From the Middle-East to Africa

Yes, the titled says it correctly: at last we have managed to reach the continent which has occupied our minds for the last six months; Africa.

How we got here is a whole different story, part of which can be read in previous chapters on this blog. The last two weeks were very enervating and sometimes arduous. However, most of all, we have managed to conquer the bureaucratic apparatus called ‘the Sudanese Government’ by finally receiving a Sudanese visa, today. Score!

So, we left you wondering about our situation and how to get our car across the border to the long promised land on the other side of the Red Sea. Due to the situation in Egypt, the local authorities do not allow 4x4 cars get into the country, from any port (for fellow travelers: last call to the Egyptian Consulate on November 19th confirms the restriction is still standing). This left us with two options; shipping the car either to Port Sudan (Sudan) or Mombasa (Kenya). Both routes proved to be successful by other travelers, so plenty of choice I would say.

By now it is Wednesday 13th of November and Mohammad (from Amin Kawar and Sons Shipping) is able to confirm that a vessel is leaving for Port Sudan on November 20th. A ship to Mombasa leaves on the 27th, meaning we will overstay our car permit’s expiry date (which is until the 23th). We decide to go for the first option, Port Sudan, because then we won’t have to go through the hassle of extending the car’s permit and we won’t miss half the continent (e.g. Sudan and Ethiopia). The only thing to worry about is to get a Sudanese visa. How hard can that be? After surfing the web for information on getting a Sudanese visa we find plenty of options. One way is to arrange a counter-visa via a local tour operator or hotel, which you can pick up and pay on arrival at the airport. Another way is to lay our hand on a Letter of Invitation (LOI), which should be enough to persuade any embassy or consulate to issue us a visa. We contacted the consulate of Sudan in Amman (picking up the phone is apparently not what they’re trained for) who confirmed to us that a passport + copy, passport photo and LOI would be more than sufficient. After contacting a hotel in Khartoum we manage to get an LOI the same day, but with the weekend ahead of us (and the departure of our ship even further away) we decided to skip town, drive to Wadi Rum and make our way up north from there.

Wadi Rum holds an amazing display of orange and red desert sand flanked by massive sandstones  (separated by an erosional unconformity from underlying bedrock protruded with basalt and granite dykes). We spend a day driving around with Saleem, our weed-smoking Beduin guide, who navigated us effortless all the way to the Saoudi border. We drive around, make fire and drink tea, drive some more, drink coffee and when the sun sets we pick up some tourist and drive back to the campsite. One of the most relaxing days in days!

On Saturday we decide to head towards Amman to get our very much wanted visa. Two Servian guys (Yann and Vladimir) accompany us, because their destination is the Dead Sea. We hold at Madaba and an early morning drive to Amman gets us straight to the consulate. We fill out some forms hand in the needed papers and are expected to be back at 10. In the meantime we drink some coffee, meet a very friendly Jordan grandpa (Mohammed) who invites us to his place to drink some tea, where his wife overwhelms us with fruits. When back at the consulate we expect our visas somehow to be ready, but of course, nothing is as it seems. The consul tells us the LOI is not the one we need. We need one which has been approved by the Ministry of Interior in Sudan. How are we supposed to do that? We start calling around and in no time we have the hotel, a tour operator, a dive center and the Sudanese consul running/phoning around for options. We spend the better part of the afternoon in Amman, but as none of our leads can come up with a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (only Insha’Allah) this means we again have to reconsider our plans and the courage sinks to our shoes. With hanging legs we decide there is no use for us to stay any longer in Amman and we embark on the long drive back to Aqaba.

The next 48 hours we spend calling and emailing whoever we can, both in Jordan and Sudan, but nobody can really give us an answer on the visa situation. Then comes Tuesday and we have to get our car inside the harbor today. At first the car has to be cleared around 09.00 AM in the morning. We already amortized all tour-operators and hotels to arrange either a counter-visa or a LOI approved by the Ministry of Interior. Our last hope lies with the Consul in Amman, but when the call finally comes through its negative all around, and we’ve exhausted our options of acquiring a Sudanese visa in Jordan. This leads us to a rather bold plan; take the first flight to Aswan (southern Egypt) where apparently visas are issued fairly easily. A call to their office confirms this, so off we go. We ask Mohammed whether it is still possible to ship the car to Port Sudan and thank the Lord, he says yes. We clear the car, book our tickets and finally have a game plan again!

We have one day left where we try to get all the information we need and plan as much as we need to avoid any hassle once in Egypt. And here we are now: Cairo International Airport. Today we received our Sudanese visa after applying last Sunday (so it takes two days to get it. You don’t need any additional letter whatsoever, just a photocopy, two photos, a passport and 50 USD). We were hoping to receive the visa on Monday (one may hope), but Tuesday is good enough. With this extra day we decided to spend our time well and take a very early (03.30 AM) morning drive (in convoy) to Abu Simbel, which was absolutely worth it. If you don’t have any plans for holidays yet, just go to Egypt. The people are dying for tourists to come and visit the country, it’s safe (enough), cheap and beautiful.

In two hours we will fly to Khartoum, arriving at 03.10 AM in the morning. Tomorrow will be a busy day as we have to get an Ethiopian visa (issued in one day), register at the Alien Registration Office, get a travel permit from the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife and buy a bus ticket to get to Port Sudan. Our car will arrive coming Thursday, so it will be there probably before we do, but hopefully we can get it cleared without too much hassle. By then we have at least covered two African countries backpacking!

Next time, we will try to post an update earlier. We had not expected so much would be happening in two weeks, but apparently it did. And hopefully the following update will hold good news on getting us reunited with our big green fried. Ma’asalaam!