EGYPT

July 2008 ..
.........

There was a robbery in the 'Gilf' in January and in February some sort of
SLA patrol abduction/robbery at Karkur Talh. Full story here.
As a result of the February event, for Egyptian-based tours the party may be over in Karkur Talh (Jebel Uweinat) which is technically in Sudan but was unoccupied by the SLA.

Currency
Egyptian Pound. 7LE = 1 euro or 10 = £1

Price of fuel
90 octane 1 LE, but intentionally made horrible to sell the newly introduced 92 octane.
92 octane 1.4 LE
Diesel 0.6 L.E.

Costs
Inexpensive

Useful languages
Arabic, English

Visas
Issued on entry for most nationalities. If flying in change some money and buy a couple of stamps to stick in your passport just before passport control.Border formalities
With a vehicle among the worst in Africa, if not the world. A carnet is essential. Buy insurance and 'rent' number plates at the border. Entering Egypt can be a right arseache with a vehicle!Brace yourself: entry into Egypt can be a hassle. Coming from Jordan it not only involves a 2-5 hours battle in Nuweiba with customs and immigration, but there is the additional hassle of arranging the ferry and waiting for its departure in Aqaba. All in all, it took us 22 hours (the ferry ride itself is only 3 hours) from the moment we arrived in the port of Aqaba till we were 'released' into the Sinai, Egypt. (Note: it helps a lot if you make use of one of the tourist policemen, who are specifically at the Egyptian borders/ports to assist tourists). We drove from Cape Town to Syria two years ago and there was not a single country that presented as much of a hassle and was so expensive to enter as Egypt. (It costs around 200 US$ to get in; mainly carnet related costs).

Entering Egypt from Libya
Go through the checkpoint and head for the hangars ahead. Park up and go into the first hangar on the left. Complete and Arrivals Form and get your passport stamped at the east end of the hangar. There are plenty of Port Police to help here. Immigration is then complete.
Now the car. What a performance. This part of the procedure took us 2/3 of the entire time it took us to get through Libyan and Egyptian borders and was, as Chris says, an arseache of note. We were assisted by a couple of really nice gents, who asked for nothing in return, which was completely unexpected. However, it's easier to be helped by these people (who rush you from place to place) if you have an idea of what the procedure is. Here goes:
Drive your car up one of the driveways on the right, looking for someone who'll wave you up. You'll be parked here for a while. The procedure is:
1. Get your chassis number validated against your carnet.
2. Change money either at the bank (only dollars/euros/pounds) or the money changers outside (Libyan Dinar). You need a total of 607 Gippo pounds (EP) to get you and your car into the country, so make sure you've got that before you go any further.
3. In the hangar, go through the corridor at the west end (opposite end to the immigration kiosks) and follow the passage right to the back to the man who deals with carnets (referred to Triptique). If you flash it around, most will understand where you need to go and can direct you. Carnet Man will complete and stamp the carnet and then ask you for 502 EP.
4. Go to the cashier to pay over your 502 EP (Carnet Man should direct you), get a receipt and take it back to Carnet Man, who will look at it, shuffle papers, give you the import section of your carnet (keeping the rest for the time being) and then instruct you on the next step.
5. Go back to the car to get a rubbing taken of the chassis number. Ours was done by a white uniformed man, but I've no idea what authority he represented. Make sure the rubbing is clear, because if it's not, it'll be rejected and it'll have to be done again. The rubbing appeared to be taken on a form expressly for this purpose and the number on the chassis itself was taken, not the plate on the top of the Land Rover engine.
6. Take the rubbing, the importation portion of your carnet (as issued in step 4), the carte gris (registration papers for the car) and your passport over to the building housing the Traffic police, which is further up the road on the right. (You should be allowed to drive here if the rubbing is acceptable.) Enter the building and look for the office on the left at the end, where there is a copying machine and an operator who will charge 25 EP to copy the visa page in your passport and the importation portion of the carnet. (I had copies of everything else.) He'll put all into 2 folders (not sure what order, but he knows and you can leave it at that).
7. Buy insurance (25 EP for one month) from the office next door to the Traffic Police.
8. Go back to the Traffic Police office with your insurance and all other papers collected along the way (including the relevant copies). Pay the Traffic Police 50 EP. You'll be issued with temporary license plates, which will be attached by a man outside for a further 5 EP. (You could do this yourself, but if it's late and you've been there ages, 5 EP is a small price to pay!)
9. Take the paperwork issued by the Traffic Police and copies of stuff made in step 6 back to Carnet Man. He will check everything, put it all in a folder (why???) and give you back your carnet.
10. Go back to the Traffic Police to collect your Egyptian license (credit card sized thing that you'll be asked for at all checkpoints in Egypt, as well as various tourist sites).

There is one last checkpoint before you're in Egypt proper. Have your passport and Gippo license ready. And you're through. Enjoy the pass down into Sallum town, which is pretty spectacular after a relatively flat coast road in Libya.

Handy hints
Get the details page of your passport translated into Arabic (including the dates and numbers). This speeds up the process considerably as you won't need to spend ages pronouncing all your names, etc, slowly with increasing irritation! In Libya, very few people speak English and the border is no better. In spite of expectation, the Egyptian side of the border was equally
Arabic and our translated passports did help. Have several copies so you can hand them out.

Costs
I tried to keep tabs on costs, but after 3 hours of shelling out money to various authorities, I lost track. We popped out the other end 607 EP poorer, which amounts to 84 Euros at the border exchange rate of 7.23/1EP.

Ferry from Sudan (Wadi Halfa-Aswan)
Per person 6.300 dinar(1$=260), per car 70.000 on a cargo ship. (ship broke down for a few days). Immigration took 3 hours to stamp our passports. Customs charge 1022 E pound (1$=6) for a 4x4. Took half a day, closed at about 12. Next day customs again and traffic police. Another 1/2 day, 28 EP for insurance, 23 EP for numberplates, 10 EP for a form(? all in arabic of course).

Desert pistes
Egypt's spectacular ancient monuments overshadow the desert and the Egyptian Sahara ('Western Desert' - or part of the hyper-arid Libyan Desert) is not as easily explored as the other Saharan countries (although increasingly accessible on tours).

Look at the Michelin map and you'll find the country almost bare of desert tracks - for a hardcore Saharan this is part of the appeal. The rock art of Jebel Uweinat and Gilf Kebir plateau and the Great Sand Sea with its Silica Glass Field all add up to a fascinating tour of this rarely explored corner of the Sahara. Sahara Overland II tells all and see the S-Files for other trip reports.

Fuel and water reserves must be massive and unless you're nipping over illegally from Libya (encountering a patrol is very unlikely but could cost you your vehicle) various permits are required to get off the tarmac. These can take months to acquire and must be done via an accredited travel agent.Then you must hire and provision for a useless soldier at $100 per day.

So, the best way to see this area is with locally-hired vehicles and drivers. It works outaround £120/day + flight. There are 3 or 4 agencies that specialise in the Gilf.