London to Baku, Azerbaijan

Ed note: Due to the fact that I had visited all these countries before and there are previous reports on the website, I have chosen to just highlight the journey route/events.

The plan of action was to reach Baku, Azerbaijan within a week. It would mean a lot of driving but the roads would mostly be good and there would only be a few borders requiring paperwork.

My travel experience has given me good navigation skills so our strategy was that Trev would do the majority of the driving, broken up with a stint by me. Trev would drive through the major cities guided by me and across the borders because the Land drover ownership was registered to him.

Trev drove the loaded Land Rover or ‘Disco’ from Stratford Upon Avon to Bungay to pick me up on the Friday night and we headed to Dover for the midnight ferry to Dunkirk with Norfolk Lines. At £14, it was the cheapest way we could get to France. It was packed with UK tourists and Polish people driving home.

UK roadkill: a Pidgeon dive bombed the windscreen, pink teddy bear, UFO (Unrecognised flattened object)

With the 2 hour ferry ride and 1 hour time difference, it was around 3.30am by the time we escaped the ferry and dawn was about to appear. We didn’t know how far we’d get today – but hoped to reach Austria at least.

We followed my usual route of crossing Western Europe via Brussels, Belgium on the E40, then to Koln in Germany, crossing the Rhine River, and across Germany on Route 3 via Frankfurt, Wurzburg and Nuremberg where Trev declared “This would be a great place for a Rally”.

From Wurzburg onwards, the autobahns ground to a halt with traffic jams in the afternoon. The roads were full of Dutch drivers off on their holidays. There was little of interest apart from a car whose engine exploded in front of us and the road disappeared behind the smoke.

As we left Germany and entered Austria onto Route 9 and then Route 1 in the late afternoon, the skies opened up big time. It was wrath of God stuff with continuous lightening storms bouncing around the dark storm clouds and strong winds which toppled trees by the side of the road. The rain lashed against the windscreen. I’d never driven through a car wash that was 100km long. The temperature dropped from 19’c to 12’c in minutes.

On the Austrian border we had to buy a ‘vignette’ (temporary road tax disc) at a garage. Every garage we passed had 10 deep lines of traffic at every pump as motorists pulled off the flooded autobahns.

We pushed on aware that we were not going to reach Hungary today and that we needed to consider accommodation. Our original plan was to camp, but the weather was just a torrential torrent of water that was thrown up into our windscreen and we couldn’t see a thing.

I had an address of a campsite near St Polten before Vienna, and we decided to check it out. The local road was awash with water. Fortunately the camp site was on top of a hill and there were cabins to rent. However, we discovered they were all booked. The rain had stopped but the ground was flooded. We started to hunt around for a pitch where we wouldn’t drown when the owner came out and told us he had a cancellation on a cabin. Result! We were able to cook a meal, relax with some wine and recover from the 24 hour driving session.

From Stratford, the Land Drover had covered 1062 miles. Trev already had 828 miles under his belt. I had an easy drive of 234 miles = 1062 miles so far.

Austrian Roadkill: Hedgehog, crow, fox.

Day 2 - Sunday July 13th

The long driving session had taken its toll, but we awoke to sunny skies and the campsite looked like a different place from the quagmire last night. We repacked and headed back to Route 1 and skirted around Vienna. There wasn’t much to look at on the motorway but it was sunny (the temperature would rise to 38’C today) and we crossed the Hungarian border just after Monchhof. Another Vignette was purchased from a kiosk. These seemed to be becoming fashionable in the European Union.

The M1 motorway took us past Gyor where we spotted a Tesco’s Hypermarket and popped in to stock up on foodstuffs cheaper than in the UK. We skirted around the capital, Budapest and then joined the M5/E75 southeast across the dull, flat Hungarian countryside. I had visited Hungary twice before, but this was the first time I had driven across it non-stop. It was a very hot day to spend in a Land Rover.

Bypassing Kecsekmet, we finally had to enter a Hungarian city, Szeged, the ‘Salami capital of Hungary’. Our rapid progress along empty motorways disappeared and endless traffic lights held us up, followed by a slow road to Mako, stuck behind slow moving traffic.

To check out my previous trip to Hungary with much more detail about the country click on this link Previous Trip to Hungary

Hungarian Roadkill: Fox, cat, UFO.

