Urgent Egyt alternatives NOW!!!!!!
 

Dear travelers,

our friends
Carsten + Tina
wuestenkuh
are at the moment in Sudan and need YOUR help.
They wanted to travel north to Egypt and take a ferry from Alexandria to Venice.
Now they are not sure to travel to Egypt.

Information from the ferry agency:
In this very moment, the ferry is waiting in Syria that situation improve.
Actually is not possible to enter Alexandria port, but it is our intention to run the service continiously. As soon as situation will be quite"

Is it difficult to get a Visa for Saudi Arabia???
They think about taking a ferry from Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabai, or even Aqaba in Jordan.

Here are 2 alternative routes.
Do you have any futher informaion?
Or more alternative ways?

1. Ferry Port Sudan to Aqaba in Jordan? Then to Syria and catch the ferry to Venice.
2. Ferry Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia? Then to Syria and catch the ferry to Venice.

best wishes Ralf

ferry from Port Sudan to Jeddah saudi arabia?

some visa info:

Embassies and Consulates of Saudi Arabia in The World. - Offshorewave.com

Visa Requirements


in worst case scenario just back up you route and wait, gues what the overland travel is all about?...or go into egypt and wait and see...according the news 30/1/2011 the police is holding back and military has not been taking any actions, than celbrating with protestors, so it might be safe???? from the news, the tourist areas have been completely quiet and safe...so it can just an another:Beach:

Have posted your request and a link to this thread on the ADVrider Africa & mid-East regional forum.

Best of luck,
Mike

Hey Ralf,

I would suggest to wait it out until things become more certain. Firming up a backup plan is also a good idea, the Aqaba ferry to Jordan is straightforward and then the ride around Syria to Turkey is usually straighforward. From Turkey there are ferries over to Italy, although this may be more common in the summer. If not, they can just ride east. Cold but doable.

In regards to documentation, they already have their carnet since they are going to Egypt so the next item is visas. In normal times, you can get the Jordan visa at the border, the Syrian visa at the border (at least when coming from the north, someone here can comment whether you get it at the border when coming from the south to whether you have to pick it up in Amman).

Keep in mind though that I have seen on the news that there are protests in other countries such as Jordan and there is some fear that the protests may spread the same way they spread from Tunisia to Egypt. So there is some risk the normal visa/border process may be somewhat interupted.

The situation reminds me of the troubles in Kenya about 3 years back. There was a bunch of overlanders piled up in Ethiopia trying to figure out if it was safe to travel by watching the news and watching for any traffic to come through. Some organized people looking into the possibility of flying over the country, and some just sat around drinking coffee and waiting. In the end, the protests quieted down somewhat, some traffic started to trickle through and with first hand news then we felt the safety conditions were adequate to continue. It was a bit interesting in spots, but by far and away the most relevant infomation was from locals directly on the ground. We took a couple of detours, avoided the worst trouble areas and it all worked out. Best wishes that the situation clarifies itself shortly for all involved.

In regards to specific experience, a friend of mine is coming back from Cairo in the next few days. (Ironically she spent the first part of January in Sudan but left for Egypt to be safe and avoid any potential unrest resulting from the referendum in Sudan.) Once I hear any updates, I'll post. Cheers.

I dont think you can get in and out of Port Sudan !!! So they say on the grapevine !

Hi all,

We are a bit worried about the Egypt situation too, as we are leaving for our overland trip in a few weeks (from London to Cape Town).

I've put a post in the regional forum as well.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...troubled-55228

Any info from the ground, any alternative routes, tips on whether to get visas in advance etc would be greatly appreciated!!

Ted, that is concerning about Port Sudan, is that because of the referendum?

Cheers
ness

Lay low, avoid the big cities
 

Syria might be next according to news reports so maybe sit tight and lay low until the worst of it is over. Then you could travel on smaller routes and avoid big cities where the major congregation of people takes place.

We were in Iran during the 2009 riots and protests and had no trouble even though they went on for 2 weeks, the whole time we were in Iran. We managed to avoid all the conflict by staying away from big cities and taking smaller country roads.

What is reported is often very different to what is happening on the ground so take the media reports with a grain of salt and use your senses.

Failing that Ethiopia is a wonderful country to visit...

Hi

There is no simple way around Egypt. We were two motorcycles trying to get around Egypt in November 2010 (Northbound) because we didn't have carnets.

