Good morning from Turkey!

I have searched and searched and cannot find the phone number for a Mr Fixit who organises the barge to Wadi Halfa. I have done the route two times before but always on foot. If anyone has a number I would be over the moon.

We will be in Aswan on the 1st of January and hope to cross over soon after that. If anyone wants to join our mad wagon, for a slow meander down the nile in Sudan, you are very welcome.

Please email me on raf@kayakpemba.com

our web log is: trans-sahara.com

my UK number for sms is +44 7736 872 259

happy trails
Raf

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http://www.trans-sahara.com

Great idea to move slowly along the nile down to Sudan, but to be on the safe side, remember that a national referendum on the possible secession of South Sudan is scheduled for 9 Jan, and there's been recent social turmoil events in different parts of the country. Be safe! /C

Hi Raf,

Website here:
Ferry Aswan to Wadi Halfa - Alternative Egypt Travel Guide

With the following:

Ferry Aswan to Wadi Halfa
Ferries Egypt to Sudan
To Sudan - Nile River Valley Transport Corporation operates a weekly ferry between Aswan ( Egypt ) and Wadi Halfa ( Sudan ). Tickets can be purchased from their offices in Aswan (located in the shopping mall to the rear of the Police Station from Reservation Manager Mr Salah Takourney.
Tickets usually go on sale one week prior to sail.
Aswan to Wadi Halfa Ferry Contact Details are as follows:
Aswan Office
Email : takourny@gmail.com
Phone : 002 (0) 183160926
Office : 002 (0) 97 230348
Cairo Office
Phone: 002 (0) 2 25789256

I think it's up-to-date.

Have a good trip.

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town

Hi raf,

We will arrive in Alexandria on the 9th of january and intend to take the ferry in Aswan on the 17th. We are 2 on 2 BMW GS and we drive to Cape town between january and march (hopefully...).
If you get late in Egypt, let us know where we can join you.

Right now we're waiting for our passports to come back from the sudanese embassy. We should have had it last week...

Obviously, any information on what's going on with the referendum is welcome.
Will it be postponed ?
Will the border be closed for a while ?

My email paul.charriere@laposte.net
My mobile +33608525384 (French)

Good luck

Paul

Hey there,

Currently attempting to get to Cape town myself......

Now in Hurghada, renting an apartment until 2nd Jan as my travel companion has has to go home for christmas! Any company more than welcome!

Once Ed has come back I think we will attempt to get our visas back in Cairo, but by all accounts this may take a while and with the referendum approaching not sure if we will be successful. Our egyptian licences run out on the 13th but think we may need to extend them - i assume this can be done through the traffic police?

Anyway would be great to know everyones schedule and possibly meet up! I know of turkish bikers just ahead of us - expected into Aswan tomorrow!

Am I still correct in saying that the ferries run on mondays ?

Lou (riding F650GS twin '08 with current recall)
Ed (riding Yam XT600)



'Normal is a failure of Potential'

Sorry forgot to post my details;


E-mail; Luese@tiscali.co.uk

Phone; 44 (0) 7810 862113

Currently at; Apartment H, Egyptian Experience complex, Mubarak 7, Cornish Road, Hurghada (opposite the Hurghada Youth Hostel)

Cheers, happy and safe travels

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

olerbiro and loubutler,

I also plan to take the ferry on the 17th. I'll be in Alexandria around 9th to clear customs (bike shipped from U.S.A.).

Let's see if we can meetup. I'll get started on an email, if you don't mind... reply if you can.

Dear All, thanks for all the comments. Regretfully, our problem is the reverse. We need to be on the ferry that leaves on the 3rd as our Sudan Visas expire on for entry on the 11th Jan. As soon as we enter we are given up to two months.

I know about the referendum and the possible/probably trouble that will ensue, but am rather hoping that nothing nasty will happen up in the Sahara area. Our plan is to cut down past Khartoum and head on to Addis Ababa before the end of January.

Some INFO:
Ok firstly- NO one should take a 7 tonner through Europe en route to Africa. A truck is a millstone around our necks and makes every border expensive. BUT in case anyone is stupid enough to do so, here is some info:

Turkey £550 just to enter (over 6 tonnes) plus minor charges and a 2000TL deposit that we did get back at the exit border. We were only given 6 days to transit the nation.

After that it became a bit more normal with only road tax, deisel tax and insurance at about a standard £150-200 per country.
Syria £150
Jordan £200
Egypt £150

Syria was a pig to get into as they said our vehicle was too military and we waited 6 hours in total to get in. (they did say go back- but we just had dinner instead).

Egypt was supposed to be a nightmare, but a tourist police officer took us from office to office until everything was completely finished. the Customs guys made us fill in a million bits of paper, but ... they were all pleasant and courteous.

Our plan is to head down the coast and drop by to see Louise and exchange stories- before heading off over the mountains to Luxor and Aswan.

Apparently the campsite in Aswan is closed. This is unhelpful.

The barge is supposed to be empty for the 3rd January- so the nile co wanted 20,000 LE to run a barge for us alone. This was through Salah Takourny, details as posted above. We also contacted a fixer called Mohammadwho went to see the director of the Nile company and has apparently secured a discount of LE10,000 ($1500) for a barge to ourselves if no one else comes along. This discount was confirmed by Salah.

