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.