Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Europe to Africa (Turkey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berth (Post 388178)

Hello guys,
Last week i took the ferry from Mersin to Port Said. The company is called Megamar (owner is Alcor Shipping) and the ferry's called Apollonia. Here's how it goes:

- the ferry leaves on tuesdays and fridays each week.
- be at 01.00 pm on one of those days at the port in Mersin at gate A.
- call mr. Ōzer (+90543/684.23.12) and tell him you want to take this ferry. (two days before someone from the motorclub of istanbul called the agency (+90324/233.50.30) for this, because they only speak turkish. There was no reservation)
- after 1,5 hour mr. Ōzer and his english speaking colleague came to pick me up and assisted me with all the paperwork. I obviously had no idea where to go without them. I even had to make an x-ray of my motorbike.
- because of the ramadan in Egypt the ferry would leave the next day, for me on saturday. So i had to leave my bike in the harbor and went out for an hotel.
- next day i had to be there at 03.00 pm. I payed $275 for the ticket + $10 for customs. Around 09.00 pm i could drive my bike on the ferry. So make sure you have a good book to kill the time in the harbor. There is also a little shop with a restaurant.
- in the ferry i had my own 2p. room with bathroom. Very nice. Food on the ship is also included. There were two other cars, my bike and the rest were all trucks.
- i don't exactly know when the ferry left, but is was in the night of that saturday. The ferry arrived on tuesday morning 09.00h. So after 3 nights.
- in Port Said it took me three days to get my bike out of the port. I payed $400 for customs, $125 for i don't know what exactly and $17 for 'parking cost' (it was normally $25 but they converted wrong in EP). Also $15 for the visum. For two of these 3 days i had to sit and wait in a room while a guy from customs arranged all the paperwork. There was airco and a television with the olympic games + free internet i could use. So it could have been worse.
- tip: when you arrive in port said make sure they give you your passport back as quick as possible (they keep it for you to put the visum in it). Then go to the customs by yourself and not wait for them to come to you like they tell you. So maybe you will save a day.
- in total i payed $842 to get with my bike in egypt. Visum included.

Allright, that's it. Peace of cake. I hope i'll make some overlanders happy with this info.

Cheers, bert from belgium

And I forgot one important thing: Thank you Geert (user 'Catch22') for giving me the contacts for this ferry!

Hi Guys,

We have just taken a ferry from Mersin to Port Said, details are as follows.

Contact:
Mr Mehmet Gencooglu
Tel: 0324 239 4048 or 0324 239 4088 (remember its in Turkey, I think the international dialing code is +90)
e-mail: mehmet@mnfkibris.com
website: mnfkibris.com

He doesn't speak the best english, but is a prolific user of google translator
He has also said that if you e-mail him, he will use google translator to translate etc

The office is on the main road opposite the Mersin Port entrance. It has a big blue sign which says 'MNF & KIBRIS DENIZCILIK'

We just rocked up at the port, asked around and were eventually taken to his office. I'm not 100% sure on which days the ferry leaves but we had an option of Sat, Mon, Tue and Thu. I get the feeling that the days can change at any time.

We paid $900 in total which is made up as follows:

$200 per person
$500 for a "Jeep" (Our Landy)

Initially he said that it was going to be $700 for the Landy. I told him it was too much, and told him that the length was only 4.5 meters. He hesitated for a while, made a phone call and then told me he would only charge $500 as it was no longer than 4.5m. So I guess you may be able to haggle with the price. When we got on the ferry, there was noone measuring or checking etc.

Anyway, the ticket includes a cabin (which you will need) as well as 3 meals a day. He will write a time on a manual invoice which is not the time the ferry leaves. You must meet him or one of his collegues just outside Gate A at the port which is sign posted on a tree at the time indicated. He will then jump in your car with you and take you to the correct place within the port. They will take your passports and V5 doc. You will not get your passport back until you get to Egypt. Your V5 will be returned immediately.

We were then told that the ferry would only leave at 23:00ish (Bearing in mind we met the agent at the port at 15:00, so its a long wait at a little cafe within the port.)
We eventually got onto the ferry at midnight and went straight to sleep. We woke up the next morning and the ferry hadn't set off yet.

We shared the ferry with 70 lorries and their drivers. It took us 4 nights to get to Port Said. We arrived at Port Said and are now waiting for customs to open. We've been told it is closed due to Ramadan and will be closed for 1 week. We will post regarding getting our vehicle through customs once completed.

Looking back, we would have rather gone through Libya. We would strongly suggest you look into this if you're wanting to get into Africa from Europe. We met a group that have just recently done it, have a look at their website Team Shoebaru - 2012 London to South Africa Charity Drive

Hope this helps,

Bryn and Gemma
2 Do Africa