We saw a road sign to Timisoara and crossed into Romania at a border we didn’t know existed. A Romanian Vignette was purchased at the border. Trev had driven for eight hours so I took over for the final stretch. Having visited Romania in 2005, I knew that every village would have a police car looking for speeding offences and sure enough, there were police speed traps everywhere, even on a Sunday evening. Locals sat outside in the shade chatting on their doorsteps in quiet sleepy villages and storks had nested on top of telegraph poles.

Timisoara was a busy town and we filled up for the first time since Austria, estimating that we had a remarkable 40 miles per gallon. Crazy Romanian drivers overtook lines of slow traffic on blind corners with traffic coming towards them. Like them, we were frustrated by the slow driving through towns. Romanian diesel was cheap at 53p a litre. (UK - £1.30, Belgium - £1.14, Austria - £1.22)

We reached Logoj around 7pm and saw nowhere obvious to stay so pushed on towards Caransebes. En route we saw a new motel. Despite the gang of scraggy dogs outside, the Land Rover was secure and we checked into a double en-suite room with a TV for under £11. We renamed the Cararantana Motel as the Marauding Mutt Motel but we were just happy to have a comfortable place. It should be noted that Romanian TV seems to enjoy having attractive, scantily clad women to pull in the viewers. We also discovered that the clocks had moved an hour forward to 2 hours ahead of GMT.

Today, Trev drove 326 miles (1154 total) and I did 110 (344 total) = 426 for the daily total = 1488 miles after 2 days.

Day 3 – Monday July 14th

It was a case of just pushing on through Romania. Having dealt with the terrible roads in Romania before in 2005, I had planned our route to just skirt the absolute minimum roads. Later on, we heard some teams had taken three days to cross Romania and the roads had driven them mad with frustration.

Whatever my plans, Route 70 went through the river valleys and many of them were being resurfaced. We crawled behind trucks zigzagging on unmade roads while Romanian drivers cut us up to get past and then suffered the indignity of us passing them when we could handle the unmade roads at a faster speed. The familiar agricultural scenery was of endless cut agricultural fields, lines of haystacks, storks nests on telegraph poles in the villages, lots of horses and carts on the roads. It was traditional Romanian landscapes. Sunflower fields stretched as far as the eye could see. Trev was in his element tackling the terrible roads all the way to Dobreta Turnu-Severin. Locals sat by the side of the road selling buckets of fruit.

We found the short cut to Calafat which was a fast straight road with minimal roadworks. It was a surprise to discover that there was no road bridge across the River Danube and that we would have to catch a transport ferry. A couple of local kids attempted a scam before we entered the small port where an official did an official scam of charging us 6 Euros for a ‘Transit Visa’ before we bought a ferry ticket for 30 Euros. The 20 minute trip cost double the 2 hour Cross Channel ferry crossing.

It was a sleepy port but the officials looked gruesome. I buttered one up by handing him my Romanian statement. He burst out laughing at the translation and called the others over. Consequently, there was a cursory glance inside our vehicle and we were stamped out of Romania.

To check out my previous trip to Romania with much more detail about the country click on this link Previous Trip to Romania

Romanian Roadkill: Fox x 2, dog x 2, mink, chicken, French car, dead car, UFO x 2.

The ferry eventually arrived after an hour and the Land Rover was squeezed on with trucks, cars and motorbikes. Bulgarian men did the traditional trick of cooling their beer bellies by rolling up their shirts and letting it all hang out.

Before we knew it, we were driving off the ferry into Bulgaria which I had last visited in 2005. We were pretty much waved through customs at Virdin though there is an official scam to sell you ‘Medical Insurance’ for 3 Euros each and then the Bulgarian Vignette.

I took over the driving and we headed down Route 1/79 through lovely Bulgarian villages full of storks, geese, horses and carts. One village still had the old cobble stones. There was lovely undulating scenery with endless fields of blooming sunflowers. More locals sitting by the side of the road selling buckets of fruit.

When we reached the Route 3 motorway, Trev took over and drove us into the capital Sofia, while I tried to navigate us away onto the ring road heading towards Plodiv. This was done without the help of traffic signs and following my nose, I took a guess and we found the busy three lane highway away from Sofia which gradually decongested itself.

