Egypt - route planning

[MovingHouse]

When we did this in Feb 2011, fuel was available from regular petrol stations in Siwa, Al-farafra, Bhariya and al-Kharga. Since this was during the Arab Spring some negotiation with the military was needed to get a full load in Siwa - unlikely to be a problem now.

Sleeping out on Siwa-Bahariya is likely to be a no-no. You need to check in at half a dozen or so posts laid out on en route. We took it slow in the interests of car preservation - 7 1/2 hours.

Permit costs $5 pp, plus arranging fee. Total EP 103 for two of us.

[Vleis]

perfect, thank you

[jamieT]

Yes.

Apologies for the confusion, I was suggesting that you camp out off the roadds somewhere,...every where else. Not on the Siwa-Bahareya section, as that would require guides etc.

Regarding deisel and fuel in general, panic buying occurs following one rumour or another at the moment, but nobody seems to have any inside info on the real causes and availability seems to return to normal the next day or soon after. That being said, I would fill up to the brim at most opportunities, especially on the oasis loop or Siwa to Bahareya.

Any change in that and I'll repost. FYI Big ques yesterday for deisel in some spots, but they let private cars into the front of the truck cue.

MAybe someone else has inside info on the reality of fuel rumours

J

[Trumpton]

just arrivrd back in cairo after a self drive trip to the gilf from uk dirsel was limited to 40l in Farafra, in bahariya the 2 fuel stations had run out yesterday but one had a delivery yesterday morning and we managed to fill up.

a couple of weeks ago we tried several garages in alex & cairo & they had none.

Top up your tanks where ever you can as supplies seem to be a bit intermittent.
BTW in Libya near to the egyptian border there were queus of vehicles coming from egypt & they were all sayng it was in short supply in Egypt.

Also 140l capacity isnt much!!

Andy

[Vleis]

Originally Posted by Trumpton

Also 140l capacity isnt much!!

Andy

Thanks Andy

The comment on 140ltr's came as a bit of a surprise. I can take 100 in the tanks and was planning to carry 2 jerry cans. Although I know consumption can drop considerably off road I was not too concerned about this being a problem for Egypt, more worried for the Omo Valley/Lake Turkana stretch. As you say I also thought that if I keep on topping up where I can.

[george t]

hi everyone.. I am trying to organise a short trip from Cairo to Bahariya to Siwa and back and would like to ask for your help.

Trip to take place possibly in late october, november (2012) time.

From what I have read the road from Cairo to Bahariya (360km) is all tarmac for a while now..

not sure for the piste from Bahariya to Siwa is it all sand, just a track, graded, paved??

My plan is to go on three bikes and a local 4x4 (not a Land rover / land cruiser more likely those locally build KIA or similar) that will carry our gear and petrol / water.

The 4x4 driver is a local egyptian from Cairo without local knowledge of the desert. The three rides are Brits visiting.

in terms of guide for the piste from Bahariya to Siwa. Do we have to have one ?

Can we take the guide in our car? or does he need to be on his own vehicle.. (hence cost more)


I assume one can ride Bahariya to Siwa on a day..?

And total time 4 days. ie. Cairo - Bahariay - Siwa and back .. is that reasonable for our small group..


all response and views welcome.. thank you.. also if any one has photos of the desert piste to Siwa from Bahariya there will be most welcome..

cheers

GT

[jamieT]

hi GT.
While thigs change all the time and are a little unpredictable ...
last year they would have let us drive sole on that route if i had an egyptiian
driving license. without that we ad to pay for the completely unecessary guide
in a seperate car

with a local friend you may be allowed. but proably need a sat phone.

i have to say that imho its not that good a trip umless for the sake of a few days in
in siwa. it is unplesant jagged rocks. well prepared base layer or perfect tarmac.
someone else ma have a recent update

an option would be to take a guide and turn off half way into wadi areg then cross
over into great sand sea at approach siwa via the desert lakes and bir wahed. this
would be a great trip obviously requiring reasonable sand skills.

apologies for crap typing but on kindle waiting for the wind to pick up on the red sea

tough life.

james

[achim-in-jordan]

As to be expected, a lot has been posted on the Western Desert - great area indeed.