We thought we could go from Sudan to Saudi but found that visas would not be issued if you were travelling by motorcycle. If you're in a 4x4 then you can get a 3 day transit visa.

There is no ferry from Aquaba to Port Sudan or the other way round. We ended up shipping our bikes from Port Sudan to Aquaba in a container..... it was a nightmare and very expensive. We flew Sudan Airlines from Port Sudan to Khartoum to Cairo (flight was delayed by a day and a half) because we wanted to tour Egypt. You can fly from Sudan to Jordan.

If you dan't mind going through Israel, you can get ship your bike from Haifa to Lavrio in Greece and fly from Tel Aviv to Athens (which I did!). Shipping from Israel to Greece is easy and relatively cheap. From Greece you can get a ferry to Italy. Hope this helps in your decission making

Good Luck
Neville

Couple of other things to note about Saudi - if they are not married, they cannot travel together, and they only allow left hand drive cars into the country.

Do you know, if that is their official policy - or it might depend on the consulate, who you ask, the weather, and so on? I remember reading here, that some may have actually ridden through Saudi on a bike, but visas were very hard to get (and was probably some time ago, too).

Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Oman...
 

Just in case you didn't get my train of thought with Ethiopia then here it is spelt out.

So from Sudan, you could go to Ethiopia then ship to Yemen and ride to Oman and visit UAE then ship again to Iran... it's another adventure but hey if you've got the time and money :thumbup1:

Like these guys, Margus and Kariina from Estonia (jump to page 70 something :)

Just spoke to a friend in Cairo. As you can imagine, pretty chaotic and disorganized.

People are trying to avoid the downtown core for obvious reasons.

Many tourists have congregated on the airport in the hopes of getting out. Many have been stuck there for a couple of days, sleeping on the floor, almost no food or water available.

Most regular airlines aren't running so some countries have organized evacuation flights to Europe (i.e. Canada had one earlier today) but you have to be lucky enough to find out when that is and what terminal it would depart from. Not the easiest thing when the internet ISPs have been down for the last 5 days. Some hard core travellers have ventured downtown into the protest zone to get to their embassy to try to find out any details. As you can imagine, information is scarce and fairly unreliable and you're pretty much on your own.


Anyways, if I was stuck coming from the south and had to get back on a tight timeline my first option would be to ship the bike to Europe from Addis or Khartoum. Not sure how easy or cost effective it would be from Khartoum but a couple of friends have shipped their bikes back from Addis a couple of years back and it was pretty straightforward.

If I had time to wait, I would kick around Ethiopia and/or Sudan and wait. Hopefully enough time will pass and things will get back to somewhat normal.

At some point the first overlanders from the north will show up at the Blue Nile Sailing Club in Khartoum which will mean that the ferry from Wadi Halfa is up and running and people are travelling again. If you are heading north, once in Aswan, the coastal route keeps you away from Cairo and at Suez you can head down to Sharm el Sheik or across to Aqaba. Sharm was still fine a couple of days ago. Egypt had implemented the police escort policy when travelling in the south for quite a few years as they view the tourist industry as important so if they let you in the country, then you will likely get a lot of slow moving escorts which for the first time in a long time, we won't complain too much about.

In any event, a lot can change in a short period of time so here's hoping that everything gets resolved in short order.

Hello from Dahab, Egypt. Dahab is a small diving/loafing resort village on the eastern coast of the Sinai. The internet came back on at noon today, local time. I have been here for 9 days, since arriving on the ferry from Aqaba. I'm traveling solo on a motorcycle.

First hand news/personal experience: It is quiet here, but ATMs work sporadically and when they do there is a max withdraw limit of 500 or 600 Egyptian pounds. Cell service works, and water & electricity have not been interrupted at all. Restaurants and grocery stores running normally. The number of tourists has been dwindling by the day. Merchants and locals seem to me to be a little tense (understandably!) but I have had zero negative experiences, and at this moment I feel safe.

I spoke to the Sudanese embassy in Aswan earlier this morning via cell phone, and they confirmed that the Aswan/Wadi Halfa ferry is running every Tuesday.

News from locals and recently-arrived backpackers: Cairo, Suez and Alex seem to be the flashpoints for violence, the touristy areas seem to be calm. Petrol shortages are rumored.

My plan is to get to Sudan as soon as safely possible. I also have to accumulate enough cash before entering Sudan, since my ATM and other plastic will be come useless once I'm there. I intend to get to Aswan via the ferry from Sharm to Hurghada, then to Luxor, then convoy to Aswan. Still need to find out if the ferry from Sharm to Hurghada is running. If not, only option is to ride through Suez, which I want to avoid unless/until it is confirmed safe. Also need to confirm state of safety in Aswan.

