Hi Squire
Is the RoRo you refer to the same ship that was named on the Visemar news announcement of the cancellation of the car/passenger ferry to Venice " .....However, freight capacity will be increased on the route from beginning of June 2011 due to the replacement of the Ro/Pax VISEMAR ONE with Mv CRAGSIDE, a new Ro/Ro ro-ro vessel."
I spoke to Mr Hanaffy at the Inchcape Shipping Servies and he told me that "...Please note so far, the new roro vessel will be cargo purpose only during june and the line will stop till September" When I spoke to him abut it he told me the ship could not take cars.

Have you heard differently ? If so please do tell !!

ProperJob

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

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.

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

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

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

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