For practical reasons it would be good to know which of the connecting roads between the Nile and the Red Sea are to day - after the changes of the Arab Spring - open to foreign individual overlanders (according to the categories free, permit, guide, closed):

1.) Beni Suef - Ras Zafarana
2.) Beni Mazar (north of Minya) - Ras Gharib
3.) Qena - Safaga (the "normal" route)
4.) Qus - Quseir (could be a nice alternative to the "highway" Qena - Safaga, but on Google Earth one can see that many buses ply this route, too)
5.) Edfu - Marsa Alam (this would be interesting)
6.) Aswan - Halaib (seems like a beautiful desert road)

Thanks and greetings
Achim

[achim-in-jordan]

I forgot to add one other question: Has anybody recently taken the road from Aswan to Abu Simbel? Is it allowed for individual tourists? Is it necessary to join a convoy?

Greetings
Achim

[omar mansour]

Originally Posted by george t

hi everyone.. I am trying to organise a short trip from Cairo to Bahariya to Siwa and back and would like to ask for your help.

Trip to take place possibly in late october, november (2012) time.

From what I have read the road from Cairo to Bahariya (360km) is all tarmac for a while now..

not sure for the piste from Bahariya to Siwa is it all sand, just a track, graded, paved??

My plan is to go on three bikes and a local 4x4 (not a Land rover / land cruiser more likely those locally build KIA or similar) that will carry our gear and petrol / water.

The 4x4 driver is a local egyptian from Cairo without local knowledge of the desert. The three rides are Brits visiting.

in terms of guide for the piste from Bahariya to Siwa. Do we have to have one ?

Can we take the guide in our car? or does he need to be on his own vehicle.. (hence cost more)


I assume one can ride Bahariya to Siwa on a day..?

And total time 4 days. ie. Cairo - Bahariay - Siwa and back .. is that reasonable for our small group..


all response and views welcome.. thank you.. also if any one has photos of the desert piste to Siwa from Bahariya there will be most welcome..

cheers

GT

hi
from Cairo to Bahariya its all asphalt road with only one gas station and most of time have no petrol ,so you need to have enough
from there you need to make a military permit and then you have to make it from Bahariya to Siwa in one day as you are not allowed to camp
its 420 kilo meter the first 50 km from Bahariya is old Asphalt but easy to blow up up to 100 km
after that it will be a mix of bad corrugation pot holes and some sand patches
for about 120 km then a news good asphalt road all the way to Siwa
of course no service at all and hardly to find a car passing
there is 6 check , military points they check your permit and they call the last point to them you reached here and then call the next one so they will wait for you
its for your own safety so if you don't show off they know you are between point c and point d for example
i recommend that you take a local guide from Bahariya as my only concern if some one need to be moved fast to a hospital or some thing like that
if you ride off road there is always a chance you drop your bike and then you may need to go to hospital
the so its always better to have a local guide
price can be from 800 le and up
good luck
and ride safe always
what kind of bikes you will use

[george t]

Originally Posted by omar mansour

hi
from Cairo to Bahariya its all asphalt road with only one gas station and most of time have no petrol ,so you need to have enough
from there you need to make a military permit and then you have to make it from Bahariya to Siwa in one day as you are not allowed to camp
its 420 kilo meter the first 50 km from Bahariya is old Asphalt but easy to blow up up to 100 km
after that it will be a mix of bad corrugation pot holes and some sand patches
for about 120 km then a news good asphalt road all the way to Siwa
of course no service at all and hardly to find a car passing
there is 6 check , military points they check your permit and they call the last point to them you reached here and then call the next one so they will wait for you
its for your own safety so if you don't show off they know you are between point c and point d for example
i recommend that you take a local guide from Bahariya as my only concern if some one need to be moved fast to a hospital or some thing like that
if you ride off road there is always a chance you drop your bike and then you may need to go to hospital
the so its always better to have a local guide
price can be from 800 le and up
good luck
and ride safe always
what kind of bikes you will use

Omar,


thank you for detail information, that is very helpful.

We will hopefully have a car (a 4x4 captiva I think) with petrol and supplies with us. The driver will be Egyptian while the bikers will be one cairo based expat and two visitors.


We are trying to source bikes locally. I was hoping we can hire three KTM's 250/300 from Cairo but doesn't seem possible.



Also re thinking the route, as my main objective is to have 2/3 days of off road riding.. so looking at other routes too.. having said that I heard that Siwa is very nice and is definately a highlight and worth visiting.

any suggestions are welcome -

GT

[BAKES]

Me doing The cross Egypt challenge in Oct 2012, good reading