I was quite confident about the whole visa-sh1t for the eastern Africa-route... but do hear a lot of stories of people turning around because they cannot get into Ethiopia. Yesterday we bumped into two overlanders whom have imported their bikes into Egypte because the customs officials threw away their Carnet as they didn't want to use it... oops?

Now, we are driving south2north on Dutch passports, and according the Ehtiopian ambassy in Pretoria (south africa) we can get visa's in Kampala.
According the Sudanese ambassy in Pretoria we can get Sudan & Egypt in Addis Adeba, so we should be sorted (as we have a carnet)

Anyone any experiences lately? I ask, because there is not really a 'plan B'.... Saudi Arabia will not get you far (unless you want to drive a lot through Irak, and Syria is still a problem) and Congo is a bit tricky if I am correct.

After Egypt we'll see what we'll do; hopefully Israel/USA/Iran don't start their pubfight within the coming months!

We will be in the same boat at some stage - we're currently in Northern Namibia heading slowly east before turning north towards Tanzania and Kenya. We intend trying our luck for Ethiopian and Sudanese visas in Nairobi - if that doesn't work then we'll either courrier our passports back to UK for visas or even fly somewhere to get them (but that's our "plan B/C/D!".
We won't be going through Egypt due to the carnet cost (with a Unimog this would be enormous) - instead we intend (hope) to get a Saudi transit visa in Khartoum, ferry to Jeddah and shoot (in Unimog terms) up the coast to Aqaba. Then if Syria is still aproblem we'll be forced to turn into Israel and ship out of there - but that's a way ahead yet, things may change for the better or worse.....

Any new info on Ethiopian, Sudanese, saudi visas would be welcomed here too.

Ian

Currently there are 2 connections between Turkey and North East Africa.Safe and done.. Plan 1 is 1 time done last year and Plan 2 ,7 times this year by international adventure bikers and drivers who has been at our club in istanbul for welcome drinks and adventure talks...
As far as we know,saudi visa is almost impossible on the road unless you know a king or prince...Our network for the area is up to date.In addition a Turkish friend just started from south cape to north cape and we did a lot of study here before the start.

1-Djiobuti-Sharjah ferry then Sharjah Bandar Abbas ferry to İran.
2-Mersin-PortSait ferry.between Egypt and Turkey.

@frenchian...If plan 1 becomes your only option, let us get in touch and we will give you contact link of our friend who has done this and after confirmation..He is still in Africa doing to south cape..Hope things change in positive soon in the area..

Wish you all the best and good luck..

Options 3:

Visit Israel and ask for not stamping your passport. (if explain why, they are willing to to so). Get you bike shipped from Haifa to Athens and take a plain your self.

No problems and on both sides the people are friendly !!

Cheers Richard

mods; could you move this topic to 'Sahara Travel forum'? I've posted it in the wrong section...

Well, it seems we have a backup plan for Ethiopia (DHL for the passports...) and thus we'll keep heading north.

Now, I don't really find structural info on 'After Egypt'... maybe this would be a nice topic to start posting all the info.

My two cents for now: (so, getting out of Egypt to Europe...)
- Libia - Tunisia - Italy. Libia was open, was closed (?) and my latest info is that you can get a tourist visa, takes about two weeks to get in Cairo. Once you are in Tunisia it is easy to get to Italy.
- Ferry to Turkey...I've heard a lot of shitty stories, like having to wait 14 days for the boat to come...(while your bike is already at the customs compound...) and I don't know the prices really, heard stories of roughly 300USD person+bike.
- Israel - ferry to Cyprus - Ferry to Turkey. Some say it is possible, others (Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv neaver heard of this ferry?) say it is difficult. Costs I don't know, must be about 400 Euro person+bike to Cyprus, and then a smaller fee to Turkey.
- Israel - Libanon - Syria - Turkey. Coastal road Syria should be doable and safe, and Israel en Libanon should be easy.

Turkey is an expensive country to drive through, so that might change your choices.
I think the Libia-route is by far the cheapest option if you just want to get into western Europe.
But now it has turned a bit dodgy there...

The whole Iran-route I'll skip for now...

Any other info welcome!

Does anyone here have any info about getting our land Rover across to Egypt? Possible ferries from Turkey/Greece or info about going through Libya?

@ dstehouwer,

The last two options are no options at all. No passenger ferries from Israel to Cyprus. No border crossing from Israel into Libanon.

There is another option:

Ship your bike from Haifa with a cargo ferry to Athens. Put your ass in a plane in Tel-Aviv and fly to Athens.

If you want more info let me know.

