Cape To Cairo Road - The Route Today

The Route Today

Even today, the road remains a somewhat elusive idea, and there is no continuous all weather route, especially between Kenya and Egypt, and it is not feasible to drive even off-road vehicles between Sudan and Egypt as the tracks are closed, they have to go by boat on Lake Nasser or the Red Sea from Port Sudan.

Starting from the south, the first section of the road that runs through South Africa is called the N1, linking Cape Town in the far south of the continent with Beit Bridge, located on the Limpopo River between South Africa and Zimbabwe. There are numerous alternative routes, especially in South Africa, and two possible routes through Zimbabwe, via Bulawayo or Harare. The link through Harare to Lusaka in Zambia is seen as the Cape to Cairo road, and the main north-south axis of Lusaka is named Cairo Road for this reason. From Lusaka, Zambia's Great North Road continues the route into Tanzania. The surface may be badly potholed in some sections through Zambia and points north. In Tanzania there are a number of roads could be deemed to be part of the route, the clear definitions and markings that are characteristic of the Pan-American Highway do not apply here. Most would consider it to be the road from Tunduma on the Tanzania-Zambia border, through Morogoro to the Arusha turnoff, and north to Arusha, then to Nairobi in Kenya. There is a marker in Arusha, Tanzania, to indicate the midpoint of the road.

Up to Nairobi and a little beyond, the road is tarred all the way from Cape Town, but between Kenya and Aswan in Egypt a four-wheel drive vehicle or a truck is necessary as most of the road is a rough track which may be impassable after rain. Kenya has a tarred highway to its border with Sudan but the roads in southern Sudan are very poor and made frequently impassable, so that even without the conflicts that have afflicted Sudan, the route through Ethiopia is generally preferred by overland travellers. The route from Isiolo in Kenya to Moyale on the Ethiopian border through the northern Kenyan desert is rough and has sometimes been dangerous due to bandits. Through Ethiopia the route is mainly tarred but some sections may have deteriorated severely. A track from Lake Tana to Gedaref takes the route into Sudan.

The most difficult section in the whole Cape to Cairo journey is the track across the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan between Atbara and Wadi Halfa, but there is also a railway traversing this route which can take vehicles in piggyback fashion. At Wadi Halfa on Lake Nasser there is a break in the road, and not even a track continues around the lake, but ferries take vehicles to Aswan in Egypt. Tarred highways continue the route to Cairo. An Egyptian and a Sudanese company committed in January, 2010 to build a 400 km stretch of highway between Aswan and Dongola in Sudan.

The stretch of highway between Dongola and Wadi Halfa is now complete (as of June 2010) but there is still no open overland border between Sudan and Egypt, making the Ferry from Wadi Halfa to Aswan the only option.

A number of adventure travel companies offer Cape to Cairo overland expeditions using four-wheel drive trucks with bus bodies.