Across the Sinai to Israel

Across the Sinai again

We left our hotel The Swiss Inn in Giza at about 9am and headed out to do the Cairo Ring Road the traffic was building and even though we avoided going through the center of Cairo we knew this was not going to be fun. There are NO enforced traffic laws here so it is just a free for all. Where we would see a three lane highway in Canada they seem to manage to get five or six lanes of traffic forced it to the same space but there is no traffic rage, no bumping (even thought I didn’t see one car without dents in the side) just a lot of piping of very loud horns. At one point we came across a jam caused by a blacktop machine was laying new pavement but what was amazing was that the lane was not closed and all the cars and trucks just made their way around it!! Well after about two hours of mad rush traffic we made our way out onto the road to Suez now other than the trucks things moved along a bit better.  Security checks again to go under the cannel then across the desert again to Taba. We had now ridden completely around the Sinai. This road was straight and our speed picked up nicely until I noticed a change in color of the surface so I slowed to see what was coming up to find the surface had been removed leaving the gravel beneath awaiting the blacktop machine to replace it. Well that as not going to happen as we had just seen it on the Cairo ring road and I am sure it is the only one they have!! But no warning signs no red cones here just a missing road surface. This by the way happened more than once.

One more sticker for the bike!!

Arriving into Taba at about 4pm we had planned to stay there and do customs into Israel in the morning but we rode straight through Taba looking for a hotel and arrived at the border to Israel into Eilat Well it wasn’t busy and the officer waved us in so we decided to go for it. The first thing we saw at the Egyptian side of the border was a car with the engine out and a couple of guys working on it, well after all is was pretty slow here so I thought it good they had something to do…

Now the running around starts, so I took my patience and my papers and went over to the first office where I had to buy two stamps for 2 Egyptian pounds each. These I took with me to the second office where they were attached to a card that I filled in with all the passport info and gave to the second officer that I was told was the departure tax. Now the bike, Egypt is the most expensive country to visit in regards to the Carnet and the amount of the bond they require so I was determined to get these right, three stamps in the carnet and another 21 pounds for a tax on the bike. Now over to traffic where I paid 10 pounds for them to take an imprint of my Vin number and 20 pounds to return my plate that I had paid for on entry, these last two amounts went straight into the officers pocket but I am not here to try to put things right just to get out as easily as possible. Now back on the bike and ride 25 meters to the Israeli border and this is where things chanced. It is hard to comprehend how different things can be in a matter of 25 meters but we have seen it so many times now and this one was about the most dramatic change we had seen in a long time. First the people, we knew who was who by the uniform it was organized and there was a system The Bike was closed in a gated area and we were told to remove everything from the bike, it all had to go in and be x-rayed and inspected, after x-rays passports where checked and then we had to get bike papers. No carnet is required to enter Israel with the bike but they do insist on insurance and issue you with a temp drivers license. The only fee I had was to pay for the two weeks insurance 172 NIS (new Israeli shekels) No visa needed not tax no nothing!! NICE. So after we were cleared and our luggage checked I was asked to ride the bike into a room for inspection and told to leave, as I walked away the doors closed behind me and bike got the once over I asked if they would wash it also but they said I was on my own for that one…

At last the bike is cleared and we are ready to leave

Ten minutes later bike inspected and insurance in hand we were wished happy travels the gate opened and we were on our way into Eilat and how nice that was. The whole thing from leaving Egypt to getting into Israel took about three hours.  We where now in a modern country with traffic controls, a garbage system, cross walks and everything else that makes living in our western world so nice. We rode around town to check out a few hotels then manage to find a reasonable two room apartment for $45.00 per night and settled in to our new country.  I love it we are always excited to visit a new country but Israel was going to surprise us both I knew it!!!  

A real good wash to get some of that desert dirt off the bike