Arriving at the Malaba border post was quite an experience: in less time than it takes to write about it we were surrounded by a crowd of people, shouting to us not to speak to anyone, showing us badges and telling us to follow them… We eventually realised that these guys were “facilitating agents” and were there to guide us through the border’s formalities. It was rather amusing/annoying: we had been crossing borders for the past 5 months without any help. Eventually we realised that we wouldn’t have peace less we chose one of them to be our guide. And so, Moses became our “agent”. We weren’t to regret his help in parting the sea.
Exiting Kenya went quite easily, except that we almost got heavily fined for not having paid road tax (20 USD) when we entered the country. It took us some time to explain that we had come from Lake Turkana, where there is no border post, and that no-one had told us about road tax in Nairobi when we went to Times Tower to have our Carnet de Passage stamped. We were quite happy to pay the road tax but felt we shouldn’t pay the fine. Fortunately we remembered the name of the customs boss we had dealt with in Nairobi, and fortunately the border officials were nice to us and ended up letting us go. No doubt Moses’s polite patience in dealing with them helped a lot.
Knowing that we would have to pay the Ugandan road tax in Ugandan shillings, we changed the Kenyan shillings we still had. The exchange rate offered t us by the agents was fair . We got USh26 for KSh1.
Moses then took us to the Ugandan side of the border, where we easily got a 2 month visa for USD50 each.
Getting the carne stamped was another story: First we had to get to a copy machine to get a copy of an official form. Moses paid for the copy. Then we had to fill the form and take it to some official who was to confirm the amount entered on the form. The official wasn’t in his office, but Moses had his phone number and managed to find him at the front gate. With that we then had to go to the bank (there is one at the border) to pay the tax and get a receipt. It was a whole complex process, probably to prevent corruption. Without Moses we would have been lost. Eventually we went through Customs, passed the queue (again with Moses help) and had our CDP stamped. We were finally and officially in Uganda.
Moses had made it clear that he was working as an independent agent. We gave him USh10,000 for his help. He seemed happy with that.
Showing posts with label Border crossing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Border crossing. Show all posts
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Border crossing in Omorate (Ethiopia/Kenya)
Having entered Ethiopia through the main border of Moyale, we decided to go back down to Kenya through the Omo valley and Lake Turkana. It was a very worthwhile adventure, but it was not too straightforward…
There is a border post in Omorate on the Ethiopian side, but no customs office as yet. This means you can leave Ethiopia officially, but your car can’t. We had to go to the customs department in Awasa, on our way to Arba Minch, to have our Carnet de Passage stamped there.
From Omorate we had to backtrack a short distance before taking a sandy track south towards Banya Fort and the Kenyan border. There is a police checkpoint on the Ethiopian side to check your passports as you leave. From here, it was sandy, rocky and muddy tracks until Maralal, some 500km south. We were travelling with the Amazing Swiss (Marc and Roman) in Wolfi, their Mitsubishi minibus. We pulled each other out of the mud a few times, bush-camped a few more, and made it to Maralal without having felt threatened or having had any major problems with the cars. We were both carrying 180l of fuel when we left Jinka for Omorate. We found fuel “out of the barrel’ in Loiyangalani and Barsaloi, at exorbitant prices.
There is no border post on the Kenyan side. We had arranged our Kenyan visas in Addis before leaving. We reported to the Loiyangalani Police Station to announce our arrival in Kenya, where we learned that we were illegal immigrants and that you are not supposed to cross the border anywhere other that Moyale. The police officer was nice enough though, and didn’t send us back to Moyale, which would have been a real mission. After phoning his senior in Nairobi, he let us continue to Nairobi where we completed the Immigration and Customs formalities.
