…are in full swing. I have come to the sad conclusion that I can’t really justify the expense (or indeed the air miles) of a trip to Sydney for my friend’s wedding; much as I would love to be there, it’s likely to be over £1000 for the flight alone. Which, just: no, especially considering the trip to Sudan that I really need to make, for PhD purposes.
But for every negative there is always a positive, and in this case it is the fact that I can spend longer in Sudan, and, if I manage the flights correctly, could also spend a week or two in Libya on the way back. Hurrah! The Sudan part of the journey is a bit tricky, and I will need to figure out what the current visa/travel permit situation is. For PhD reasons I need to get to the South, and if that was all I wanted/needed to do, it would probably be easiest to fly to Nairobi or Entebbe and organise transport to Juba from there - but I have friends in Khartoum whom I really want to see. Hm. I would go and consult a travel agent, but I really doubt that any of them can be particularly helpful when it comes to SPLA permits or Southern Sudan Airlines.
In my head right now, the best option would be something like: cheap one-way flight to Entebbe, travel from there into South Sudan either by plane or bus (scroll down), flight from Juba to Khartoum, and then, inshallah, cheap Afriqiyah airlines flight home from Khartoum to London via Tripoli, where I can break my journal for a while and have a poke around.
In addition to Matia Tours and Explore, whom I mentioned before, a brief collection of Libyan tour operators who might be the sort of thing I’m after:
- Raki Tours. No mention of the cost of their tours on the site, plus the added irony of a company named after a type of Turkish booze offering tours of a dry country, but (sorry chaps) their website looks sufficiently amateurish to make me believe they may be well-priced.
- Caravanserai Tours. Not cheap, but comprehensive.
- Arkno Tours, who seem to be Caravanserai’s local partner. Again, no prices on their website. WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS? Argh.
- Azjar Tours. No prices. GRRRRAAAAARGH.
- Aha, a fairly thorough and varied list of Libya tours (WITH PRICES!) on infohub. Now, this is the sort of thing I’m talking about (and makes me wonder how many of the more expensive tours are including airfares). I need an hour or so spare to thoroughly go through that list.
- Olympy Tours. For some reason their name alone makes me laugh.
