thelongandwindingblog

The border into Egypt is notorious. Overland online forums are littered with horror stories of peoples' experiences and top tips to make getting through that little bit easier. It even took Ewan McGregor and his money-no-object, months-of-preparation crew five hours to get through it on their 'Long Way Down', so we weren't expecting miracles.

We'll outline the border crossing circus as we experienced it. It is pretty epic. This is of course mainly for fellow overlanders doing it in the near future. For friends and family back home it will either (a) make you thrilled that you didn't do that bit of the journey with us or (b) be quite dull. You have been warned.

THE LIBYAN SIDE

Relatively easy - enjoy it while you can. It took us about 45 minutes to do this.

• First, return your Libyan number plates and get 100LD back. The fact that we followed the advice of other overlanders and did this in Mussad (5km before the border) confused some of the border guards, as it seems you can now do this there. It didn't cause any problems to do it our way though, so suggest you do the same, just in case they change the rules again and you end up backtracking for 5km.
• Just before you leave Mussad, you'll see a little football ground on your right followed by an official-looking building flying green flags. Go in there with your plates and the three stapled pieces of paper you were given on entry.
• A man will take you over the street, give you your money, keep the top two papers and stamp the bottom one, which you keep. You'll need to show this a lot: let's call it your 'plate paper'.
• Drive 5km to the border along a strip of tarmac with litter strewn either side and prepare yourself for the hilarity of what will follow.
• Checkpoint #1 - show passports and plate paper, and give a copy of your Arabic passport translation. Make polite conversation about England being knocked out of the World Cup. Try and explain that one of you is Welsh and couldn't give a....
• Checkpoint #2 - show passports and plate paper, and give two more copies of your Arabic passport translation. Have your Libyan carnet page stamped out to officially export the vehicle. Make polite conversation about England being knocked out of the World Cup. Try and explain that one of you is Welsh.
• Immigration kiosks - pick a kiosk any kiosk - have your passports stamped out and show the plate paper again. Make polite conversation about England being knocked out of the World Cup. Don't even bother trying to explain what being Welsh is. Past the Duty Free Shop, a tiny hut selling fags, towards and into...
• Another drive-through hangar with long tables for vehicle searches, luckily not utilised for us. We were however told to pull over and get out of the truck. We were led off by a serious uniformed bloke which worried us for a few minutes, til we realised he was just taking us to get our 100LD back for our non-existent plates. Caused much amusement among the guards and after more 'jokes' about Germany, they let us carry on.
• Checkpoint #3 - show passports and give a copy of your Arabic passport translation.
• Checkpoint #4 - show passports and give a copy of your Arabic passport translation. Again, but to different blokes, this time in civvies not uniforms. By now, your passports will be out the window before they've even asked for them. You will now see a big gate ahead of you marked 'Salloum Land Port, Arab Republic of Egypt' and the Egyptian flag. There's about six foot of No Man's Land inbetween. Ma'ah salama Libya!

THE EGYPTIAN SIDE

Here's where the real fun begins. Basically, you'll have to do all of the following, but perhaps not necessarily in the order we did. Start to finish took us five hours, from 6pm til 11.

• Immediately after No Man's Land you'll be greeted by several men in white uniforms chorussing "Welcome in Egypt!"
• Past the Egypt Free Shops, all boarded up, you'll see the Arrival Hall on your left. Park up; you'll be there for a while.
• At this point, you'll find you're not alone. Someone will magically designate themselves as your guide through the 'program' as they call it. There is no program and it's not worth fighting for anyway: let them help. You will end up giving bakshish, just make sure it is on your terms and not theirs. They will try to rip you off like you were born yesterday, so try not to suck a dummy in public. They will at least be polite and attempt to be of good service as they are after your cold hard cash.
• In the Arrivals Hall, complete an Arrival Form then leave by the door you went in and turn left. Walk along til you reach...
• The 'bank' (a literal hole in the wall), where you buy your one month visa for US$15 each.
• Now's a good time to change your money into Egyptian pounds (LE). If you have £, $ or € you could change your money at the bank. You'll also have 100LD from your number plates, plus maybe some more to get rid of. The bank won't change that - you'll have to use the money-changers outside. You won't need to find them; they'll find you. On 30 June 2010, 1LD was 4LE, not the best rate but not too harsh, and we were a captive clientele...
• Back to the Arrivals Hall now. At one of the little booths, hand over your Arrival Forms. Your visas will be stuck and stamped into your passports. We tried all we could to get a three month visa. Others had warned us we would only get a month. They can give longer but take great pleasure in not doing so. We were assured that we can easily extend in Cairo. Yeah right. Believe that when it happens and it will surely be a pleasant day's outing too.

That's you done (like a kipper) - now the car. By far the most protracted part:

Drive it round to the right into a covered hangar. Someone will wave you over, especially if you flash your Carnet, known round these parts as the "Triptique". You'll have to drive carefully over a pit where they might or might not stop you to search under the truck. We were lucky and were waved straight through that bit. The blokes there are meant to do a thorough check of the vehicle, inside and out. They didn't.

