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Egypt Tips - including Wadi Halfa Ferry |
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Some points about Egypt....
1) Essam at Landrover in Cairo is the man to visit should you have any problems with your vehicle -
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/ 015 412 523 At the time of writing this, the mechanics are based out of Cairo on the Ismalia road (about 1 hour out of the centre of Cairo)
2) There is a parts shop in the centre of downtown Cairo on Fahmy Street a 2 minute walk from Tahir Square - Essam knows where it is exactly
Getting the Aswan / Wadi Half Ferry
1) At the time of writing this (Nov 2009) the only way you can get from Egypt in to Sudan overland is by the Aswan/Wadi Halfa ferry. We have heard that there is a tarmac road the whole way which trucks take, but at the moment it isn't open to foreigners - hopefully this will change soon.
2) You have to make a booking for both your car and yourself on the ferry in advance - FYI - the cars travel separately on a pontoon that arrives later than the passenger ferry.
3) I would strongly recommend phoning Mr.Saleh from the Nile River Navigation Company about 1 week in advance to reserve a spot for the car (and a 1st class cabin if you want one) His number is 0020 183 160 926
4) Once you have confirmed over the phone you still need to be there a few days before to sort out all the paperwork. You can arrive on the Saturday and do it all if you are in a rush, but if not I think it helps to visit Mr.Saleh on the Thursday or Friday before to say hi.
5) At the time of writing this the ferry only goes once a week on a Monday
6) When you come to buy your ticket, you need to go through the formalities with the traffic police and hand back your plates before Mr Saleh will sell you a ticket. We found him quite helpful though in telling us what needed to be done. There are two buildings you need to visit. The first is the Traffic Court, where you hand over your temporary Egyptian licence and passport. They will confirm whether you have any traffic violations against you. Once you are given a clean bill of health they give you a small slip of paper. You need to take this, plus your Egyptian license plates which you got at the border to the traffic police. This building is about 2 miles from the court so you cant really walk it.
7) Once at the traffic police you hand over the plates, license and slip from the court. After a lot of paper shuffling they give you another single piece of A4 paper to take back to Mr.Saleh. Keep this paper safe as you need it at the port too. Once that is all done, its back to the ferry office to buy the ticket. Then you are done for this part.
8) When you get to the port you need to go through customs and get the carnet stamped. You will also need the bit of paper you were given at the Traffic Police. it is at this point that you also buy your car ticket for the barge. We paid 2000 egyptian pounds for the car.
9) After this you rock up at the barge and wait.....and wait some more, until they decide to load you on. Sometimes they load the cars the day before, but we did it on the same day that the ferry left. Once the car is loaded on you can get on the separate passenger ferry which leaves around 5pm (although for us it was delayed until 7pm).
10) Once on the boat you need to get an immigration form for Sudan. You fill this in and take it, along with your passport, to a cabin next to the first class restaurant. Here they take your temperature, along with your passport and paperwork - you wont get this back until the next day.
11) When the ferry lands Sudanese customs will come onboard. Before leaving the ship you must go see them, fill in another form, have an interview and get back your passport. You can then leave the ship.
12) Once in Wadi Halfa you also need to register (dont wait until Khatoum as you need to do this within 3 days of arriving). This involves filling in many forms, visiting and revisiting offices, paying around 60 Sudanese pounds per person and getting a stamp in your passport. It is all done at the registration office in town (not hard to find, just ask anyone) and takes about 1 hour. |
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Date: 16/11/09
Location: On a ship somewhere close to the Sudan border
Miles travelled: 0 miles by car (several by boat)
Weather: 34ºC - Still Sizzling
Today we mostly listened to: Huffing and puffing of Egyptian men loading the boat
After another restful day in Aswan yesterday spent getting water and food and sorting out money for Sudan, we enjoyed our last beers for a while on the rooftop of the hotel. This morning we woke early to get down to the port to load Monty on to the barge and get our spaces on the infamous Aswan/Wadi Halfa ferry.