The immigration ran smoothly, but the CDP wasn’t as easy. We had to go to the Customs Department is located in the Times tower. We were sent to the 12th floor, then the 9th floor, then the 10th floor, then the 4th floor… Only to find out that the right person to stamp the CDP really was on the 10th floor. The problem was that the new official in charge had never heard of CDP. It took a bit of time to find his predecessor (who now works on the 1st floor) so he could explain to his colleague what was required. Patience prevailed and we eventually got our CDP stamped. After a morning of bureaucratic fun, we were finally legal - one week after crossing the border!
There is a border post in Omorate on the Ethiopian side, but no customs office as yet. This means you can leave Ethiopia officially, but your car can’t. We had to go to the customs department in Awasa, on our way to Arba Minch, to have our Carnet de Passage stamped there.
From Omorate we had to backtrack a short distance before taking a sandy track south towards Banya Fort and the Kenyan border. There is a police checkpoint on the Ethiopian side to check your passports as you leave. From here, it was sandy, rocky and muddy tracks until Maralal, some 500km south. We were travelling with the Amazing Swiss (Marc and Roman) in Wolfi, their Mitsubishi minibus. We pulled each other out of the mud a few times, bush-camped a few more, and made it to Maralal without having felt threatened or having had any major problems with the cars. We were both carrying 180l of fuel when we left Jinka for Omorate. We found fuel “out of the barrel’ in Loiyangalani and Barsaloi, at exorbitant prices.
There is no border post on the Kenyan side. We had arranged our Kenyan visas in Addis before leaving. We reported to the Loiyangalani Police Station to announce our arrival in Kenya, where we learned that we were illegal immigrants and that you are not supposed to cross the border anywhere other that Moyale. The police officer was nice enough though, and didn’t send us back to Moyale, which would have been a real mission. After phoning his senior in Nairobi, he let us continue to Nairobi where we completed the Immigration and Customs formalities.
The immigration ran smoothly, but the CDP wasn’t as easy. We had to go to the Customs Department is located in the Times tower. We were sent to the 12th floor, then the 9th floor, then the 10th floor, then the 4th floor… Only to find out that the right person to stamp the CDP really was on the 10th floor. The problem was that the new official in charge had never heard of CDP. It took a bit of time to find his predecessor (who now works on the 1st floor) so he could explain to his colleague what was required. Patience prevailed and we eventually got our CDP stamped. After a morning of bureaucratic fun, we were finally legal - one week after crossing the border!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Border crossing in Moyale (Kenya/Ethiopia)
Moyale is the only official border post between Kenya and Ethiopia. As a result, customs officials are used to the Carnet de Passage and it is quick and easy to have it stamped on both sides of the border.
Passports are also stamped easily by immigration officials, as long as your Ethiopian visa has been obtained in advance. Visas cannot be organised at the border. They have to be obtained from the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi (or Khartoum, or elsewhere). We obtained ours in Nairobi and we got them after waiting for only one hour. You will need a copy of your passport, the original, an ID photo, and 20 USD. (It was more expensive for American passports holders). We were given a 3 month visa.
There are two sides to Moyale: Kenyan and Ethiopian. They are only a few hundred meters apart so all the admin work can be done fairly quickly.
Remember to start driving on the RIGHT side of the road on the Ethiopian side. We enjoyed the comfort of the tarred road after the long bumpy road from Isiolo! It is also worth noting that, fuel was quite a bit cheaper in Ethiopia than in Kenya.
There is no ATM in Moyale-Ethiopia, but you will probably be approached by people to change Kenyan shillings, US dollars or Euros, on the black market on both sides of the border. We changed just enough to fill-up our tank and get us through to Awasa, where we knew we could find an ATM.
There is no time difference between Ethiopia and Kenya. Ethiopian time is similar to Swahili time: 7am is the first hour of the day, 7pm is the first hour of the night, 12am is thus 6 o’clock, etc. Ethiopia works on a different calendar - I was a bit surprised when my passport was stamped with a date ending in ‘2001’.