You'll meet the man we shall call Carnet Man. He will ask you about your carnet and also a few random questions about what you have onboard. He does some paperwork and while he is scribbling sends you around the corner to get a bloke in a boiler suit to crawl under the vehicle and look for the chassis number. Huw told them there wasn't one stamped on the chassis and the only mark was on a plate in the cab but they refused to listen and spent a futile forty minutes ferreting around under the truck with dim-lit torches. Eventually Huw felt sorry for them and showed them a picture in the manual that clearly showed the plate in the cab to be the sole source. They gave in and stamped their own version on the chassis to match the carnet. One way of solving a problem.... Finally satisfied they gave us a document and a rubbing of the number to take back to Carnet Man who returned our Carnet to us.

Next to the Traffic Police office to show them four things - passports, carnet, registration papers and chassis number rubbing. We had to pay 40LE for two copies of each which were put into two grey folders. It was getting late and we can't now remember where both went but at least one of the folders was taken by our friendly self-appointed fixer who led us to an office in the customs shed.

The customs were mid-shift change so we had to wait half an hour. Generally speaking, although going through all this in the evening is quite slow, the pace is relaxed and relatively efficient, as is often the case on a night shift. From customs  office one, down the corridor to the customs cashier where 502LE was handed over, the receipt taken back to the first office where more forms were filled in and our Carnet importation part was stamped. By now the seemingly gruff customs bloke had thawed into a sweetie who gave us tea to sip and showed us videos on his phone of the custom-hall cat's new kittens.

Off with the fixer to the insurance office. Here's where he think he pulled a fast one. We aren't sure and if it was a scam it was slickly pulled but the insurance salesman charged us 512LE for what we think was a three month policy. We still need to check but on reflection it seems steep as others claim to have paid as little as 25LE for a month. Not an easy call though as a one month policy is about £60 in Tunisia and a mere £7 in Libya. Check back as we will update this if we discover what it should be.

Last but not least, you need Egyptian plates and 'Carte Gris', basically your Egyptian license. Our fixer had said all along that this would cost 500LE. Rosie smelt a rat. There were probably plenty lurking around the border post on two legs and four but this particular stench was coming from our smiling subservient friend. He wanted to take the money to the cashiers himself. Rosie said no and what's more, used her newly acquired Arabic script reading skills to decipher the price list that she insisted on being shown - knowing what the figures 0 to 9 look like isn't difficult really but is a valuable lesson. Insist on a receipt too, like she did. That'll throw them. The cheeky blighter was trying to rip us off. The real price for plates and 'Carte Gris'? 61LE. One sympathetic bloke behind the counter could see she'd caught the red-faced fixer out and said to her, smiling, "Enti mooshkila!" - you're a problem!

Yet he had been helpful. It may still have been more than he deserved, but in the end we paid him 50LE, not the ten times amount he was angling for - though there is still the question of the insurance. It would be interesting to hear other people's thoughts/experiences on border bakshish rates and scams...

The final task was to crack out the gaffer tape and zip ties to attach the plates back and front. That done it was 23:00. If it's dark when you finish, park up just outside the last checkpoint under the floodlights. Useful questions, to which you always hope the answers are yes, are "Mumkim nenem hoona alayla?" (can we sleep here tonight?), "Hell hoonaka emmen?" (is it safe?) and "Mumkin estamel el hammam?" (can I use the bathroom?) Definitely worth staying there to enjoy the gorgeous 12km drive down the hill to Salloum in the sunshine the next morning.

General comments and tips

• Don't forget to fill up with petrol before you leave! At 0.2LD (10p) a litre, can you afford not to?! There is a petrol station just before Mussad and one in town too.
• At the border, there are men everywhere. A few are in uniforms but most are just in jeans, leather sandals and t-shirts: far more intimidating even when they are all smiles. It's unclear just what anyone's job title is or if they are cleaning staff or secret police.
• There is a distinct sense of boredom: they all got very excited when we turned up.
• Time your crossing to coincide with an international sporting tournament: the World Cup provided us with plenty of opportunity for banter and smiles as various paperwork was checked, stamped, stapled etc.
• Be patient. Don't show you're in a hurry, even if you are, which you shouldn't be: allow yourselves several hours. Take a book and don't be afraid to use it, though make sure you keep half an eye on what the hell is going on.
• Take plenty of cash. US$15 per person for your visa, and enough cash in any currency to change into approximately 1200LE.
• Keep a rational balance between paranoia and nonchalance. This should stop you getting ripped off but also ensure the whole experience doesn't leave you swallowing a handful of valium.
• Have at least 10 photocopies of your passport with you. Ideally have your passport translated into Arabic and take copies of these pages too. If there are two of you, you can fit both passports on one A4 page. It saves untold time and hassle.
• Change your clocks forward an hour when you've crossed the border. It took us over two days to realise we had the wrong time.
• Laugh about it! It's a drag, but it's quite good fun watching all those blokes looking for something to do while you kick back your heels and read a good book.

Route, photos and more at www.thelongandwinding.co.uk