My old 1995 guidebook said that there was a campsite just before Plodiv, but it no longer existed, replaced by industrial estates. It was 8pm when we got some cash from an ATM in Plodiv and were conscious of the fading light. We picked up Route 8 and took a chance that we would find something. Luckily, we spotted a camping sign and came across a run down campsite. The friendly lady took us to a cabin with air conditioning and a TV. It was secluded and secure with another assortment of scruffy dogs.

Dehydrated by the long day’s drive where temperatures had reached 40’C, we drank a couple of cold beers at a local shack and retired to the wonderful air conditioning. Sometime today, we had seen an alcohol shop called 'Vodka Doctor'.

Today, Trev drove 347 miles (1501 total) and I did 128 (472 total) = 475 for the daily total = 1963 miles after 3 days.

To check out my previous trip to Bulgaria with much more detail about the country click on this link Previous Trip to Bulgaria

Bulgarian roadkill: dog x 2, fox, rook

Day 4: Tuesday July 15th

I had last been in Turkey in 1999. In those days, the western side was very westernised, and the eastern side was very un-western. Nearly a decade later, it was westernising everywhere at a rapid rate.

A decent and vitually empty Turkish motorway (E80) took us to the outskirts of Istanbul via Edine for a £2.50 It was another 40’C day and at 2pm we joined the packed ring road to take us around Istanbul. Congestion and gridlock everywhere, not helped by an accident where a car had attempted to crush a truck. We passed a few impressive mosques and could see the central skyline.

To cross the bridge over the Bosporus and officially into Asia, you have to buy a motorway card for 30 Euros which you can use on all the motorways in Turkey – all one of them - to the capital Ankara and back until your credit runs out.

After crossing the bridge, we followed the E80 to Izmet , Duzce and Bolo and ran out of motorway going in our direction a long time before our credit ever would. It had been dull motorway driving all day. I read while Trev drove. After we left the motorway at Gerede where we picked up cash from an ATM, I had a spell of driving on the E80 heading east, This was just a two lane highway – the major one crossing Turkey in the upper half of the country.

Surprisingly, there were no motels on the road and darkness fell. We had seen signs for a 4 star ‘Thermal baths hotel’ for 50 miles as a last resort, but popped into a small town to ask if there were any hotels. 6 miles on they said, which was where the 4 star was.

We found the grand entrance to the hotel and decided to check it out. As we passed the first building down the deserted lane, I spotted ‘Pension’ on the wall. It was a guesthouse and we were able to get a top floor room with squat toilet/shower. Result.

We were hungry and decided to use the gas stove to heat some soup. The room was small so the only other place was the small bathroom, so Trev did the cooking next to the squat toilet naming the room ‘Karsey Kitchen’ (Karsey is slang for toilet in England). Ironically, after eating and going for an explore, we discovered a kitchen nearby. Doh!

Today, Trev drove 356 miles (1857 total) and I did 159 (631 total) = 515 for the daily total = 2478 miles after 4 days.

Day 5 - Wednesday July 16th

The sunny days continued as did the E80 which was a good road but full of trucks to overtake. The scenery was of hills and harvested fields and rice. Different shades of green set it all off. At Merzifon, we had to make a decision on the route – either continue on this road and head north over the mountains nearer Georgia or to take the 795 road north now to Samsun and take the coastal route. On the map it looked like the best pass through the mountains and the coastal road seemed to have a lot of dual carriageway, so we opted for Samsun.

As expected, the road to Samsun was good with dual carriageway and after Samsun, the coastal road was also very pleasant, especially the cool breeze coming off the sea. The temperature had dropped to 33’C. We passed through various coastal towns – Carsamba, Unye, Fatsa, Ordu with lots of tunnels en route under the hills. Then through Giresun to reach Trabzon around 5pm, I had been here in 1999 and it had rapidly expanded.

After Rize we started looking for a hotel and pulled into Ardesen and hunted around. It took a while but we found a cheap run down place on the busy main street. The carpets were threadbare, the electrics were very dodgy in the bathroom and, the balcony wall was almost non existent but we could look down on the ‘Disco’ parked 4 stories below. Seeing how we were the only guests, the owner was very friendly, helping us with our bags, bringing us tea, and even escorting us to a restaurant.

Ardesen was a bustling market town, with busy streets and it made a pleasant change for us to stay in a town somewhere for the first time. Our Turkish restaurant was the first I have ever visited where they didn’t do kebabs! So we settled for Turkish pizzas and chicken which were excellent. The waiters seemed more interested in the soap opera on TV.

