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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Daniel Rintz, Himba children, Namibia

The only impossible journey
is the one
you never begin

Photo by Daniel Rintz,
Himba children, Namibia



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 2 Jun 2008
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Location: Italy - Faenza
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Thumbs up Italy-->Greece-->Egypt-->Morocco-->Spain-->Italy

Are we crazy ?

Me and my wife want to ride all across the mediterranean with a Bwm 1200 GS, we are planning things and we are looking for advices from more expert people than us.

We would like to take a ferry boat from Italy to Greece, than do the same from Greece to Egypt where we would like to visit Cairo and piramids.

Than the hard way is coming, we heard we need a visa for Algeria, but other than that I would like to ask :

- a) Is it possible to ride from Egypt to Morocco in a bike such this Bmw ?

- b) Any advice for the road, gas, water, dangers, we would like to choose the more "comfortable" one, with comfortable that means as much as we can.

- c) I'm italian, my wife is american, I don't want to sound racist, but may she have problems with an american passport in north africa ?
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  #2  
Old 2 Jun 2008
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first problem

hee
your first problem will be the ferry between greece and egypt. So far as I know there is no one.

good luck

I'm not sure if it is possible to enter Marokko from Algeria.

good luck

In libia it is a lot of hassle or how can you call it. It is expensive and you need a guide. You can't take a guide on your motorcycle so he needs his own car, that will be expensive too.

good luck
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  #3  
Old 2 Jun 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sergiobodyweb View Post
Are we crazy ?

Me and my wife want to ride all across the mediterranean with a Bwm 1200 GS, we are planning things and we are looking for advices from more expert people than us.

We would like to take a ferry boat from Italy to Greece, than do the same from Greece to Egypt where we would like to visit Cairo and piramids.

Than the hard way is coming, we heard we need a visa for Algeria, but other than that I would like to ask :

- a) Is it possible to ride from Egypt to Morocco in a bike such this Bmw ?

- b) Any advice for the road, gas, water, dangers, we would like to choose the more "comfortable" one, with comfortable that means as much as we can.

- c) I'm italian, my wife is american, I don't want to sound racist, but may she have problems with an american passport in north africa ?
The border between Algeria and Morocco is closed, nobody can cross.
To go through Libya visa is necessery but also a guide and a policeman except if you get a special visa to go through Libya within 3 days I beleive.
Algeria is not easy also.
Egypt require lot of paperwork to enter with your bike, and bakshich etc...

You can see on this site a guy who will do the mediteranean tour but on the oposite way. Tunisia, Libya, Jordania, Syria, Turkey, got a room for me ? - ADVrider
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  #4  
Old 2 Jun 2008
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Probably the idea is insane, we should rather focus on west side, Spain, Morocco or east, Greece, Turkey, Siria and so on.
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  #5  
Old 3 Jun 2008
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Its not insane, it is possible, its just not the easiest of routes.

1) To get out to Egypt, you may need to look at riding further due to lack of ferries. Its possible to ride through Turkey, Syria and Jordan to get to Egypt.

2) As mentioned in previous posts, Libya generally requires you to have a guide and this costs money but plenty of travellers do it as you can see from other posts on the forum.

3) Its not possible to cross from Algeria into Morocco. Therefore you would either need to do a big loop to the south - Algeria - Niger - Mali - Mauritania - Western Sahara - Morocco or alternatively get a ferry from Tunesia / Algeria to Spain and back into Morocco.

4) Unless you have a particularly strong reason to do this route, it will probably be cheaper and easier to focus on one area.

5) I'm not sure about the American issue re visas, not something I've had to deal with.

Have fun.
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  #6  
Old 5 Jul 2008
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Location: La Spezia, Italy
Posts: 47
ciao sergio. benvenuto sul forum!!
im also italian, but will keep it strictly english.
the trip you're thinking of is not impossible but you might want to reconsider it for several reasons. ferries between europe (either italy or greece) and egypt are very very hard to come by. if you intend to visit egypt i think the best way is to ship the bike. Also, do you know about the carnet situation in egypt? That alone should make you wanna think twice about going.
and finally, as others have pointed out, you cannot cross the border between algeria and morocco.
im afraid that if you want to visit all those countries, you're gonna have to do it in more than one go. personally i would just choose to ship out from italy to morocco, visit one of the most beautiful and amazing countries in the world, maybe even venture down to mauritania, senegal and mali, and then come back through spain overland.
as far as your american wife.... i would not worry about it.
i did the western route all the way to dakar and i can tell you it's quite an amazing trip. if youd like more info, just email me at lucataurisano ATA seznam dot cz [edited]

Last edited by Chris Scott; 5 Jul 2008 at 14:38. Reason: saving you from spam
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