PS: The Customs official will want to know which port of exit you are planning to use. This posed us a bit of problem. Our plan was to go back to Kenya after our visit of Ethiopia through the Omo Valley (famous for its tribes) in Southwest Ethiopia, and Lake Turkana in Northwest Kenya, rather than back through Moyale. We had heard it was possible: there is a road, and even a border post in Omorate on the Ethiopian side. Unfortunately, we were told by the Moyale customs official that there is no Customs office at the Omorate post, and that we had no choice but to come back through Moyale.
We did eventually come back to Kenya through Omorate. See more on the Border crossing Ethiopia/Kenya post.
Passports are also stamped easily by immigration officials, as long as your Ethiopian visa has been obtained in advance. Visas cannot be organised at the border. They have to be obtained from the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi (or Khartoum, or elsewhere). We obtained ours in Nairobi and we got them after waiting for only one hour. You will need a copy of your passport, the original, an ID photo, and 20 USD. (It was more expensive for American passports holders). We were given a 3 month visa.
There are two sides to Moyale: Kenyan and Ethiopian. They are only a few hundred meters apart so all the admin work can be done fairly quickly.
Remember to start driving on the RIGHT side of the road on the Ethiopian side. We enjoyed the comfort of the tarred road after the long bumpy road from Isiolo! It is also worth noting that, fuel was quite a bit cheaper in Ethiopia than in Kenya.
There is no ATM in Moyale-Ethiopia, but you will probably be approached by people to change Kenyan shillings, US dollars or Euros, on the black market on both sides of the border. We changed just enough to fill-up our tank and get us through to Awasa, where we knew we could find an ATM.
There is no time difference between Ethiopia and Kenya. Ethiopian time is similar to Swahili time: 7am is the first hour of the day, 7pm is the first hour of the night, 12am is thus 6 o’clock, etc. Ethiopia works on a different calendar - I was a bit surprised when my passport was stamped with a date ending in ‘2001’.
PS: The Customs official will want to know which port of exit you are planning to use. This posed us a bit of problem. Our plan was to go back to Kenya after our visit of Ethiopia through the Omo Valley (famous for its tribes) in Southwest Ethiopia, and Lake Turkana in Northwest Kenya, rather than back through Moyale. We had heard it was possible: there is a road, and even a border post in Omorate on the Ethiopian side. Unfortunately, we were told by the Moyale customs official that there is no Customs office at the Omorate post, and that we had no choice but to come back through Moyale.
We did eventually come back to Kenya through Omorate. See more on the Border crossing Ethiopia/Kenya post.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Crossing the border from Tanzania to Kenya on the coast
From Tanga it took us about two hours to drive to the border along a good gravel road.
The formalities went smoothly on both sides.
As a South African citizen Steve got a one month Kenyan visa for free, while Caro’s (French) 3-month visa cost USD50. These visas, like the Tanzanian’s and the Ugandan’s, are multiple-entry as long as one is only travelling between the above mentioned three countries.
Our only uncertainty was whether or not to buy the Third-party insurance offered us at the border post, as it seemed too expensive (USD50 for a month for Kenya only). We decided to investigate further in Mombasa, where we found a 4-month COMESA insurance for all the remaining countries we were to visit for KSh4000.
From the border it was another 2 hours scenic drive along a tarred road lined with palm trees to our campsite at Twiga Lodge.
The formalities went smoothly on both sides.
As a South African citizen Steve got a one month Kenyan visa for free, while Caro’s (French) 3-month visa cost USD50. These visas, like the Tanzanian’s and the Ugandan’s, are multiple-entry as long as one is only travelling between the above mentioned three countries.
Our only uncertainty was whether or not to buy the Third-party insurance offered us at the border post, as it seemed too expensive (USD50 for a month for Kenya only). We decided to investigate further in Mombasa, where we found a 4-month COMESA insurance for all the remaining countries we were to visit for KSh4000.