For those coming north, the Aswan/Hurghada/Sharm/Nuweiba route gets you to Jordan or Israel while avoiding the big cities where the major unrest seems to be occurring.

I'll post up more when I get more concrete info. Good luck.

Sean

Hi Sean,

Thanks so much for this useful information. We really appreciate it!! It is nerveracking times! I've been keeping tabs on a couple of blogs of people who must be in Egypt right now but not much is coming out, probably because the internet has been down!!

We've got some big decisions to make - whether to head round the mediterranean and middle east and hope all is clear by the time we get there in April, or decide to abort plans and ship our vehicle to South Africa and drive back... So any info from Egypt is really useful!!

Let us know how you get on getting to Aswan. We are getting our Ethiopian Visas here in London now, and are going to try and get the letter of introduction for the Sudanese visa in advance as well so we don't have to go to Cairo and can just get it in Aswan.....

Safe travels and thanks again,
Ness

Hi,

Just to keep the travelers informed:

check www.wüstenschiff.de for more details at the border from Nuweiba to Aqaba .... some 40 truckers had real trouble with bandits crossing to... Sinai.


Another friend (Mathias Schmid) is stuck in Alexandria at the moment :-(
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Good luck to all of you down there

Greetings all...

We are currently in Marsa Alam which is a couple of hundred km's down the coat from Hurghada. We've been here for six days now and apart from the frustration of no cell phone or internet communication over the weekend, everything has been normal.

We filled our diesel tanks to the brim today without issue and the hsops are fully stocked. We've been diving every day and the resorts and operators are carrying on as normal.

The advice from the locals here is to stay out of Cairo, Suez and Alexandria, but even Luxor seems to have quieted down a bit.

We have had no ATM issues either.

For those using the Wadi/Aswan ferry north, MR Khamal is your man as far as fixers are concerned. He charges $30 for the pleasure, but got us through within four hours of the car arriving. He even shouted at the police who wanted to search our vehicle. His local number is: 0105322669.

Hey Dawie. Good to see you and Kat are still alive and still heading north. If that truck of yours were any slower you'd be going backwards :-) Cheers from cold and wet Crete. Neville

News from Mathias, who ist still stucked in Alexandria:

Mathias Schmid
From Alexandria .. Egypt . http://forum.motorradkarawane.de/ima...s/icon_sad.gif ;(
The Ferry to Venice is deffently cancelt until whenever .
The Road over the Sinai to Israel is in the Hands of bandits .
And the Dessert Road to Cairo is blockt by Military .
So ... gonna keep Google it , how to get the "F" out of here..

Mathias Schmid | Facebook

Now imagine all the things you guys missed along the way...

Our plan is basically to dive the red sea until the Alexandria Ferry runs again... Or turn around and drive back to South Africa.

In Alexandria now
 

I'm currently in Alexandria, and the ship left this morning, without me onboard. No replies from Visemar's agent in Egypt, and very hard to get any information.

Trying to find out when the next sailing will be, the Italians say the 20th, while their good man in Alexandria says the 27th.

It's peaceful here now, but we'll see tonight. The biggest problems from Luxor and up has been police and army that's paranoid and not too clever and can hold you up for hours. Else, there's sometimes a problem with civilian mobs if you park too long time at a place, but they haven't been violent.

All in all it's not bad here, I've even found an open bar nearby the center of the riots so you can have a beer and watch the match if they are playing again tonight.

Will post more information as soon as I know something more.

Tormod
[url=http://www.kccd.no]KCCD - Kong Kr

Other bikers in Alexandria?
 

Just another thing, if there is any other motorcycle travellers here in Alexandria right now it would be cool to gather, maybe start our own demonstration. It's me, Klaus and Jochen staying at the Hotel Acropole right now, close to the Saad Zaghloul. Drop by or send me a message.

Tormod
[url=http://www.kccd.no]KCCD - Kong Kr

Hello from Luxor. Just arrived here this evening (11 Feb).

