Hey folks,
I am driving from Europe to Cape Town this September - ca. December and am currently planning my route, particularly around Egypt. Since it is hard to get your bike directly to Egypt, I decided on taking a RO-RO with ALLALOUF from Venice, Italy to Ashdod, Israel and then drive to Egypt.
I have seen that there are 3 possible routes from Israel to Egypt. I attached a small map to visualise them. I would highly appreciate your opinion and experience on these routes. I could gather the following information about the routes from HUBB so far:
1. The Orange shortcut is forbidden for Bikes and 4x4 due to the security situation on the Sinai half-island. Therefore, I decided on taking the (longer, but secure) blue route around the cap of Sinai.
2. The border crossing at Suez is a gamble with a motorcycle. You might or might not be allowed to use the tunnel.
Is it possible to drive to El-Qantara el-Sharqîya (purple route) in that case and cross there?
3. There is a ferry going from Duba, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. If I'd take the red route, I coould explore a bit of Saudi Arabia (red route) and eventually take the ferry, which would save time, let me explore Saudi Arabia more and I would avoid the chaos around Cairo. My questions regarding the ferry are:
- Has anybody taken the ferry Duba - Safaga already?
- Can I take my motorcycle (BMW F800 GS) on it?
- Did you experience any issues with the border agents?
UPDATE Just minutes after posting I realised that Duba lies in Saudi Arabia and that Saudi Arabia currently doesn't offer individual visas. So, the red route is currently (as of June 2018) not possible.
Do you have any other suggestions/comments/remarks? They are highly appreciated!