January 23, 2011 -

Its extremely hard to get a drive-yourself visa, but we got lucky in Tunis and got transit visa to Egypt. Otherwise there are no boats and its impossible to get your bike from Tunisia to Egypt unless going via Europe. But no worries, Libya is not worth visiting unless you like looking at sand and Arabic-only signs. Sand and more sand. Flat and more flat. Good thing they have oil because theres nothing else. Quadhafi really screwed up badly. Getting across the land border to Egypt is a corruption nightmare, likely the worst I have encountered in some 80 borders.

All negatives aside: (A) The coastal Roman ruins in Sabratha are the best I have seen and zero other tourists -- a magnificent life experience to soak in virtually alone; (B) People are so friendly, just wonderful; (C) Evidently the best Sahara scenery anywhere, if you are on dirt bike or AWD but our visa was just 2 weeks so no time to do serious desert run; (D) Its so cheap!

We e on of few bikers to have done it. If you can arrange Tunisa + Egypt, easy to reach from Sicily, try cross Libya -- its certainly void of tourists and maybe the last of the almost-untouched traditional Arab desert places!

Our Libya blog:
http://www.wheezyrider.com/search/label/21.%20Libya