A text came through alerting us to the fact that a team had been turned away from the Azerbaijan border because they had a right hand drive vehicle. This was a first. We had driven across Turkey in two days and were now within driving distance of Azerbaijan tomorrow and not sure what was going on.

Today, Trev drove 288 miles (2145 total) and I did 201 (832 total) = 489 for the daily total = 2967 miles after 5 days. Turkish petrol was very expensive at £1.36 a litre.

To check out my previous trip to Turkey with much more detail about the country click on this link Previous Trip to Turkey

Turkish road kill: dog x 2, fresh cat, seagull, bird, fox, UFO.

Day 6 - Thursday July 17th

It was less than an hour to the border and trucks were lined up for a mile down the highway. There was a traffic jam at the border – too may cars and trucks trying to squeeze through a bottleneck and it took 90 minutes to clear Turkish immigration and Georgian customs, though the hold up was mainly traffic rather than paperwork. You require no visa to enter Georgia, though customs had a look inside the Land Rover. The clocks had moved forward another hour to 3 hours ahead of GMT.

I had visited Georgia extensively in the summer of 2006 so it was all very familiar. We drove into Batumi and got used to the crazy Georgian drivers who overtake anywhere – blind corners, hills, one way streets etc. You’d be driving along a road and see a car overtaking a truck and another car trying to overtake that car. You’d be right behind a truck and someone would overtake and try and cut in between you and the truck. Trev thought it was superb and we laughed our way along the main road across Georgia from Poti to Gori. Nothing had changed. There were lots of police but we were not stopped.

We pulled into Gori so I could show Trev the Stalin museum and replace a broken souvenir from my last visit. The museum hadn’t changed much except that you could now take photos and their souvenir collection was different. We were the only visitors and had the usual person following us around every room. We chose impractical Stalin goblets as souvenirs – these would be destroyed on the Mongolian roads later on. So I still don’t have a souvenir. Afterwards, we did gnome shots in front of the Stalin statue in the main square. Three weeks later, unbeknown then, Russian soldiers would take over Gori and all the windows in the buildings around us would be smashed.

We made good time across Georgia and took the ring road around the capital, Tbelisi. This turned out to be a terrible unmade roads across the hills, with large trucks leaving trails of dust. It slowed us down and we abandoned our idea of heading for the sleepy border town at Lakodek which I had used before.

With the texted problem of a team being turned back from the main Azerbaijan border at Rustavi/Gardabani, we had originally thought the Lakodek border would be a safer option. But dusk was falling and the main border was closer and we thought, what the hell, lets try it. If they turn us back, we can try the sleepy border tomorrow. If we get in, we will be in Azerbaijan bang on schedule.

To check out my previous trip to Georgia with much more detail about the country click on this link Previous Trip to Georgia

Georgia road kill: dog x 4, squirrel, UFO.

We went straight through the Georgian border with no problems. An officer warned us of the Azerbaijanis turning back a right hand vehicle recently and said we may have problems and to expect to have to bribe them. As you left the Georgian side, there is a big sign “You are entering Azerbaijan – Good Luck!” which seemed to say it all.

As you approach the Azerbaijan border, you pass some immigration buildings and then to a gate manned by a soldier. We sat there for ten minutes before an official finally came up, looked at our passports and told the soldier to open the gate. Then we drove up to more buildings. An official who could speak basic English, took care of us and led us to the office where an unhappy looking official filled in all the vehicle registration stuff and customs declaration (how much cash are you carrying etc).

Trev, as the vehicle owner was directed back to the other buildings to get ‘road tax’. To do this, he had to get the soldier to open the gate who had to get the immigration official’s permission. Trev was gone for ages. I stood by the Disco and watched others getting processed. It was dark but spotlights lit the compound. Eventually the soldier let Trev back in. It had only cost $20. We had been given a ‘Three day transit visa’ for the right hand drive vehicle which would allow us three days to drive to Baku but once it had expired we would have to leave the Disco at the port until we caught a ferry out of Azerbaijan.

