OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
The night before the ferry we went to KFC to minimise the risks of spending any more time in the ferry loos than was absolutely necessary. We arrived at the port to chaos – hundreds of people pushing and shoving as they tried to get through customs with massive bags and boxes full of things they had bought in Egypt…
The next day is a slow affair – the ride to Douz is short and we plan to take advantage of a late check-out. After a morning catching up on writing and editing images, we load the bikes excited to hit the road that leads into the Sahara. Our destination for the next few nights is the legendary Camping Desert…
An unflinchingly barren landscape of sand, wind, and heat welcomed us into the north. Unable to enter Egypt, we wanted a taste of what our end destination could have been. We longed to see the gods we knew by heart from elementary school, to stare upon Isis and Horus and Amun, and to touch the timeworn hieroglyphics of the Book…
The road to Matmata begins as many of the roads have on our journey through Tunisia – straight but still beautifully interesting. Increasingly sparse towns are abuzz with activity as every local seems to stand roadside showing off their wares in hopes of a sale. Equally frequent are men in what look like lab-coats standing next to any number of…
On the fringes of the Sahara in Southern Morocco a seasonal phenomenon occurs in wetter years. Rain collects in a shallow, temporary salt lake, offering a feeding and resting site for thousands of migratory birds on their arduous journeys from Africa to Northern lands. This ephemeral lagoon was our camp for the night. By first light the Ornithological Orchestra is…
Our destination for the night is El Kahena, a hotel and campsite just outside of Ellouza, a small town about half-way between Sousse and Sfax. The route begins to feel more distant from anything we’ve ridden with long straight roads taking us along open stretches of landscape heavily dotted with brush, olive trees and cacti holding their large spiky paddles…
After a week of being horizontal we headed off to Aswan to start the next leg of the trip. Along the way we stopped for somebody who had just written-off his car. From the state of the car we were expecting the worst, but the driver was sitting on the side of the road, clearly shaken, but fortunately with no…
Our time in Hammamet is beautifully relaxing. Granted it’s not a representation of the Tunisia that exists to the south but it’s a great place for us to get ready for the coming days and our journey ahead. Our friend Koray from Nice has sent us a note letting us know that the French government has just issued a travel…
Hi Guys, My route over the last few days. We left Marakesh with spirits high and ready to ride the famous atlas mountains. Our destination Was Zagora. We left Marakesh with an orange juice off course. We made our way through the morning traffic and headed out of town on a wonderfull twisting road towards the mountains. We had some…
In Luxor we stayed at a campsite called Razeiky Camp. This is a hotel with a large garden / sandpit and as we sat nursing ice cold beers in the afternoon heat we were told grand stories of yesteryear by the manager (who reminds Jules of her dad, but for the sake of keeping wills intact no photo was taken),…
In 1956 the French left Morocco after 44-years of occupation but recent times have seen a new invasion; from the Southern Spanish Ports they come in their thousands, a campervan cavalcade marching to a victory of sunshine and low-cost campsites. Throughout natural history, species with the means (ie-wings) have wisely selected to spend their winter months in the sunshine of…
Crossing over to North Sudan Driving down from Gondar in Ethiopia to the Sudanese border takes you from a very cool elevation of 2,100m down to just 600m. Upon arriving at the border town of Metema, we were completely dumbfounded by the intensity of the Sudanese desert heat. “Only 38 degrees today!” the locals cheerfully replied. “In Khartoum, it’s 46!”…
Way back in 1962, British director David Lean choose the dusty town of Ouarzazate and its surrounding area to film his epic movie ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Lean recognised the potential of the area as a unique and versatile film location and inadvertently started the small dusty towns long love affair with Hollywood. Ouarzazate and the smaller UNESCO World Heritage site…
Salaam Aleikum, My route over the last few days. I had a slow start the morning after the last blog. I had a quick coffee and packed in a rush as Dave was ready to go. We had a long day ahead of us as we wanted to push to Marrakech, the one city I have been looking forward to…
