| Overview |
| We have decided to take our adventure over 3 continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. This means that we need to take 3 different ferries, each one getting more complex as are trip develops. Therefore we have research as much as possible any and all information we can find on the later ferries. |
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| UK to France |
| This is the easiest one to sort out, we simply used directferries.com to cross from Dover to Calais and cost us £45 for a one way ticket. Just ensure that you state the correct height for the vehicle as we need 2.5 meters for ours. |
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| Jordan to Eygpt |
| There are two ferries that leave, the fast one which takes one hour and the slow one which takes three hours. They cost roughly the same at 360US$ for the defender and two people. The difference is the slow one leaves at 1am and lands about 4am in Egypt. The fast one leaves at 1pm. Once you get to Egypt a tourist policeman is on hand to guide you through the process, which makes it stress free and easy. He is paid by the government so we just gave him a small tip. You will need to show your chasis number for a man to make a rubbing of and have a fire extinguisher. We did not have our vehicle searched but others have made them searched. The ferry does not run on Fridays and if there are strong winds the fast one does not run either. |
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| Sudan to Ethiopia |
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| To enter Sudan from Egypt we will be to taking a ferry down the length of Lake Nasser. From Aswan in Egypt to Wadi Halfa in Sudan. Finding information on this has been hard work and seems to be a complicated process but I have found some useful information out from other over lander’s which I have listed below as it gives the most amount of useful information. No amount of internet trawling seems to have come up with a direct site to the shipping company but the details below has at least given us a guide of what we do. |
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| General information: |
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| Nile Navigation Company Limited, run the ferry and leaves every Monday from Aswan and arrives on the Tuesday in Wadi Halfa; Ferry takes about 17hours (leaves evening-ish, arrives noon-ish) |
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| - Price for a car is 2452EP roughly £240 but with everything in Africa prices changed daily and this should only be used as a guide. Price per person 2nd class: 262EP (£24), 1st class (cabin with bunkbeds): 450EP (£42) |
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| To Book a space call Mr. Saleh. on 018-31 60 926, in advance. He speaks English and is generally helpful. |
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| Useful information from Horizonsunlimited.com |
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| Once you have a date, try to be in Aswan 1 day before the barge leaves to do the paperwork. It does not hurt to go and say hello to Mr. Saleh, this will keep him in a good mood. Passenger tickets are only sold two days in advance. Ticket for the car can only be issued once you have returned your numberplates at the police. Mr Saleh has an office in town: N 24° 05,054 E 32° 54,585 next to the tourist office in a dirty “mall” |
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| Returning the plates: before the traffic police will accept your plates, you need proof that you did not make any traffic violations (and pay for them if you have). You obtain this from “the court”. N 24° 03,747 E 32° 53,257. Drive south on the Corniche, follow the turn around the Nubian Museum and turn left at the “COOP” (blue sign) petrol station. Follow right and then left. Outside “the court” (just an appartment block like the others) will be a guy selling papers. Ask for “Bara Edzim” (phonetic). He will ask for your car license (the little plastic card) and fill in the form. Pay him 1EP for the form. Across the street you need to copy front and back of your car license (0,50EP for both). Then go inside the building. Second floor on the right and hand in the form, your car license and the copies. This will take a few minutes and they will give you another paper in return. No costs. |
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| Take this paper to Traffic police together with your number plates. N 24° 05,054 E 32° 54,585 . This building is a bit hectic, with lots of people queueing. Just take a booth without a queue and hand them your plates and the piece of paper. This is where it pays to be a foreigner as you can skip the queues. After a few minutes you get another piece of paper. No costs |
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| Take this paper to Mr. Saleh so he can sell you a ticket for the car. Don’t loose the paper, you’ll need it in the port. |
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| On the day of departure Mr. Saleh will ask you to be there at 8 or 9 AM. This is ridiculously early as the boat will not leave before 5PM. But this being Egypt, customs and immigration only work until noon, so you have to get stamped out before noon. |
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| In the port you will normally get assistance of Ahmed or one of his collegues. They work for the Nile River Transportation company and do not need to be payed. They will show you to Immigration (get a form, fill it in, buy a stamp 1,5EP) and customs (pay 22EP at a cashier, NOT 25EP as they will demand first, get carnet stamped). They will do a quick check of the chassis number. |
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| Board the ferry... A word on the ferry: First class cabins are small with bunk beds but ok. Toilets for first and second class are seperate and not too great. Second class passengers are not allowed into First class, but westerners seem to be excempt of this rule. You can buy food and drinks in the dining room. Included in your ticket is 1 meal. Meals cost 10EP, Tea 1EP, soft drinks 2EP. After you board the ferry you will be asked to fill in a form for Sudanese immigration and hand in your passport. You will get it back the next day. |
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| You should normally arrive in Wadi Halfa before noon the next day. Once docked, it takes another hour before you can leave the ship as Sudanese immigration is done on the ship. All non-sudanese/egyptian passengers are ‘interviewed’ by a guy from immigration and given the necessary stamps and forms. In the port you pass trough customs (they don’t check) and then you are free. A shared taxi to town should cost 2 Sudanese Pound. You will have to bargain hard to get this price though. At this time you will normally also meet Magdi, or Mahid, or one of his cousins/uncles. They do not really ask if they can help you with the paperwork, they just start with it. Negotiate a price first if you want them to help you. 15US$/car is commonly paid, they ask for more at first. They can only do the paperwork (stamping carnet, ...), they have no (or little) influence in the actual unloading process, which is your biggest problem at that moment. |
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| You should register your passport in Wadi Halfa. You get a sticker. It is no longer required to register again in Khartoum. Fill in 1 form and 1 passport photo. It used to be 34US$, but prices have gone up since they do a “double registration” (no longer required in Khartoum). We paid 50US$, but could not verify if this was the correct amount. One big disadvantage of using a fixer. |
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| Once you get the car off, customs is a formality. They stamp the carnet (with the help of a form Mahid/Magdi gives you) and check chassis numbers. You pay 16 Sudanese Pound customs tax and 25 Sudanese pounds port tax for cars up to 2 tons, 30 Sudanese pounds for cars up to 3 tons (and, etc...). A “local tax” does not exist and you should not pay it, nor any other “taxes”! |
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| A note on the fixer (Magdi/Mahid, ..) at the Sudanese side: Although they are friendly people, we regret using them. They did a good job indeed on getting the carnet stamped and they did the passport registration for us. But this seems to be nothing we couldn’t have done ourselves. On top, they were very vague about any costs involved. Since you have a day of waiting to do in Wadi Halfa, you might as well do the paperwork yourself. This is of course easy to say for us... we did not do it ourselves |