The Land rover was then searched. Were we carrying any guns, drugs, alcohol? No. They didn’t seem to notice the 2 large boxes of wine. We hung around again for someone to check that we had our passport stamped and all the necessary documentation and he finally signalled another soldier to let us out. That soldier tried for a bribe but gave up as did the final officials at the final checkpoint. It had taken 1 hour and 45 minutes to do it but we were through into Azerbaijan around 10.30pm

It was pitch black. I changed some US dollars into Azerbaijan Manet at the first border town with its all night stalls. The old confusing Manet had now disappeared leaving just the New Manet.

Our friendly official had warned us that the road ahead was dangerous in the dark. Apparently, there were road works going on. I had asked him if there was a hotel nearby and he said about 50km away – ‘Look for Az Gas – green’. We drove down the deserted road which started as sealed and then deteriorated into unmade road and came across the night road crews working on the roads.

We could hear this loud clicking noise around us but were not sure what it was. Then when we looked down at the road we could see frogs hopping across and assumed they were making the noise. Trev drove over one (not deliberately) and it made a loud farting noise as it was flattened.

There were a couple of police check points, but they waved us on. We came across the ‘Az Gas’ which was a petrol station in bright green colours and next to it was a brand new hotel. Around us was a newly constructed complex with ‘Olympic Village’ on the walls. This was part of Azerbaijan’s Olympic bid for 2016.

The hotel was brand new and very comfortable. It wasn’t until we had checked in and got comfortable that we discovered that the clocks had changed again. It was now 1am, 4 hrs ahead of GMT. We had driven through two time zones today.

Today, Trev drove 241 miles ( 2386 total) and I did 131 (963 total) = 372 for the daily total = 3339 miles after 6 days.

Day 7 – Friday July 18th

With the late night, we had a late start and didn’t get away until 11am. We had less than 250 miles to Baku so there was no rush. We passed a lot of police check points and were waved though every one to start with. All crashed cars were dumped at these check points – almost like a warning, but probably awaiting insurance claims. Azerbaijan driving wasn’t as reckless as Georgian but we did see a Mercedes getting pulled back onto a road from a ditch. Probably forced off the road, the accident had just happened.

There were huge posters of their President Ilham Aliyev in every town with him trying to look Presidential, talking to Russian leaders. We stopped to take a photo and a policeman appeared in an unmarked car out of nowhere and waved his finger at us not to take photos. We took them elsewhere anyway. If you don’t want to be photographed, don’t stick your image on bloody great posters!

We passed another new Olympic complex for the Weightlifting and saw a sign to the Soccer complex. Back in the UK, we discovered Azerbaijan had not been short-listed. I wonder what will happen to all these new facilities. It’s not as if you see many people doing sports in this country.

Originally, we were on the main road (M27) from Qazax to Tivuz, where we filled up with diesel and was astounded to discover a litre only cost 30p (£18 to fill the tank). The Azerbaijan garage staff wore bright green dungarees and pumped the diesel for you.

We bypassed Ganca and at Yevlax, I took over. Somehow, we missed the M27 at a roundabout. There were never any signs on them – you guess which road it is. We ended up on a parallel smaller road but still heading south east of Baku. From Yevlax, there were 50 miles of unmade road. It was real off-road stuff over bumpy gravel and rocks. When the new road appeared we still had to drive off-road. One car decided to drive on the new road which was raised. He got a few miles down it, before he came across three huge diggers blocking his way and was forced to backtrack to where he had left us. How we laughed. Later on, other teams told us that the main Baku road was just as bad with lots of road repairs going on. Sometime roday we saw a garage called 'Motor Sexy'.

There were lots of trucks on our road but the police presence seemed to be less. A Lada in front of us overtook a slow truck on a single white line (no overtaking) through a small hamlet and I followed him. Before we knew it, a police car was behind us with its blue lights flashing and siren going. I pulled off and waited to see what they would do.

They attempted to explain that I had overtaken illegally but they could not speak English and I could not speak Russian. I knew what I had done wrong, but played the ignorant tourist who did not understand. My details were written down on a form and a figure of $150 was written in a column. They asked me to sign. I refused, pretending to not understand and saying “No Dollars. Baku dollars” indicating that I had no money until I reached Baku. The two policeman started to argue with each other. One really wanted some money out of me.

The figure dropped to $50. I still pretended to not understand and refused to sign. “No dollars” I repeated. I called their bluff by indicating that we should follow them to the police station to talk to their boss. They argued some more with each other and then gave up and let me go. It was a useful lesson. Firstly, that we had to watch ourselves with traffic rules and secondly that playing dumb paid off. It was a good job they didn’t realise I had $2000 in the ‘Disco’.