As a student I had a Mini 1275 with a 34 litre fuel tank. Filling up a 90 litre gas guzzling 4×4 along with several 20 litre Jerry cans in Egypt 15 years later is considerably cheaper. In Cairo we paid 1.1 Egyptian Pounds per litre. I’ll let you do your own currency conversions and calculations, but if you’re too…
Egypt has a lot of mosquitoes. You would think the author would have warned us about this when he wrote about all the other plagues in the Old Testament. When we finally left Hotel De La Post the room looked like a murder scene with splotches of blood all over the place after four nights of gruesome attacks and counter…
Egypt Overland Vehicle and Tourist support regarding entering & leaving Aswan port and Egypt Contacts We recommend these Egyptian Agents Mr Mohamed Abouda Amir (Mohamed’s cousin) They deliver an incredible professional service around arranging all the paperwork, traffic checks, licenses, customs etc. you need to get vehicles into and out of Egypt seamlessly. Their fees are well worth the headache…
The nerves start setting in about five hours before the ferry is set to depart from Palermo. For an extra €30 the hotel has let us stay in the room until 6pm which allows us some time to try and relax without having to contend with lugging bags around, storing them and hoping everything is returned just as we left…
boarding goods Fellow passengers Leaving the cars in Port Aswan Aswan to Wadi Halfa via Lake Nasser – 01/04/2013 The port at Aswan is hot, chaotic, busy, with boxes and luggage everywhere. We had an agent called Aswan ferry goods , a lovely man who has sorted out our passage with ease so we can get to Sudan. He cost…
Nicky, Sahara crossing Aswan ferry goods Goods on the dock Nic on boardd Leaving the port Sahara crossing Nicky Lily ferry Abandoned Old Carriage The Sahara Camal Bones SUDAN Wadi Halfa – our Nubian experience 2nd- 7th April We are told by Magdi our cars would not get off the car barge for for another 5 days as the jetty…
Two posts in one day? A public holiday in Egypt with a car stuck in customs allows for these little lucky breaks. We arrived at Iskenderun on the Friday to buy our ferry tickets. These were bought through an agent for Sisa shipping, Remon Travel. Tickets weren’t cheap – $180 each and another $590 for the car. We spent a…
I have been meaning to write a blog now for weeks, but just never seem to have had the time to get round to it. Last country in Africa & we have been busy, busy, busy….lovin’ it It’s funny how, for us, countries seldom live up to their negative press. I really don’t know what it is. Maybe we are…
Driving in Morocco is hazardous in many ways and off-road driving on the ‘piste’ even more so as we discovered when we hit a large field of Fesh-Fesh! “Fesh-Fesh, what is Fesh-Fesh?” I hear you cry. Fesh-Fesh, as the Arabians call it, is the by-product of thousands of years of erosion; sand that has been worn down from it’s granular…
Glance at a map of Morocco and your eyes are drawn from the mountains, deserts and cities of the north to a stretch of land in the southwest; few roads and habitations and tentatively separated from the rest of Morocco with a faint dotted line. This is Western Sahara. Few tourists venture this far south, whispers amongst the campervan masses…
Imlil, Marrakesh-Tensift-Al Haouz, Morocco. We spent a few days driving around southern Morocco along the coast towards Agadir. We then turned inland to take a road that would lead us straight to the Atlas Mountains. The views from the narrow, windy road were stunning with mountains all around us, often one after the other in different shades of grey, and…
Tiznit, Souss-Massa-Draa, Morocco. The Africa Expedition is nearly over. Right now we are in Morocco to relax and enjoy the African continent for a few more days before we take the ferry to Europe on the 20th of April. Two days later, on the 22nd, we can pop open the champagne because it will have been a year since we…
Cape Bojador, Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra, Western Sahara. “Where are you now? In which country?”, asks the clerk at the fuel station in the middle of the desert between Dakhla and Boujdour. A trick question with two answers, but only one is right. I look at him and think for a second. He looks scruffy, unshaven but his eyes are fierce…
Morocco, a short hop from Spain and not requiring a Carnet, has long been a favoured overlanding destination for many Europeans. During our time here we have spotted overland vehicles from Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, England and of course it is incredibly popular with the French, whose native language (along with Arabic) is spoken throughout. The 3-month visa,…
Well we’re here – Egypt & our last African country. When we left in August 2009 a friend’s daughter was doing a school project on Egypt. We promised her that we would be there soon (well, in 18 months or so) so we could tell her all about it. Alice was in year 3 at the time – now she…
Sunrise over our own private beach!…