Routing and navigation
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Fri 29 Oct 2010 18:37
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With a destination of Johannesburg there is a choice of
two main or classical routes; the eastern route or the western route, with many
sub-variants of each of these. The classical eastern route takes one
through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia with
possibilities of diversions into Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. To
make the first part more interesting one can travel from Europe through
Turkey and into Syria and Jordan (both well know to John) before entering
Egypt on the Sinai peninsular. The main (not the only!) problem with
Egypt is the ridiculous premium they require for the Carnet. Whereas
all African countries, except Kenya (250%), ask for a 150% loading on
vehicle value, the Egyptians look for 800%. !!Having a relatively high
value vehicle, this 800% loading requires a very large bank guarantee with its
associated costs, and also places one with a very high risk in an environment
where theft is a way of life. This single factor was enough to rule out Egypt
for us.
There are two ways round Egypt; the first
goes from Turkey, through Iran and then across the Arabian Gulf by dhow to
Dubai, from there a short drive into Oman and then through the length
of Yemen to Aden and a ferry from there to Dijbouti. The present
security problems in Yemen make this route dangerous, inadvisable and probably
impossible. It would be a fascinating route to take in safer times.
The other way, which was very attractive to
us, was to transit Saudi Arabia from Jordan to Jeddah (John's former
home for 11 years) and then to take a ferry across the Red Sea to
Port Sudan. The only problem of this route being that of obtaining a
Saudi visa. We investigated this through former Saudi contacts and
established that it would be possible but we eventually ruled it out as
obtaining the visas would freeze our passports for some weeks at a time when we
wanted to be sailing in Canada. Maybe one day on the northward
trip?
This left the western route and we followed on the
Internet the progress of several overlanders travelling this route both
northbound and southbound. Here the classical route is by ferry from Spain to
Morocco and then into Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo,
Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, DRC, Angola, Namibia and South Africa
and this is the route we have chosen.
For navigation we are relying on a good sense of
direction, the reports of others, Michelin paper maps and Tracks 4 Africa
electronic maps displayed on a Garmin Nuvo 550 GPS. We aim to record our GPS
position each night and send this in an email blog to the Mailasail
site which picks up the position and displays it on Google Earth. You should be
able to see where we are each night to 3 decimal
palces!
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