When they had disappeared back to the town, Trev took over the driving and we followed the road until we joined the E119 main coastal road heading north to Baku and around Oobustan, I spotted where I had climbed up to the mud volcanoes. We did a repeat visit except that this time I didn’t fall in (see previous visit to Azerbaijan).

We arrived in Baku in the early evening rush hour. We had originally thought of visiting the port to see what was happening but decided to head for the hotel I had stayed at before. Once we got our bearings, we headed for the Velotrek Hotel about 15 minutes from the centre, but I was confused by the new flyover. This was being built when I was last there in July 2006 and I saw the hotel as we were driving over it.

There was more fun trying to find a way to get off the motorway and back into town and guessing the right exit but we found the hotel. It had got a little grubbier but it was still the cheapest (as far as I know) place to stay in town (even though the price had risen to £19 for a double room) with a fan, TV and hot shower. The doner kebab stalls were still up the road so we feasted on those and took photos of the stall owners who posed for us.

We were pleased to have reached Baku in the planned 7 days. We had driven over 3500 miles in a week and passed through eight countries. Stage 1 was over. Now we had to get to Turkmenistan.

Today, Trev drove 203 miles (2589 total) and I did 104 (1067 total) = 307 for the daily total = 3646 miles after 7 days.

To check out my previous trip to Azerbaijan with much more detail about the country click on this link Previous Trip to Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan Road Kill: Dog x 3, Rabbit, Trev ran over a frog (not deliberately).

Day 8 – Saturday July 19th

We drove downtown to the ferry port for around 9am, stopping to take gnome photos in front of the Parliament Building (DOM) which had been fully sandblasted of grime since my previous visit and now looked very impressive, but no one had moved in yet.

It was just down the road from the port where we found two other teams who had arrived the night before. “F7F7” were three chatty if uptight young guys from Scotland in a Mitsubishi Delica. The other team were “Water Aid” a rather offish group of 4 students with a Landrover Defender. Both teams had left on July 5th a week before us. On the one hand, we felt a lot better knowing we had caught them up. On the other hand, we were worried because it now turned out that we were the first teams to arrive at the Baku ferry port to test out the Turkmenistan arrangements. Meanwhile, two guys – Tom and Kerr had been here for 4 days waiting for the Kazakhstan ferry.

The ticket office opened at 9am and some of us entered to buy ferry tickets to Turkmenistani. The official did not speak English but wanted to see our Turkmenistan visas. We tried to explain the arrangement that we would get the visas at the other end when we arrived, at the port. I had the reference numbers and a list of people on the email that the organisers had sent us. The official did not want to know. No Turkmenistan visa, no ferry to Turkmenistan.

We walked down to the Immigration office, where after explaining the situation were told that they would let us through if we had a ferry ticket. We tried the ferry ticket office again and the unhappy official was adamant that without a visa we were going nowhere. As I had predicted, Azerbaijan would not let us onto a ferry without a valid Turkmenistan visa.

Outside the air conditioned office, we had a quick group meeting. There were 9 of us. I looked up my detailed research and found the address of the Turkmenistan embassy in Baku. Should we try and get them to call the port and explain the situation? Would they be open on a Saturday?

There was only one way to find out. I took one of the F7F7 team and one of the Water Aid Team and we caught a taxi to the Turkmenistan Embassy. Except that our taxi driver did not know the way there. We drove around while he stopped to ask where he should go – at least 7 times! At one point, I thought we were heading back to our hotel.

After a tour if Baku, we found it. Officially it was closed but someone answered the intercom and a man came down to the gate. We explained the situation (again!) and he was clueless to the ‘arrangement’. The official told us that we needed to contact our Organisers who should contact the Turkmenistan Embassy in London who should contact the Immigration Office in Turkmenistan. They would then contact the Embassy in Baku to explain the ‘arrangement’ who would then issue us with a document to give to the Azerbaijan ferry office. It was a nightmare of officialdom which I had predicted all along.

We caught a taxi back to the port (I paid for a second time because neither team had Manets) and explained the situation to the others. We walked to the nearest internet café and I sent an email to the Organisers in London with the instructions. Nothing would happen until Monday in 2 days time.