From the border it was another 2 hours scenic drive along a tarred road lined with palm trees to our campsite at Twiga Lodge.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Border crossing from Mozambique to Tanzania in Songea
The border post at the new bridge in Congresso had not been officially opened yet. The immigration officers on the Mozambiquan side were working out of straw huts, while new offices were being built. However, crossing the border from Mozambique into Tanzania went easily. They stamped our passports, and suggested we leave them our unused Mozambican airtime, before letting us go without no further searching of Scarlet.
On the other side of the bridge a Tanzanian official working out of an isolated snack-bar, wrote down our names, passport and license plate numbers. We were told to report to immigration Songea, 102km away.
We arrived in Songea after 4pm. What we thought was the immigration office was closed. “When will it open?” we asked. “Saa Mbili.” we were told. Impossible we thought, and checked with someone else – same answer. This was our first introduction to Swahili time – 7am is the first hour of the day, 8am the second etc etc. We spent the night at a Catholic abbey about 20km out of town.
The next morning we drove back into Songea to report to the immigration immigration office. We found it eventually, located in the Ministry of Finance’s buildings. The officials were friendly enough. We completed our forms and were told to go and pay the 50 US$ visa fee (each) at one of the local banks. They would stamp our passports when we brought back the deposit receipts.
We had to admit that this is a very good system to prevent corruption. Although, walking across town in the heat and queuing there for an hour to pay the fee, didn’t really seem worth it.
We got our receipts, and went back for our stamps. You can normally get a multiple-entry 3 months visa for 50 USD, but the officer told us he didn’t have the authority for the multiple-entry, and gave us a 1-month single-entry visa instead.
We’ve now been busy for 2 hours and haven’t had breakfast yet, but we need to go through customs first. The customs officer normally works out of the Post Office. We found the Post Office but the officer was on holiday and we were directed to the TRA (Tanzanian Revenue Authority) instead and another long queue. No-one there really knew what to do with our Carnet de Passage (CDP). After we had waited for almost an hour, someone from the car licensing department came over with the necessary forms, a wad of carbon paper for several copies, and a box of stamps, and proceeded to register our car.
We were then told to go to the bank again (a different one) to pay a 25 USD fuel levy before we could have our CDP stamped. So off we went, queued patiently, paid, and eventually got a receipt, and our stamp.
The whole process had taken us over 5 hours and we were about to happily get something to eat and drink and be back on the road, when the officer who stamped our CDP asked to see the car, which was still parked at the Ministry of Finance! We fetched the car and reported for our inspection. Fortunately this only took a few minutes, and by 12 o’clock we were on our way to Iringa and the Old Farm House campsite, our patience tested to the limit.
On the other side of the bridge a Tanzanian official working out of an isolated snack-bar, wrote down our names, passport and license plate numbers. We were told to report to immigration Songea, 102km away.
We arrived in Songea after 4pm. What we thought was the immigration office was closed. “When will it open?” we asked. “Saa Mbili.” we were told. Impossible we thought, and checked with someone else – same answer. This was our first introduction to Swahili time – 7am is the first hour of the day, 8am the second etc etc. We spent the night at a Catholic abbey about 20km out of town.
The next morning we drove back into Songea to report to the immigration immigration office. We found it eventually, located in the Ministry of Finance’s buildings. The officials were friendly enough. We completed our forms and were told to go and pay the 50 US$ visa fee (each) at one of the local banks. They would stamp our passports when we brought back the deposit receipts.
We had to admit that this is a very good system to prevent corruption. Although, walking across town in the heat and queuing there for an hour to pay the fee, didn’t really seem worth it.
We got our receipts, and went back for our stamps. You can normally get a multiple-entry 3 months visa for 50 USD, but the officer told us he didn’t have the authority for the multiple-entry, and gave us a 1-month single-entry visa instead.
