Traveling by cargo ship suspended until 2023

[elliotmitchell01]

Hi all,

My wife and I are traveling from the UK to Australia without flying, and we have managed to get to Georgia so far.

We are now a bit stuck for options going east and have been looking into cargo ships options.

We contacted a couple of agents who help organize such trips and they both reported that travel by cargo/freight ship for passengers is cancelled until 2023, which is a huge shame!

I wanted to start a topic to see if anybody has heard anything different, or managed to travel by cargo recently?

Any details or experiences would be great to hear!

Elliot

[Milad]

Hi,

what route are you referring to? Any carrier/cargo ship line can decide this for their own route - there cannot be such a rule that applies worldwide.

For example, Odessa - Batumi by cargo ship should currently be perfectly possible (although this will be of little use for you as you're already in Georgia).

[elliotmitchell01]

This is what I was told by a company called Freighter Travel (https://www.freightertravel.co.nz/).

"The COVID 19 Pandemic has completely decimated Freighter Travel globally for the last 2 years; now we are unable to offer any Freighter voyages anywhere in the world as a result of National Health regulations – that are different every day and different in every country. It is regrettable that various governments seem to be making up the rules as they go along – causing mayhem for shipping companies.

There will be no freighter voyages at all in 2022 – recent changes in variants have made it impossible for shipping companies to guarantee passenger health."

To begin with we are looking to go to either Israel or Egypt. The second route is then from Oman to India.

For Israel and Egypt we would ideally be going from Cyprus or Turkey, however we are finding it difficult to find available options.

Do you have any advice?

Regards,
Elliot