There was nothing else to do but hole up. I told the other two teams plus Tom and Kerr who had already had their vehicle impounded and had been staying at an expensive hotel. They grabbed their bags and got a ride with the F7F7 team. The two vehicles followed us in convoy back to the Velotrek Hotel.

Rather than sit around, Trev and I took off for a exploration and headed for an afternoon trip to Sumqayit, a coastal suburb north of Baku. It turned out to be a pleasant Azerbaijan town where we first explored the main plaza and then the beach where you were allowed to drive your vehicle down to the water’s edge. It was the first time I had seen Azerbaijan men in their baggy underwear sunbathing and swimming. The temperature was 44’C (47’C in the Disco) but it was a relaxing afternoon and interesting to see Azerbaijanis at the seaside.

Back at the hotel we had kebabs again and Trev developed a dodgy stomach. Today, Trev drove 60 miles (2649 total) and I did 0 (still 1067 total) = 60 for the daily total = 3706 miles after 8 days.

Day 9 – Sunday July 20

So far, we had managed to survive on our own and we felt that maybe the fact that three teams had overwhelmed the ferry officials. Maybe if we tried on our own we may fare better. So we drove back down to the ferry port. There was a different official on duty and we repeated our story about the arrangement. He was much friendlier but was also adamant that without a Turkmenistan visa, he could not issue a ferry ticket.

It was the last day of our 3 day vehicle transit visa so we decided to head south on the e119 for the Iranian border – just to keep us occupied. Having been there before there is not a lot to do outside Baku.

With Trev’s stomach playing up, I drove us back down the coast, past Oobustan and the mud volcanoes and past the offshore oil rigs. There were police checkpoints but no one stopped us.

We got as far as Salyan but knew we had to be back in the ferry port by 5pm and turned around. It was a roasting day. Trucks carrying sheep had their doors open at the back. Even a coach passed with its door open.

Back at the port, we tackled the bureaucracy. We explained our situation (again) to the Immigration Office and handed over our vehicle documentation. The official told us that we should return tomorrow morning. Then I visited the Road Tax officer who was asleep in his nearby cabin where I paid $10 to park our Land Rover at the port. He gave me a glass of ice cold water from his fridge and also told me told me to come back tomorrow.

We caught the metro back to the hotel. The Scottish team had wired up their portable DVD player to their TV and we all squeezed in to watch a strange Japanese movie called ‘Battle Royale’. The Scottish team had already swopped our TV with theirs so they could play DVDs so it was the least they could do. Imagine people running between floors holding a TV and disappearing into a room only to reappear with another TV. A text came through from the Organisers in London. They would contact the Turkmenistan Embassy at 10am tomorrow (Monday). We were 4 hours ahead of GMT so we knew nothing would progress tomorrow because of the time difference.

Today, Trev drove 0 miles – dodgy stomach (2649 total) and I did 198 (1265 total) = 198 for the daily total = 3904 miles after 9 days.

Day 10 – Monday July 21st

This morning we discovered that our hotel was fully booked tonight so we had to move. We had left most of our gear with the ‘Disco’ at the port, but still ended up with bags and plastic bags of stuff on the metro. I had asked the receptionist for a recommendation and he suggested the Hotel Canub down in the centre. Fortunately, it was near a metro (Sahil) so the walk was minimal and they had a room. It was one of those old large Russian type hotels with tall ceilings, wide staircases and a reception area on each floor with couches and a piano (on every floor!). A woman took care of each floor. It was only £12.50 a night each which was a good price for Baku and was better than expected. The air conditioning was very welcoming.

It was a 25 minute walk to the port so we ambled down there to the Border Post where an official processed our vehicle paperwork. The Road Tax man in his cabin did the same and we paid him $10 to officially park the Disco for the foreseeable future.

There was nothing to do except hang around and wait so we hung out at the ‘Disco’ and read, staying in the shade. The other two teams from our hotel arrived to park up their vehicles now that their transit visas had also expired.

My problem with Baku was that I had already been there two years earlier and had toured all the sights. The best was the mud volcanoes and we had done that on Day 1 in the country. Trev had his dodgy stomach so was also not bothered about sightseeing.

We took the other teams to our hotel and they checked in. Tom and Kerr were nowhere to be seen. They had come down to the port to check on Kazakhstan boats, found nothing arriving and had checked into a more luxurious downtown hotel.