Despite being told by Mr Saleh that we had to be there no later than 10am, we spent pretty much the whole day waiting around for Monty to be loaded on to the barge. The formalities at customs and with the carnet were pretty straight forward - although Ric had to go back to the same office 3 times before we got the correct paperwork. Monty is joined on the barge by another dutch car and also a motorbike. The car belongs to Alex and Jhost - some lovely dutch boys - and I'm sad to report it is a Landcruiser. Much of the day was spent bantering about which car was better.
Whilst we waited off the ferry to load the cars, Pim & Git, George and co got onto the ferry to get a good spot on the deck. Fortunately Ric and I reserved a cabin in Cairo, so we didn't have to scrabble for our square inch on the deck. The others got a good spot though and pitched up some tents and a ground sheets for some shade.
The ferry really is an experience we will never forget. The food is.. ummmm okay, the toilets are horrendous and it is really hot. Despite this we really are having a giggle. We have chatted to lots of Sudanese and Egytians and tomorrow morning we will see Abu Simbel - as it is meant to be seen - from the Nile. It is also quite amazing how they load up the barge with goods going to Sudan - all by hand! All day we watched the men from the ferry company cart boxes and boxes of luggage on to the barge. It was chaos. Everything was just thrown on in no particular order - we spotted furniture, loads of tomato puree, olive oil, bikes, ovens and a plethora of other stuff.
Despite having a wonderful time in Egypt we are really ready to leave. It will be nice not to have to barter for our coffee in the morning. Tomorrow we cross in to Sudan - whoop whoop.
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Date: 14/11/09
Location: Hathor Hotel, Aswan
Miles travelled: 2 miles (around town)
Weather: 34ºC - Still Sizzling
Today we mostly listened to: An assortment of Egypian football chants
The alarm went off early this morning and it was with some trepedation that we travelled back to the office of Mr Saleh to get our ferry ticket. We had heard from George through our blog that more overlanders were on their way so we were keen to make sure we still had our spot for Monty and that Pim and Git were first on the reserve list. When we got to his office we met up with a German couple (Anna and Robert), another Dutch pair and also John and Denise from Yorkshire (travelling in their super luxious Land Cruiser).
The formalities were difficult but not as bad as I think they could have been. After confirming our spot we had to visit the traffic court and police to give back our licence plates and get a slip of paper that said we hadn't committed any traffic violations. Only then would Mr Saleh sell us the ticket. For the benefit of other overlanders reading this we will post a note about how exactly you do all the paperwork in our 'points about Egypt page'.
So after much to-ing and fro-ing this morning everyone got places on the ferry and whereas before Mr Salah said there were only 3 places on the pontoon, there are now 6 Vehicles going, three on the regular pontoon and three on the cargo ship. Pim and Git's car will be on the cargo ship which they load on Sunday, but we will load Monty on Monday morning, just before boarding the ferry.
After a short falafel stop to get some more energy, for once paying the proper Egyptian price of 1 EP and not 10EP, we chilled out for the afternoon. Anna and Robert, the German couple, have joined us in the Hathor hotel and much to our delight George turned up, bike in tow at about 5 - it took him 2 days to cycle what took us 3 hours!
We had dinner in the Nubian restaurant we tried to get in to yesterday and it was delicious - although the slogan for the place is 'the best food money can buy' - I'm not sure I'd go that far but it was very nice.
Afterwards we stopped off at a coffee shop on the way back to watch the Egyptian/Algerian world cup qualifier. Git and I got a few strange looks being the only women in there, but attentions were soon diverted back to the football. It was a pretty tense match and for the first time ever since we have been here the streets of Aswan were completely dead. All the fellucca captains had vanished and all the horse carts were tied up. The whole country was watching the match. The atmosphere was pretty electric the second time Egypt scored - its not quite enough to get them through and a rematch will be played some time next week in Sudan - so maybe we'll watch it again there....if they have TVs in the desert.
As the game ended the streets filled with guys waving flags (and in one case a flame thrower!) and cars with 10's of people hanging off the back. It was quite an awesome site, although I have to admit we retreated to the safe haven of our hotels rooftop to watch it all. Poor Monty and Mitch were surrounded by around 100 guys at one point but they seem to be okay. It is now almost 1am and still the horns hoot - I think they will do this all night - quite amazing when you consider they don't drink beer!
