Cape to Cairo

[rchapman]

Im planning for Cape to Cairo this June. Ill be driving an old Landcruiser 80 Does anyone know whether it would be cheaper / more sensible to ship my 4X4 back to SA from Cairo. Or to rather sell it in Cairo and fly back since its an older vehicle?

[MikeAG]

Have you looked into the paperwork for this in any great depth? My understanding is that the Egyptians will require a a carnet securing against 800% of your car's value, which suggests that selling the car there will be virtually impossible. Indeed, getting it into Egypt at all will be very expensive.

Mike

[freeflyd]

The 800% is only for UK reg vehicles with RAC. It's 200% for South Africans or through the AA of South Africa. MikeAG, it's worth investigating cause they told me that they'll give me a carnet for a UK reg vehicle for 200% as well. http://www.aa.co.za/home/travel_serv...itemid/17.aspx is the website.

Rchapman, if you're asking questions like that with only 6 months to plan, I seriously hope you have a lot of time for research between now and your leaving date unless you have an unlimited time to get stuck in African cities waiting for paperwork and visas.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eed-know-39204

would be a good place to start. You can also contact the AA in Kyalami and have a chat to them. The Carnet will take 2 weeks to get, cost R2 500 and a cash deposit of 200% of the value of your vehicle. Then you have to get Comesa yellow card 3rd party insurance and lots and lots of visas and other paperwork... This is not going to Botswana or Namibia....

Apart from that, it will cost you around $800 to get from Sudan to Egypt and the same on the way back. I get that Cairo is a destination to reach, but unless you have the time to drive South on the Western side of Africa, I would probably turn around and drive home from Ethiopia.

www.ons4.co.za is the website of a SA family that's done a trip around Africa in the last year.

http://africa-overland.net/ is another handy site.

GOOD LUCK MAN

[MikeAG]

The 800% is only for UK reg vehicles with RAC. It's 200% for South Africans or through the AA of South Africa. MikeAG, it's worth investigating cause they told me that they'll give me a carnet for a UK reg vehicle for 200% as well.
GOOD LUCK MAN

Interesting!! Thanks for that.

The Southern Africa Customs Area (or whatever it is called!!) rules for foreign carnets are changing at the moment, I understand. This is causing quite some confusion over here, because it seems that the old system has gone, but the new system isn't yet in place!! My vehicle is caught up in the middle of this confusion. I wonder if a South African carnet for a UK registered vehicle would be renewable annually without having to take the vehicle out of Southern Africa??

Sorry guys.....I think that is called hijacking a thread.......

.............carry on!!

I can only re-iterate what Freeflyd says..........you are going to have one big paperwork headache!! The biggest part of our preparation for our trans-Africa trip wasn't getting the car ready, buying or making equipment, or getting sponsors etc.............it was organising paperwork. Endless hours in Embassies, endless indecipherable forms, incredible numbers of fees etc.

Mike

[Tony Weaver]

If your vehicle is SA registered, and you have a carnet, you can busk your way through most of the paperwork, picking up a lot of it en route. The key ones to have in your possession are:

a) Original of the vehicle registration papers
b) Proof of ownership
c) SAPS clearance/export certificate
d) Carnet de Passage if going outside of the SA Customs Union
e) The relevant insurance papers

But it is horribly expensive getting into Egypt, and the bureaucracy (I am told) is heavy. We turned around in northern Ethiopia and didn't feel as though we'd missed out on anything - you can always ride public transport through northern Sudan and Egypt.

Tony