routes to Sudan?
 

Hello again,

can anyone help me with routes from France or Tunisia to Sudan? Has anyone combined the noble art of desert-travelling and scuba-diving in East-Africa?
Suggestions and comment are welcome.

Hopefully I will not be kicked of the forum again this time.

Thanks,

Kar El

I’ve combined desert travel and scuba diving a lot, but I have to admit since I’m based in Cairo it’s a weekend drive for me http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif. Of course, since we’re talking about the Eastern Desert it’s not really the Sahara. It’s a completely different environment. You’ll find more mountains, vegetation, wild life and history. It’s a truly amazing place. What we do is drive by the red sea coast, or Sinai, camp somewhere on the beach, spend a day scuba diving and the next day exploring the mountains.

Scuba gear takes a lot of space. You’ll have to take along a lot of tanks, or a compressor and a generator. Either way that’s a lot of equipment. So if there’s a group of us, we rent a truck, load all the scuba gear on it and leave it at the camp. Our 4x4 are loaded with the regular desert travel gear.

A more civilized option, but more costly, is to move from one of the many resorts along the Red Sea coast to the next and rent scuba gear from them and do local dives.

Let me know if you need any more info.

------------------
A.B.

OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
ShortWheelbase.com – Jeep preparations.

Sorry, above too quick.

Thanks A.B.

Egypt ofcourse is nice but getting crowded both on land as under water. Sudan seems still unspoiled.
We would really like to take all our own equipment (including compressor); to be completely independent.

I guess Sudan is not reachable very easy (and expensive) via Egypt. What is your experience about that? What about the route from Libya to Sudan or Libya-Tchaad-Sudan?

Do you have experience with diving in wells (oasis) in the desert? Places and suggestions are welcome.

Hope to meet you once on a desert-dive situation.

Greetz,

Kar El

As far as I am aware, you can't go from Libya - Chad or from Libya - Sudan. you can either go from Libya - Egypt - Sudan or Tunesia - Algeria - Niger - Chad - Sudan or
Saudi - Sudan (jeddah - suakin ferry). One of the other links suggested Sudanese Western border is shut, don't know if true or not so further limiting options. Friends did some diving in Eretriea as well as Sudan. Also Spice islands are good - Pemba great, zanzibar okay. Try swahilii divers if going that far.

Hi Karel,

I'm leaving for the Tunisia/Algeria/Niger/Chad/Sudan route 1 Nov despite the news that the border is shut. I reckon there must be so many people wanting to cross Sudan that they'll have a pretty hard time stopping all of them.
I'll let you know when I get there. Planning for Sudan is January next.

As for the diving: I'll take my PADI certificate just in case I come across any nice opportunities.

Will keep you posted,
Camiel

http://www.jackjackson.co.uk/sharks.html is a guy who has done quite a bit of diving from Sudan (from what I remember of a conversation a few years ago..)

The Sharks look nice anyway :-)