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Date: 13/11/09
Location: Hathor Hotel, Aswan
Miles travelled: 2 miles (on a Felluca boat)
Weather: 34ºC - Still Sizzling
Today we mostly listened to: Ummm, nothing actually
We had a 'free' day today as there isn't anything we can arrange for the ferry until Saturday morning. So after doing some washing and shopping chores in the morning we then went in search of a barber to cut Ric's increasingly wild hair. Ric has had his
long curly locks for a good few years now, so it was a little bit of a wrench - still, much better for the hot weather.
We then headed to the Nubian museum in Aswan and spent a couple of hours wandering around. It contains relics from a vast array of Nubian history going right back to prehistoric stuff - all very interesting.
We then caught the local ferry over to Elephanine Island (paying about 10 times as much for our ticket as all the locals - grrrrrr, getting annoyed of this part of Egypt now!). The atmosphere on the Island is completely different to the main part of Aswan - much more laid back and no hassel except for a few children who wanted to wander around with us and hold Ric's hand. We were able to walk around the tiny streets peeking in to houses and completely free from the cries of...'you wanna felucca, taxi, come look in my brothers shop'. The ironic thing is that it was at this point that we thought it would be quite nice to take a felucca ride (as it was close to sunset) but there weren't any in site!
We manged to find one without too much trouble though and the tiny boat took us around elephatine and philae island for an hour. The wind was pretty strong today and as it was a small boat we were able to get up a good speed at points. We then got the ferry back from Elephanine early evening and met up with Pim and Git for dinner. We heard about a good Nubian restaurant (Panorama) so we decided to head there - mouths salavating! When we got there an American couple were leaving with throughally satisfied looks on their faces. They confirmed the food was 'aaaaawesome' so we headed in with much excitement. Unfortunately the restaurant was completely full and we couldn't get in - gutted. We're going to head back tomorrow...but early this time.
We enjoyed a fish supper instead at Chef Khalil's and then beers on the terrace of our hotel. Tomorrow we plan to watch the Algeria / Egypt football match which everyone seems to be extremely excited about. We've heard that when the Algerian team arrived in Cairo they had stones thrown at them - bad form by the Egyptian fans there! Seriously hope Egypt win if that's how they react!
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Date: 12/11/09
Location: Hathor Hotel, Aswan
Miles travelled: 4 miles (from campsite to town)
Weather: 34ºC - Sizzling
Today we mostly listened to: Adam and Joe podcast
We awoke this morning at Adam's House campsite. We took the decision, along with Pim and Git, that the facilities at the campsite weren't that great and therefore we'd head in to Aswan to find a cheap hotel. We want to do a felucca ride and visit Elephanine island - which we need to be central for.
We packed up camp and headed off to meet Mr. Salah for 9am. We thought we might be a little late as Mitch (the car of Pim and Git) got stuck in the sand and we had to get the ladders out for them to use. Luckily it only took about 15 minutes and despite running over a small tree we got the vehicles out fine. As it turned out Mr. Saleh was a little late anyway.
So the news is that Monty, Ric and I have a space on the barge that goes on Monday. Pim and Git are on the reserve list and we find out on Saturday morning whether they are on or have to wait another week - fingers crossed! By all accounts the boat is ancient and unfortunately the cars travel separately on a pontoon that leaves the day before, but arrives a day after the passenger ferry. We've booked ourselves a first class cabin on the boat, although we've heard that the best place to stay is on deck as it is apparently too hot in the middle of the ship - least we have the option though.
After visiting Mr.Salah we checked in to the Hathor hotel - and apart from only having street parking - it seems okay. An afternoon wandering around, visiting the internet cafe and eating Egyptian pizza followed.
The further South we go the hotter it gets and we've heard that Khatoum is 39 degrees at the moment. Apparently it can get up to 49 in the summer! Despite the pictures I am starting (very slowly) to go a sort of reddy brown. Both Ric and I both have 'truckers tans' on our arms from the car and new mosquito bites pop up everyday - as you can imagine we're looking really good!
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