Day 11: Port Said –

Right, up early and down to the shipping agent. What we’re hoping for is to pay $200 for getting our bikes through customs and registered in Egypt, Egyptian number plates and off out of customs, in one day. We’ve been told by most people the process will take three days and cost $500ish.

It’s a bad start though, the office isn’t open at eight, so I bugger off for breakfast and TAW waits around for about half an hour to open. An hour and a half later, we finally head down to customs. For us, the rest of the day is pretty boring, sitting around waiting whilst Karim runs around like a crazy man getting documents checked, signed, rechecked, resigned. It doesn’t look fun, and doesn’t look like it’ll be done in a day. Plus, in the car on the way in, Karim is asking for an extra $200 each. Suitable argument in the car, TAW stands his ground, we nearly get out of the car, nothing is agreed but we’re adamant we’re not paying a penny more. About half four we bump into the other overlanders, they’ve been here three days, and are now just awaiting their plates. And we’re not long behind them. We’re done in a day, and we end up paying an extra $100 each, but we view it more as a tip...

For the first time this trip, we’re riding on African soil, free to let the adventure take us. Excited is an understatement.