Joburg - Paris by car
 

Hello everybody,

I read a fair amount of topics of the 6 first pages of this forum and first of all: thanks to everyone for all the experiences shared.

I'm a french guy living in Joburg for almost 4 years. My time in South Africa is sadly finishing and with my fiancee we have the crazy idea to spend our honey moon crossing Africa.

The plan is to leave Joburg in August and to be in Paris 90 days later (maximum.... our jobs won"t wait us more....).

We both have a fair experience of Africa as we worked in different countries of the continent. But such a trip needs a really good preparation and I take all the experts advice I can find.

The car is a Land Rover Discovery II TD5. Year 2000. Mileage: 170.000 Km. Condition: pretty good.

I have a good mechanic here in Joburg who can help me to prepare the car for such a trip.

The planned itinerary is the following:
Botswana - Zambia - Malawi - Tanzania - Kenya - Ethiopia - Sudan - Egypt - ferry to....Greece? Turkey? and then European countries until Paris

I have a planned detailed itinerary that I will post later when it will be more concrete to have your thoughts.

So far I have some technical questions:
-> my car is registered in SA, I have a temporary residence permit in SA : can I get the carnet de passage in SA?
-> I don't plan to sell the car once in France: what does it mean on a financial perspective? My deposit for Carnet will be kept? Is that all?
-> If I have Carnet de Passage does it mean that I won't pay any taxes at borders for my car?
-> Is it possible now to get Ethiopia and Sudan visa in Nairobi? And Egypt visa in Khartoum?
-> Is is true that there is a weekly liaison by boat to cross from Sudan to Egypt?
-> I read some recent comments of people who shipped the car from Alexandria to Athens with Grimaldi company. Anyone heard of this?
-> Is my plan doable in 90 days (I know I won't "enjoy" all the beauties of the countries I crossed but I accept that)
-> what kind of preparation would you advise for the car?

I'm only at the beginning of planning so I'm sure I forget a million things. Please feel free to open my eyes on anything I wouldn't have thought

thanks a lot

Pierre

Pierre ,

my plan is almost the same ...+ she extra...but on the bike...

so i'll help with what i how so far.

- Call 0117991040 in Joburg and they will answer all Carnet questions for you. This is AA international travel line and i spoke to them about my bike recently.

- Kenya and Egypt require Carnet.... kenya is ok... Egypt requires large deposit for motorcycle at least (i assume sam for cars) .... but it's the price of the game :)

- I can get carnet with permanent residency and ID book... i dont know if you have ID book or not, but they can tell you.

- Once you get out of Egypt... and provided you have all entry/exit stamps done... you just international courier the paperwork to JNB and they will refund the money.

- I don't know what you're asking about taxes, but you should not need to pay any taxes anywhere because you're not importing a car. when you arrive in paris, you'll have an option to register your car in your name in France, after necessary technical inspections (i assume you can register RHD car in France?) ... if so, then provided that you owned your vehicle minimum amount of time required ( i think UK has 1 year) ... not sure on france, you should be able to register your vehicle without paying import taxes. then vehicle is yours free and clear to own and sell or whatever . check that with someone in France... or ask some expats that came back to france after longer stint away.

- I read here that you can get transit visa for Sudan in Adis. It looks like i'll need to get Ethiopian visa in SA where i reside. Not sure if i can get one in Nairobi, so confirmation on that yet.

- you can probably get Egypt visa in Khartoum... but you will be served better if you have Egypt visa already when you apply for Sudanese visa, because they know then that you have a reason to leave and in fact planning to.

- You can ship a car via boat (you travel separately) to Pyraeus, Salerno or Limasol ... so italy or greece for you. I'll go with Greece personally. Takes about the same amount of time...about 3 days... cost is very similar... goes from Alexandria.

- people will say spend more time... BUT ... work is not waiting and yada yada :) so 90 days is plenty .... you'll get through europe in few days if you want to... it's not that bad and 90 days is plenty :) ... in my opinion ... :))

When are you planning on leaving ?

i/we are planning on leaving maybe mid april... an go namibia, zambia, malawi, tanzania, rwanda, uganda, kenya, ethiopia, sudan, egypt .... weeeeee of we go on the boat :)

good luck and let us know how yo get on and your plans, please.

Well thanks a lot Sweetrolls for this quick and already quite exhaustive answer. I plan to leave in August, so you'll already be on the road. But I'll update here step by step on the preparation.

Please let me know by MP if at some point before your departure you're around Joburg!

Cheers and thanks again

(also I saw many recommendations here to this website which looks amazingly helpful but I guess tyou already know) Beyond Borders

Hello guys,

I have a new question as I'm getting prepared for the trip :

Do I have to go through Nairobi to get Ethiopian visa? Could I get it in Kampala or maybe in SA before leaving (and entering in Ethiopia 2 months later)

I actually would like to drive from Tanzania to Ethiopia via Uganda without having to go down through Nairobi...

Thanks for your advices

cheers