We’ve now been busy for 2 hours and haven’t had breakfast yet, but we need to go through customs first. The customs officer normally works out of the Post Office. We found the Post Office but the officer was on holiday and we were directed to the TRA (Tanzanian Revenue Authority) instead and another long queue. No-one there really knew what to do with our Carnet de Passage (CDP). After we had waited for almost an hour, someone from the car licensing department came over with the necessary forms, a wad of carbon paper for several copies, and a box of stamps, and proceeded to register our car.
We were then told to go to the bank again (a different one) to pay a 25 USD fuel levy before we could have our CDP stamped. So off we went, queued patiently, paid, and eventually got a receipt, and our stamp.
The whole process had taken us over 5 hours and we were about to happily get something to eat and drink and be back on the road, when the officer who stamped our CDP asked to see the car, which was still parked at the Ministry of Finance! We fetched the car and reported for our inspection. Fortunately this only took a few minutes, and by 12 o’clock we were on our way to Iringa and the Old Farm House campsite, our patience tested to the limit.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Our 1st border crossing: Ponta do Ouro, into Mozambique
We woke up early: our noisy neighbours were getting ready to go fishing on the Kosi Bay estuary. The day is overcast and a welcome respite after the last few days. At 8am we are ready to head to the border post a few kms away.
At 9am the border is already very busy. Cars are queuing for over a km of road at least. It is Saturday, the first day of the Christmas holidays. Hundreds of South Africans are going to the coast. It looks like the great trek: a migration of fully kitted 4x4 with trailers, tents, boats, jet-skis, quad bikes… In front of us a group of students in a fancy Land Cruiser with a trailer have cracked open the beers. They are not the only ones...
We eventually get to the border (2hrs) and everything goes smoothly. The staff are friendly and helpful and it is well organised. We don’t take photos around the border as it probably isn’t allowed.
Steve gets a 1 month visa for ZAR 17 on his South African passport. Mine (French)costs ZAR 172. It is less than what I was expecting from the information I had gathered from the Embassy. It’s a pleasant surprise. The compulsory car insurance costs ZAR 150, and we don’t have to pay for a temporary import permit for our vehicle thanks to the Carnet de Passage (CDP).
The border post officials didn’t know about the CDP, and it took them quite some time to figure it out with them. but eventually they were very happy that we had such an official document with us. Steve was very patient, and I walked around, observing with amusement the “great summer migration” and looking for a discreet spot without snakes or mines to go to the loo.
We have done about 3,000km since we left Cape Town 2 weeks ago.
Once in Mozambique we have the choice between 3 sandy tracks. They are all 4x4 only. We are told that the one on the left will take us to Maputo. The GPS confirms: keep left all the way to Boane and you will be fine.
At 9am the border is already very busy. Cars are queuing for over a km of road at least. It is Saturday, the first day of the Christmas holidays. Hundreds of South Africans are going to the coast. It looks like the great trek: a migration of fully kitted 4x4 with trailers, tents, boats, jet-skis, quad bikes… In front of us a group of students in a fancy Land Cruiser with a trailer have cracked open the beers. They are not the only ones...
We eventually get to the border (2hrs) and everything goes smoothly. The staff are friendly and helpful and it is well organised. We don’t take photos around the border as it probably isn’t allowed.
Steve gets a 1 month visa for ZAR 17 on his South African passport. Mine (French)costs ZAR 172. It is less than what I was expecting from the information I had gathered from the Embassy. It’s a pleasant surprise. The compulsory car insurance costs ZAR 150, and we don’t have to pay for a temporary import permit for our vehicle thanks to the Carnet de Passage (CDP).
The border post officials didn’t know about the CDP, and it took them quite some time to figure it out with them. but eventually they were very happy that we had such an official document with us. Steve was very patient, and I walked around, observing with amusement the “great summer migration” and looking for a discreet spot without snakes or mines to go to the loo.
We have done about 3,000km since we left Cape Town 2 weeks ago.
Once in Mozambique we have the choice between 3 sandy tracks. They are all 4x4 only. We are told that the one on the left will take us to Maputo. The GPS confirms: keep left all the way to Boane and you will be fine.
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