​​​​​​​Ferry

The rally starts with the scrutineering in Djerba on Thursday, 21st April 2022. Everybody is free to choose how he/she travels to Tunisia. If you drive by car or truck, the best options are the ports of Marseille in France or Genova in Italy. Both ferry crossings will take about 24 hours.

FERRY OPTIONS

We offer our participants a ferry crossing organized by the organization from the port of Marseille in France or the port of Genova in Italy. The ferry in Genova leaves on Saturday, April 16. You will arrive at the port of Tunis and drive  560 km to Djerba from where the rally will start. When entering Tunisia, members of the organisation will be in the port of Tunis to assist you with the administration and customs formalities.

The return ferry will take you from the port of Tunis back to Marseille or Genova on Sunday, May 1st. This ferry crossing will again take about 24 hours.

Administration when entering Tunisia

3.1. International Passport:

Everybody coming to Tunisia for the Tunisia   Desert Challenge must have a valid international passport. An identity card is not sufficient. The passport needs to be valid until minimum 3 months after the rally and you should have at least half a page available for the entry & exit stamps.

3.2. Tunisia: 1 passport = 1 vehicle:

When entering Tunisia with a vehicle,this vehicle will be registrered onto your passport. This means you can only leave the country in possession of that same vehicle. Driving to Tunisia by car but returning by plane and letting somebody else drive back the car to Europe, is NOT possible.

On top of this the standard procedure states that 1 person can only bring 1 vehicle. This means that whoever drives a van to Tunisia, transporting 1 motorbike, should be 2 persons in the van: the van will be registered in 1 person’s passport, the motorbike in the 2nd person’s passport. Those transporting more than 1 vehicle and who do not have enough co-drivers, must bring an “ATA Carnet”. (see below)

3.3. Procuration:

Every person wanting to enter Tunisia with a vehicle that’s not registered in his/her own personal name, must carry a “procuration”. This is a document (provided by us) filled in by the real owner (as mentioned on the car or bike papers) in which he/she clearly allows the other person to temporarily bring the vehicle into Tunisia.

This document is not valid unless it has been validated by an official: this official can be the people at the local town hall, a notary or a lawyer. Make sure the put an “official” stamp on the document. In fact the validation is a “verification of signature” i.e. somebody has to check and approve that the person filling in the procuration is in fact the owner of the vehicle and not just anybody. Therefore the owner need to present himself with the filled in document, his ID-card and the car papers.

In case the owner is not a real person but for instance a company, the procuration needs to be signed by one of the statutairy owners and he/she has to go to the townhall/notary/lawyer with not only the above mentioned documents, but also with the company statutes showing his/her name.

Please find an example of a procuration at the download page. Have it filled in and keep it with the rest of your vehicle documents.

3.4. the ATA Carnet:

If you want to come to Tunisia with a truck, an ATA Carnet is obligatory. It’s also crucial that the truck itself is put on the carnet, next to the list of all transported goods and vehicles: motorbikes, quads, spare gear boxes, extra engine, compressor, power generator, etc. When all transported vehicles are mentioned on the Carnet ATA, 1 truck driver can enter an unlimited number of vehicles into Tunisia. You can order a Carnet ATA at your local Chamber of Commerce. Before leaving your own country, you should pay a visit to a local customs office where the mentioned goods are counted and the carnet stamped for a first time.