First leg was Dahab to Hurghada. Lots of checkpoints (staffed by military, including APCs and sometimes tanks), most asked a few questions and studied my passport and other paperwork. Before entering the tunnel that goes under the Suez canal, they did a very thorough search of all of my luggage, also had a dog give everything a sniff. I was wanded. Then they wanted to look through my computer and camera. Then another fella in uniform had my passport in one hand, and his cell phone in the other, and had me talk to someone who was asking my why I'd overstayed my visa. Which I hadn't, and I told him so, and it seems the original guy had misread my visa. Anyway, they were polite, and even apologetic, but thorough.

Second leg was Hurghada to Luxor. Took the coast road south to Quseir, only to be told that the road from Quseir to Qift (just north of Luxor) was closed. I saw a big truck and a tour bus coming off the road, so I assume it is closed to private vehicles. I backtracked ~75kms to Safaga and then went west from there.

Petrol & food were never hard to come by. The only hassles were the many checkpoints and having to backtrack because of the closed road. I haven't been out & about here in Luxor, but from what I can see & hear the mood is good; everyone seems to be happy about the exit of Mr. Mubarak.

I am in the Oasis hotel, which has secure parking for the bike inside the building. Super-nice staff, EGP50 per night with bathroom/shower in-room, including breakfast. I'll post up coordinates when I get a chance. It is also listed in the LP Middle East guide.

I'll post back once I get a chance to get out and see some of the sights and try out an ATM machine!

Cheers all
Sean

After Mubarak's stepdown yesterday things has quiet down totally. Latest news from Visemar Line in Italy now is that the next ferry will be the 20th of Feb, and they sound like they believe it.

However, their Egyptian counterpart still says the next will be the 27th, so we'll see.

Attaching some pics shot last night in Alexandria.

Tormodhttp://kingcroesus.smugmug.com/Other...69_AKvi8-L.jpg

http://kingcroesus.smugmug.com/Other...51_pwjGL-L.jpg

http://kingcroesus.smugmug.com/Other...11_2s6r2-L.jpg

http://kingcroesus.smugmug.com/Other...99_kZTim-L.jpg

http://kingcroesus.smugmug.com/Other...62_Kbd7q-L.jpg

Great information, thanks I am in Hurghada thinking of catching the ferry next Sunday 20/2 ,Visemar Italy told me it was coming! Who knows?Any info on the security on the roads, are there any police about? and fuel availability. Thanks

Okies, here's the deal now. Both the Italians and their not-so-trustworthy agent Walid has agreed that there will be a ferry the 20th. Before the weekend the Italians said yes, and Walid said no.

Walid never replies on emails, I suspect he might be illitterate or something. Anyways, he says he need all docs 48 hours prior to departure, but I would not take any chance with being this late, he has not proven to be easy to deal with so far.

For road safety and fuel; fuel seems ok allover. For safety, yes and no. Alex is calm, even the police and army behaves. However, it seems like outside Alex both police, army and people seems to be paranoid, stupid, and annoying.

Today me and Klaus went towards El Alamain, but got taken by the police after just 20 kilometers. Big crowds came to the place, and for the first time I've seen the army load the weapons and switch off the safety and waive with the guns. About 200 people were around us shouting.

The luggage were searched twice, and they took some pocket knives, hard disks and memory cards and took us to an army base. We had a soldier on each bike, and mine were waiving the hand gun all the time, uncontrolled. At least en times I had to shout to him that he should never point a gun at me unless he really meant to do it. I never seen worse gun handling by people that are supposed to be trained on weapons. I never felt threatened by that he wanted to shoot me, but I knew it was not unlikely he might shoot me accidentally.

Anyhow, we were locked up with two kids in a cell, a cell with an open window. Says a bit about the competence here. The kids looked beated up and about 12 years old. After a half our they let us out and said they would have to take the knives, but gave us back the rest. We demanded a receipt, which they refused. It had taken about 4 hours now, and to get back to Alex before dark we said **** this shit, keep them but we'll destroy the blades then so we broke them off and left.

Our German friend made it to El Alamain but had a similar incident with the army, but got out of it after an hour and without getting searched.

So, safety wise, there is not a problem, but you can expect quite some shit from stupid army and police that really don't know what they are doing.

If you make it to Alex we'll most likely be at Hotel Acropol, close to Plaza Saag Zaghloul in the city center. Parking in front of the building and about 30 Pound per person, but you must negotiate. Also decent wifi here.

Tormod

Hi,

I have just come from Sudan to Egypt on the Wadi Halfa - Aswan ferry. Apart from the usual hassle with Egyptian Customs no problems so far. I met several other overland travelers who crossed Egypt on the way south without problems.

Best wishes
H