No Carnet - UK to Kenya possible
 

It's been a while since I completed my trip (Jan '11) but I wanted to confirm, so that anyone planning a trip is fully informed:

You can ride from London to Kenya without a Carnet. Apart from the crossing in to Egypt, which cost $400 on top of other border/customs fees, it is possible to cross Turkey,Syria,Jordan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya at NO additional cost.

I did it on an Africa twin, and a group I met en route did it in a Range Rover. There were NO additional fees, and NO additional delays.

Hi,
Can you please expand a bit on the Egypt bit?
Obviously $400 extra is far better than an 800% carnet, but goes completely against the generally accepted logic.
Why does everyone get the extortionate carnet if you don't need to?? It just sounds too good to be true.....hope i'm wrong of course

Happy travels
Sam

not needed
 

For the information of riders coming up from the South.....I am currently in Tanzania having entered Africa at Cape Town. I am on a motorbike and have come through S.Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland,Zambia, and Malawi. I actually have been using a carnet and have found it to be quick and easy but I believe not essential in any country so far, contrary to what the RAC and a few others may say.
If you don't have a carnet and you get an awkward official just come back the next day and find a different one.
And I didnt use a carnet at all from Alaska to Argentina....
Good luck...:scooter:

A carnet has not been needed in the Americas since, I believe, October 2004 when Uruguay became the last country to do away with the need. As to traveling through Africa on a foreign registered bike without having a carnet, paying a bond at the entry point of a country which is reclaimable (allegedly) on departure from that country at a border crossing different to the one by which you entered, this system in many parts of Africa is, to my mind, fraught with financial danger plus the possibility of having your bike confiscated. I am very well traveled over many years and whilst in my dotage I tend to avoid hard routes I have done two trips to Africa, the first riding from the UK to Cape Town and the second, from which I returned this June, which was a Durban - Durban with SZ, Nam, Bot, Moz, Zam, Zim, Barundi, Ruwanda, Uganda and Kenya including a boat ride up Lake Tanganyika in between arriving and departing. So my sixpenneth would be get a carnet and avoid Egypt, it's not any fun to ride through and better visited on a Thomas Cook package tour. Ride safe.

I read that Egypt now has it's own independent Carnet which is a 2k Euro deposite on entry and reclaim on exit.