The fixer Mohammad Abouda (nilfeluka@hotmail.com)
Tel no +20 (0)125 111968 sounds awful on the phone. He is pushy and has a dodgy semi western accent- but he says he has done the job, and Salah seems to say he has too. So we shall see.

It looks like we are going to miss all of you bikers on the road, which is a shame. It would have been fun to have company, even if it was only to mock us and our bus. We are planning on down the nile with two small desert crossings Bayudya / Karima which I have done before. If anyone has any other suggestions please say so. I would be interested in following the railway line too, but this would cut out most of the northern archeological sites. Any word on this??

I hear that khartoum has become a monolith since we were last there and am not sure that we are looking forward to it.

Here are some snapshots of our trip so far.
Expedition Snapshots | trans-sahara.com

Please feel free to contact me on raf@kayakpemba.com

Raf

Our number in Egypt is +20 151 560 4918 in case anyone wants to send us some mocking sms's or phone calls for being so stupid as to take this wagon

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http://www.trans-sahara.com

Sorry to be an idiot, what I really wanted to say is that we have a 7 tonner with 4 really comfortable seats in the back, and we are going through Sudan, maybe into Ethiopia....

I know that this has morphed into a Bike Forum, but when I joined 7 years ago, it was more general- if anyone has a Sudan Visa or can get one, and wants to jump on the back, and is not a complete muppet, then they are very welcome to jump on for a bit.

Happy christmas everyone- happy new year, safe travels!

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http://www.trans-sahara.com

Will be behind you in two weeks.... please post your feedback on the fixer.. will try to hire him as well if he is helpful.

Have a safe trip!

Thesherif and loubutler,

Sorry for this late answer, I was a bit busy before the big day.

We arrive in Alexandria on the 9th (2pm + customs...) with Visemar Line and hopefully we'll be in Cairo on the 10th. Right now, we don't have anything booked or planned in Egypt since we need first to get the sudanese visa.
We could try to meet in Cairo...
I'll let you know as soon as we find a place to stay.

You'll find my details in the previous post.

Paul

Lou, great to meet up with you in Hurghada. Shame to miss ed, but good stuff just the same.

Ok, we are in Aswan, and it has not changed much. Very nice little town; I feel a bit grim, but who knows what that is from.

We met Mohammad Abouda today, and he seems first class and very professional. He just comes accross like a wide boy on the phone. BUT, we will be doing the full run around tomorrow with the Truck, papers and some cash. If all goes well, I'll be on this forum to give you alot more info about our man. If we have problems you'll also know.

Finally, it seems that we are ahead of everyone at the moment (strange though that may seem with a 7 tonner), but I live in Tanzania on the Island of Pemba so if anyone fancies kicking back in the middle of no where please do drop in. This is not a commercial invitation, it is a personal one.

my email stays the same: raf@kayakpemba.com

more tomorrow
Raf

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http://www.trans-sahara.com

Hi Guys,
Ok we think..... we are sorted. We have some final paperwork to do tomorrow, remove Egyptian plates, stamp carnet, pay LE 10,000 pay our fixer Mohammad LE1000 and then get the carnet stamped, drop the wagon on the barge, race round to the passenger ferry and then probably wait for ages until they decide to leave.

Ok- Leaving or arriving in Egypt through Aswan, I thoroughly recommend getting the help of Mohammad Abouda. Numbers and email above. He is not exactly a fixer, but a nice man who owns 10 fellucas and does the local handling for Oasis and african trails. He also has access to a hotel 9km from town. LE 150 a room. Cars are not a problem no is sleeping in your vehicle. (camper trucks etc).

Recently he has started doing facilitation through the port. So far, he has saved us 10,000LE. Sure you are supposed to ring Salah who is the govt official in charge of the boat, but if the barge is not full, then the prices go up. Mohammad negotiated 20,000LE down to 10,000 for us. I don't know how.

Apart from this he has been very helpful to us. Organised boats and taxis and anything we ask for, On the day that we did not use his services, we had to bargain like heck just to get rates similar to his. As I said above, I cannot recommend him highly enough. Sure you can do all the paperwork yourself. This is not an issue, but he smooths things off.

His Rates are about $100 a day. We paid $180 but we got more value than most and we haemorrhage money when we even see a border. I would suggest that you don't make the same mistake that we did. If you come in through Nuweiba or Alex, send a scan off all your egyptian docs etc and he fast tracks the whole thing and does as much of the paper work that he can before you get there.

Happy trails and see some of you on the flip side....
Raf

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http://www.trans-sahara.com

Thanks Raf! Hope you'll get some rest on the ferry.

Ok guys, bit of wind on lake nasser. Truck coming.
Bikers - there is tarmac all the way to khartoum now. NO more desert if you dont want it. We will follow the railways line in the traditional route.


Waiting for our truck.
Mazaar is a great. I have more info on him in the next post, with full permit info!

Lou sorry to hear you are heading home.

Best wishes all. more soon
Raf

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http://www.trans-sahara.com