Visas for Libya and Sudan?
 

Hi
Is it possible to ferry from Italy to Libya?

Anyway, want to head down from Libya through the Sudan, then into the usual East coast route

But having issues getting visas's for either of these 2 places. Anyone got any advice?
regads
Ian

We got the sudanese visa in cairo ... beaurocratic but we got it....dont even bother with the sudanese embasy in london , and many people say George at the acropole in khartoum will get it..but he charges , not sure how much now,

Lybia we got through an agent in london and when we got there they tried to rip us off...unsuccessfully..its two years since we went so my info may be out of date

jeff watts

www.gonewandering.co.uk

For Libyan visa you will need an invitation letter (try some of the tourist agencies, I used Ahmed at Timihar, timihar@yahoo.com). The visa can be collected at the Border (I did this recenty). You will also need a guide to travel with you (unless only one or two motorcycles I'm told, and others have 'lost' their guide once in the country). It seems there are a lot of paper hoops to jump through to get into Libya (I expect a lot less than for Sudan though) but it's worth it. I found Libya to be a thoroughly friendly and facinating country. Fuel is incredibly cheap :-) Not sure about direct ferries Italy - Libya, I went via Tunis. More of my recent experiences and those of others are in the thread 'Eclipse: did the Earth move for you?' in the Sahara forum on the HUBB.

Libyan visa
 

Hi

I am a bit late in answering, but just in case you still need to get that Libyan visa. If you want to go South you will have to have a guide and therefore need to go through an agency. They will arange the visa for you, so you can pick it up at the border. The problem is of course finding a good agency. Here is the one we used this April (for more detailed information check our webpage).

Shati Zuara Tours - Mr. Haji Ben Kalifa
e-mail: shati_zuara@yahoo.com, info@shatizuara.com
web: www.shatizuara.com
phone: 00218 913 222 418
fax: 00218 25224 606

We agreed on the following prices:
Visa and border service - 65 Euros per person (including the 50 Euros the Libyan government charges for the visa)
Border service for the bikes - 25 Euros (not including cost for insurance, license plate and carnet)
Guide - 25 Euro per day without car, 65 Euro per day with his own 4x4 car

As far as we could tell, this is a one man operation. Mister Haji was very helpful and professional in setting this up. During our stay in Libya we called him various times when there was a disagreement with the guide and things always got sorted out. The guides as far as we could tell got subcontracted from other operators. The guide we ended up with did not speak any of 'our' languages but only arabic, which was at times a real problem. So when setting things up make sure you let Mr. Haji know that you want a guide who speaks one of your languages. Other than that we can really recommend Mr. Haji.