Cheers Richard

@dstehouwer:

Richard is right:

a) there used to be a ferry run by "Salamis" from Israel to Cyprus and on to Piraeus. The agency in Israel is Rosenfeld (Mail: reservations(at)rosenfeld.net). To my knowledge they do no longer take passengers on board their vessels.

In addition, it is impossible to arrive in the Greek Cypriot part of the island and leave to Turkey from the Turkish part. Though you can cross between the two sides, you cannot leave because the Greek Cypriot side will keep your passport.

b) It is interesting that anybody would even try to find out about the border between Israel and Lebanon. This border has been closed since 1947, the two countries are technically still at war (there only is an armistice). Only UNIFIL soldiers are allowed to cross. There has only been a very short window in 1983 / 84 (when Israel had invaded Lebanon) when foreigners were - as pedestrians! - allowed to cross this border.

Greetings
Achim

First option (libya) --> it is true about the visa. but two weeks ago i heard people with visa were not allowed to enter at the border and had to go back to egypt. i 'will try to find out more about what the reason was.......

Second option (ferry port said -mersin) --> we (5 motorbikes) took that one roughly two weeks ago. it was supposed to go on tuesday, and therefore had to be there monday morning. ''naggar shipping agency'' did the paperwork and the booking. you can contact

Hend Shamsia,
Business Development Manager
A.K.Naggar Group,
Tel: +203 4890156
Fax: +203 4890381
Mobile : +2 01000478400
Skype: hend1.shamsia

she is located in alexandria but to arrange bookings etc. contact her.
the office in port said is here:


9 Palestine street up of Misr Bank - Naggar shipping company

so we were there on monday morning. handed over our papers (paid naggar 750LE per motorbike for agency costs, and 450 us dollar per motorbike + one person for the boat). in the afternoon they sent us to ?''government''? office and they let us pay 1500LE per motorbike for custom costs, motorbike parking custom compound and what so ever............the gave me the feeling that it was negotiable a little bit but i am not really sure. we were in a hurry and had no other option and they knew it! then the ship was delayed and we were not earlier boarded than friday. it was laying in front of the harbour but due to financial bullsh*t (naggar said) it didn''t enter. we were in turkey on sunday evening. we were not allowed to go off. we had to wait till monday as the customs didn't work earlier. it took us the whole monday (10.00 TO 17.00) to do the paperwork........and we even paid 30us dollar per motorbike (this was also negotiable and i was not sure for what is was........)

Israel - cyprus - turkye --> at the same moment as we did port said mersin other people DID ISRAEL CYPRUS TURKYE!! and quicker than we! i will email the guy this evening if i can find his emailadres to find out the details!!!! by the way, they had a car and they were with the car on the boat!!!!! no flight!!!

i hope it helps
brend

wow, a lot of info and nice commets; thanks guys! (/and girls?)

Copied it all to my laptop and will read it later with a !

Any further info is welcome, a LOT of people struggle with this so I will make sure all my info gets online too!

Today we applied for the Egyptian visa here in Addis, no problem. Sure, they came up with some stupid rules (needed receipts from the ATM/moneychange etc.) but 2 days, 20USD eacht for 3 month multiple, not bad.
Sudan we got in Nairobi, 65USD and a letter of recommendation from YOUR embassy. (free for us Dutchies, 65USD for the Brits...)
Ethiopia: you can read that in my other topic. You have to be lucky in Nairobi but it is possible.

A plan B C or D would be ferry from Israel to Italy. Israeli stamps/paperwork not really a problem if you are heading back to Europe with a nearly full passport.

Costs around 1000 euro for a 4x4 and 2 people (5 day sailing) which is a lot but I don't think the Port Said/Mersin ferry is coming out much cheaper. Also allows you to avoid the nightmare of Egyptian ports and gives you an excuse to visit Petra and Wadi Rum.

We had no plans to visit Israel but have to say Jerusalem was fascinating and the Negev Desert fantastic for camping. We had a pack of wolves howling round our camp fire.

The trip on the ship was great.

We would LOVE to do that route too, and for a 1000 euro's for two bikes and two people, we're in! (assuming a car costs the same as two bikes ;-))

Could you please post me the details on this shipping, so I can contact them?

Israel seems quite simple indeed, and I will do almost everything to avoid Egyptian ports.... get really pissed off already by the idea to be ripped off for hundreds of euro's.

Here's a link to the thread I posted my info on. If you have any other questions let me know.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...celled-57423-5

Ah, Grimaldi lines... I hoped for a ferry :-).

Will contact them, as we need to start planning a bit.
I just DON'T want to pay hundreds of euro's in bribes to the Egyptians... even if that would make it more expensive for me via legal payments to shipment companies!

thanks.

important update! they were turned away as they had no visa for lybia (so that was the reason)!