Why not start in South Africa and head north as far as you can.

Maybe buy bikes in South Africa to save on shipping and just leave, sell or even store them in the North until things settle down.

Starting in South Africa is a nice introduction to a fabulous continent where arriving in Egypt is usually a head ache which gets many off on the wrong foot.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Yes, it's a big headache only two days before departure.

We've tried to get Libyan visas without any luck. Was told they don't issue tourist visas right now and a business visa was not possible for a group(?).
But it's a good idea to contact them again and see if anything changed in the last weeks.

To start from South Africa is sadly not an option because I'm organizing this to a group and each one will participate on different parts of the trip. Not possible to reverse it. But if it were only me it would have been a great idea. Or I would circled Africa anticlockwise instead.

Fly into Khartoum perhaps ??

It certainly isn't easy to get into Africa at the moment. It's crazy how fast things changed. Only a year ago it was all very easy and Africa was calm.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

It's almost beyond belief that there was only one car ferry from Europe and Turkey to Egypt.

I'll be heading north by car from South Africa in a few weeks...hope things improve in Syria or that restart the ferry to/from Egypt.

Anyone looked at going by ferry from Israel to Cyprus then to Greece?

M2M - We arrived in Salerno this morning having taken the Grimaldi freighter from Israel. It was fine. 365 euro each for us, 385 euro for the car. The crossing took 5 days. Ensuite double cabins, ridiculous amounts of free food (3 courses for both lunch and dinner) even free wine (!). Car was fully accessible at all times, crew very pleasant though kept to themselves.

We were on the the Euro Med line, which stops at Turkey, Cyprus and Greece on the way to Israel, not from - the only stop after Israel was Alex but we weren't allowed off.

Having had to renew our car papers at Alex port back in September I wouldn't recommend anyone importing a car there if there is any alternative. Compared to Aswan and Nuweiba (which are the only other borders of Egypt I've crossed in a car) it was horrendous from a corruption point of view.

NB Getting into Israel in a car wasn't much fun - you have to take out everything in the car and have it individually scanned ... took 8 hours.

Hi Itchyfeet.

Can you tell us more details how you arranged the ferry? Did you need an shipping agent? Did you book it in advance. Was there plenty of room on the freighter?

Any contact details you have would be really helpful

Sure.

Contact details below (lifted from website)

GRIMALDI LINES Freighter TravelVia M. Campodisola 13
Tel. (+39) 081 496444 Fax (+39) 081 496551
E-mail: gfc@grimaldi.napoli.it
Web site: www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com

We dealt with this guy re initial enquiries - he speaks perfect english.

GRIMALDI LINES FREIGHTER TRAVEL
13, Via M. Campodisola - 80133 Napoli
Tel. +39 081 496524 (direct), +39 3452503740 (mobile)
Fax +39 081 496551

e-mail: difalco.carlo@grimaldi.napoli.it
http://www.grimaldi-freightercruises.com


We didn't want to book/pay until we were in Israel as we weren't sure of our dates so Grimaldi told us to contact their agents in Tel Aviv when we arrived (Allalouf).

marcoh@allalouf.com
Tel Aviv (Israel)
ALLALOUF AND CO. SHIPPING
Tel: +972 3 5640202

We contacted Grimaldi by email a couple of months beforehand with enquiries and finally booked about 10 days before we sailed. We paid by credit card in Allalouf's office - they had to ring the payment through to Grimaldi.

There are only 6 cabins on the boat - 4 same size as ours and 2 bigger and more expensive. Three cabins were booked on our boat. Plenty of room for the car - in fact almost a deck to ourselves. Car is strapped down.The ship is enormous. I believe it's full capacity is c. 5,000 cars and on our journey it carried boats, cranes all sorts.

On top of the fare you need to pay an arrangement fee to Allalouf ($25pp and $50 per car). You also need a forwarding agent ($200). The port won't deal with you as a private individual - a couple of fellow passengers spent a day trying. Finally about 60/70 shekels port tax.

You have to remember it's a freighter and you are pretty much at the bottom of the pile re their priorities. We left 3 days late and I'd never have known if I hadn't kept ringing Allalouf each day. Also they can't guarantee stops. Others on the boat wanted to get off in Savona and that stop was cancelled en route. This might work to your advantage if they take you further! Or might not.

Thats all I can think of.