Here is a collection of travellers who are recently on the east route, who will show you what options do you have, and how they did it in detail.





Article in English:
Howto reach or avoid egypt on your transafrica over the east


Article in German:
Anreise-Optionen für die Ostroute Afrikas


Unfortunately travelling through Libya don`t look like a real option currently.


These Informations about the Iskenderun, Haifa, Damietta ferry looks a bit misleading. The language barrier does not make it easier, although here now two people have already asked via email.


I suggests that one these who want to book soon, use a phone call (cheap with Skype to Phone) to get a clear answer, to verify that your call partner has sufficent english skills. It would be helpful to get an conclusively valid anwer there!


Most of us just want to cross from Iskenderun to Damietta with a single ticket. This should be still possible, when we read the news of the ferry website carefully... It looks too possible, when you use google translate on the turkish website..



Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

I already contacted UNRORO. the oneway ticket issue is only for truckers who need to get back from Israël to Turkey.
At this moment UNRORO is not taking passengers to Israël untill further notice. They told me to get in touch with them throughout the summer to see if there is a change that the ferryline will be operational again.

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I can corfirm the news from twowtins,

RORO doesn't has it possible to gon to egypt.

I am now in contact with other companies. I'll post the lastest info here.

sakke

Remember: Salamis is running a weekly ferry from Lavrio to Haifa. This might be an option for you.
Stefan

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Thanks Sakke, i've send them an e-mail.

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Good news, the UNRORO ferry seams to be going from Iskenderun to Damietta again. I tried to call them to get more information just now but I guess they are already out of office.

http://www.unroro.com.tr/EN/NEWS/def...page=1&fId=415

That surely is very good news!!

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Bad news and "good" news..

The Iskenderun - Damietta ferry run by UNRORO isn't running anymore due to lack of demand.
UNRORO told me another shipping agency is running a ferry line from Iskenderun to Port Said. The name of the company is Catoni Shipping.
I've send them an email but they didn't respond yet.

Two overlanders took this ferry two weeks ago.
The troubles began when they arrived in Port Said.
It took them a whole week to get their car cleared from customs with high expenses.

Maybe this company had no experience jet, with us overlanders.

I guess that they probably get better over the time, so that it is easier than the experiences of vegan without frontiers travellers:

Here are links to their most recent experiences:
A Tale of Two Cities | Vegan Without Frontiers

Glad to read at hubb, that they have successful made it - and got their car out:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...349#post474477



Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Wow that sounds terrible. The costumes situation in Egypt seams even worse than I expected.

Our original plan was to get the UNRORO boat on the 16th of August. Luckily there seams to be the Catoni alternative.

I wrote some e-mails to the company but got no reply so far. I'll let you know how things will work out for us.

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http://dribbdebach-touring.de/

Here's my take on what's going on in Port Said.

We got through in the end and it *only* cost us US$750 in fees for each vehicle (on top of the US$1400 Catoni charged us for our Landcruiser and 2 people). This was half what they were asking and I wouldn't expect those fees to go down.

There are people/elements within the port who will extract whatever money they can from you, against the threat of deportation back to Turkey, and then by not releasing your vehicle. You have to work through 'agents' and there is no way round that as they won't start the customs clearance until you have paid off the shipping agent. The place seems to be run by some sort of mafia.

We had some help from friendly locals who work in the port, and even direct intervention from the owner of the shipping company. If you don't get that, who knows how much it will cost to get out, or how long it will take? Its a big, big risk to put yourself in the hands of these people.

thanks a lot for the informations and your view on the situation. reading your blog about the port said situation was quite shocking.



anyway, catoni got back to me today. they as well cancelled the egypt route from iskenderun.



getting to africa is more and more difficult.


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http://dribbdebach-touring.de/

We are still thinking about taking Salamis or Grimaldi to Israël.

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luckely there is still this option!


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http://dribbdebach-touring.de/

Maybe this is the reason why they don't sail to Egypt anymore ?


DFDS rolls up to bid for UN Ro-Ro

Posted on Friday, 04 July 2014 10:29

Danish shipping company DFDS has entered the fray in the race to buy Kohlberg Kravis Roberts’ (KKR) Turkish ferry unit UN Ro-Ro Isletmeleri.

In a stock exchange filing today, the Copenhagen-based group confirmed it is among parties vying for the roll-on roll-off transport vessel operator but noted it has not made a firm offer, contrary to media reports.

Bloomberg said yesterday DFDS has made a binding bid, as has an alliance of private equity firms comprising Esas Holding and Acetera Partners.

The news provider broke the news in December that KKR had hired Goldman Sachs to handle a sale of UN Ro-Ro.

A deal for the ferry business could materialise as early as this month, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg yesterday.

The sources asked not to be named as the auction is not public.

Turkish infrastructure investor Global Yatirim is also interested, they added, though the company has not yet submitted a binding bid.

KKR acquired a 97.6 per cent stake in UN Ro-Ro for EUR 888.16 million in 2007, and the ferry business remains its first and only investment in the country.

The Istanbul-based firm was established in 1994 by a group of international transport companies and has become one of the fastest-growing freight Ro-Ro operators in the Mediterranean region and world as a whole, according to its website.

It was formed with the aim of providing an alternative mode of shipping goods to the land route, where domestic players have faced difficulties, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

UN Ro-Ro sets itself apart from other European ferry operators, which tend to focus on short-sea crossings, by offering long-distance Mediterranean routes linking Trieste in Italy, the southern French port of Toulon and Damietta in Egypt.

A buyer for the company may be selected before the end of this month, two of the people told Bloomberg, adding that at the moment the Esas-Actera partnership is in pole position to win the auction.

The price could be less than KKR paid since UN Ro-Ro has debt totalling around USD 800.00 million, according to three of the sources.

A representative of the private equity giant declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg.

Earlier this week, DFDS acquired UK fresh and frozen fish freight transporter Quayside International for an undisclosed sum.

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