I've just tried to book a crossing (truck + 2 pax) for end October with Visemar Venice - Alex using their online booking facility - it was bounced at the end of the process - so I'm currently enquiring "manually" - I'll update this as and when any information arrives.

Ian