Useful Sources
I have made
use of many sources for planning the trip, but some of the most useful have
been:
The Hubb –
Horizons Unlimited – a site primarily for bikers but summarily used by
overlanders – a fountain of searchable knowledge – www.horizonsunlimited.com
4x4 Cafe –
catalogue of info about planning an overland trip – I found looking at the spec
of cars for sale particularly useful – www.africa4x4cafe.com
GapYear4x4 –
blog of a couple who did London to Capetown a couple of years back, which is
the definitive source for border crossings – www.gapyear4x4.com
Carnet to Passage
The Carnet is essential for taking your car to most African countries. It acts as a kind of passport for your car, and involves a bond, held in your home country, to prevent you importing the car without paying import duty.
The issuing body in the UK is the RAC. The process is very simple, and they are more than happy to talk you through it on the phone. Try to arrange at least one month before you leave.
The most important thing to consider is the value of your car. The bond you need to hold will be a multiple of that (note, this is book value, rather than market value, which can be much lower in older cars)
The best way to find out the book value is to buy a copy of Glasses guide, but the only place I know you can buy these is at a DCA car auction (though your local car dealer will have one for their own use).
The bond multiple is 2 or 3 times the value for most countries, but for Egypt, it's 8x, so if you plan to go through there, buy an old car!
There are three ways to hold the bond.
1. Arrange a bank guarantee through your mortgage provider (if you own a house)
2. Find a lot of cash
3. Take out bond insurance with RL Davidson (again though, all arranged through the RAC)
The insurance option costs 10% of the value of the bond (ie if going to Egypt, value of car x 8 x 10%), but you get half of it back when you return the carnet after your trip
Visas
We only got Ethiopian visas before travel, and expect to be able to do the rest at borders. We'll see how that goes!
Ferries
There are 3 ferries involved in our trip:
Dover - Calais: Easy – you could even take the train if you were feeling flash
The Carnet is essential for taking your car to most African countries. It acts as a kind of passport for your car, and involves a bond, held in your home country, to prevent you importing the car without paying import duty.
The issuing body in the UK is the RAC. The process is very simple, and they are more than happy to talk you through it on the phone. Try to arrange at least one month before you leave.
The most important thing to consider is the value of your car. The bond you need to hold will be a multiple of that (note, this is book value, rather than market value, which can be much lower in older cars)
The best way to find out the book value is to buy a copy of Glasses guide, but the only place I know you can buy these is at a DCA car auction (though your local car dealer will have one for their own use).
The bond multiple is 2 or 3 times the value for most countries, but for Egypt, it's 8x, so if you plan to go through there, buy an old car!
There are three ways to hold the bond.
1. Arrange a bank guarantee through your mortgage provider (if you own a house)
2. Find a lot of cash
3. Take out bond insurance with RL Davidson (again though, all arranged through the RAC)
The insurance option costs 10% of the value of the bond (ie if going to Egypt, value of car x 8 x 10%), but you get half of it back when you return the carnet after your trip
Visas
We only got Ethiopian visas before travel, and expect to be able to do the rest at borders. We'll see how that goes!
Ferries
There are 3 ferries involved in our trip:
Dover - Calais: Easy – you could even take the train if you were feeling flash
Turkey (Iskenduren)
- Egypt (Port Said)
This ferry has primarily come
into existence to serve truckers no longer able to navigate the route to Africa
via Syria, so will hopefully be short lived.
There is an excellent post on
the Hubb by Ben, which you can see here:.
Some thoughts / additions from
our experience:
The optional
$60 charge by the travel company to navigate customs is exorbitant, but you
need to bear in mind that nearly everyone else just pays it, so there is no
system / support for those who don’t
Some notes which should help
you navigate:
You need to secure 2 stamps in
your passport before you can join the ferry
- The customs stamp (car owner only)
- Visa exit stamp
The process you need to follow
after arrival at Liman B (to be safe I would aim to be there by c.9am on the
day of departure – even though the ferry is unlikely to depart before dark, it
will be easier to get the paperwork done earlier in the day):
Arrive at gate and park up
behind the portacabins
Take car insurance / ownership
docs and passports to customs official (light blue uniform)
He will review these docs,
check over the car, and then will probably get security to escort you to where
you will wait for the ferry (these security guards are from a company called
Securitas and wear transparent uniforms)
Once at this car park, expect
no more help / direction, you are on your own!
From around 9.30am, you will
start to see a medium sized blue bus running people back and forth (it may park
behind the waiting room building so keep a keen eye)
Get on this bus with all your
documents, it will run back the way you came, past the Liman B entrance, and
over to Liman A
There, exit the bus, show the
guards your passports and ask for customs / Gumruk
You will then need to walk
away from the port for c.5 mins, before taking the first right, follow this
around until you see a very tall building with a blue frontage – customs is
located on the 9th floor (this is open 9-5, with an hour closure for
lunch 12-1 – it’s also outside the port complex, so you could probably have a
go the day before)
Show your insurance, ownership
docs and passport here to get a customs exit stamp
Return to your car via the
same bus
You will then need to get a
visa exit stamp from the police – here we showed our passports without a stamp,
and were ushered off to the right place, but if that doesn’t work, the police
are in the furthest office at the back of the block of buildings where the
waiting rooms are (about 5 mins walk)
These guys speak a bit of
English, and are helpful, but for some reason wear no uniforms
After that, follow the crowd / Ben's directions and you’ll be fine!
Aswan (Egypt) – Wadi Halfa (Sudan)
This is the only way to get
between Egypt and Sudan (there is a road, but no land border at present).
There are lots and lots of
posts about this on the hubb, but this is the one I found the most useful:
Roof Tent (and
getting on the roof)
Having
deliberated long and hard about getting a roof tent for the trip, I am so glad
I did. It’s really simple, and comfortable, and has the added benefit of
allowing you to camp in RV parks / car parks where there is only a hard
surface.
They are very
pricey, but you can save a lot by shopping wisely on ebay, where a stream of
decent tents comes up at 2-3 per month.
A couple of
lessons I learnt in the process which I didn’t read anywhere before buying:
- These things are massive, and unlikely to fit in the back of any car – if buying second hand you need to have a roof rack / bars / a big van to put it on / in to get it home
- Getting it on the roof is a 2/3/4 man job (they are 65kg and very large), though if you’re struggling to get enough friends around, and you have a tailgate, there is a way you can just about get it on the roof on your own
- See video here on how to get a roof tent
on the roof with only one person – effectively involves flipping it on to the
tailgate, then on the rear of the car (which you protect with a tarp of
similar), then slide it on to the back of the roof bars / rack, before levering
it onto the top – worked for me! - youtube.com/watch?v=W7r0hGS5uDM
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