In the evening, I popped across the road for excellent takeaway pizza. We were so dehydrated with the heat. We drank endless beers and lemonade and wondered what was happening with the Turkmenistan situation.

Today, Trev drove 0 miles (2649 total) and I did 0 (1265 total) = 0 for the daily total = 3904 miles after 10 days. This was because our vehicle was impounded at Baku port.

Day 11 – Tuesday July 22

By now we were very bored with Baku. We had been here for 4 nights and 3 days and just wanted to leave, but everything relied on people pulling strings in London and Turkmenistan.

No one knew the Turkemenistan Embassy hours and the telephone number on the internet was wrong. With nothing better t do, Trev and me decided to give them a visit. Rather than catch a taxi, we decided to catch a metro back to the Velodrome Hotel and try and find it from there. I had remembered that we had turned off before on the road before the hotel flyover.

It took an age and the road that the taxi driver had written down was wrong. In the end by the time we found it (asking endless locals) it was 12.20 and the Embassy had closed at midday. No one wanted to know. Trying the intercom, we got an abrupt message of “We are very, very, very, very, very busy. Come back at 9am tomorrow” (later on, we discovered they were processing 80 Greek visa applications who had turned up claiming to be the Olympic delegation to Beijing and had official papers to say so and the Turkmenistan embassy had to issue the visas so they could catch the ferry).

We found a metro nearby and realised it was a 15 minute walk from there, unlike the 90 minutes we had spent walking from the other metro station. Wearing sandels, Trev and my feet were trashed with the heat and the miles we had walked. We had serious blisters. I wanted to go back to the Embassy and tell them that our feet were “very, very, very, very, very fucked”.

So we returned to the port to find the others just hanging around. There were two boats in the port and both were going to Turkmenistan. No luck for Tom and Kerr trying to get to Kazakhstan, but it kept our options open.

Around 2.30pm, a text came from the organisers saying “Should be sorted now”. So we got some cold beer, returned to the hotel and worked out our options.

The best scenario was that we went to the Turkmenistan Embassy tomorrow at 9am, get the paperwork, go to the port, get the ferry ticket, check out of hotel and wait at port for boat.

If we had no luck with the Embassy, go to the port and see if the Kazahzstan boat was in (1 every week), check out of hotel and catch that giving us two options:
a)drive to Uzbekistan, continue trip and try and get another Kazakhstan visa in Kyrgyzstan, the only place we could wait for one.
b)Drive across Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia and skip Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Our biggest problem was that we were unsure about our Uzbekistan visa. It said entry was possible between 20th July and 28th July and our max stay was 9 days. We were not sure if we had to be out of Uzbekistan by the 28th or that our 9 day stay started from the date we entered as long as we got in before July 28th. Everyone seemed to think it was the latter.

More take away pizza and beer for dinner surviving with the air-con..

Today, Trev drove 0 miles (2649 total) and I did 0 (1265 total) = 0 for the daily total = 3904 miles after 11 days. This was because our vehicle was still impounded at Baku port.

Day 12 -Wednesday July 23th

For us it was make or break day. We had been told that the Visa problem had been sorted. All three teams caught the metro and we walked the 15 minutes to the Turkmenistan Embassy arriving at 8.30am. There was only one Turkish lady in front of us. We sat around and waited for it to open which it did around 9.30am. Finally at 10am, the official who we had talked to on the Saturday came down and was faced with 9 foreigners. He only wanted to deal with one, so I stepped forward.

He seemed not to remember our visit on the Saturday and our situation. I was led inside the building up to the first floor where there was an office with 1 PC and not much else. I repeated our story about how we were supposed to get our visas at the Turkmenistan port but that the Azerbaijani Ferry people would not allow us to leave with a visa and that we had contacted the Organisers in London. They had been to see visit the Turkmenistan Embassy to explain the problem in Baku who had apparently contacted the Immigration Office in their capital and that they should have issued instructions to the Baku Embassy that we could get the permission paperwork. Try doing that when they speak no English. I showed them the ref number and the list of names on the email from the organisers. I also showed them my Russian statement explaining our mission.

The man consulted with his superior who eventually implied “we believe you”. But then said that they had been sent no instructions from their own country and that they had to check the faxes/communications. I was told to call the Embassy at 2pm.

We all caught the metro and walked back to the port. We found Tom and Kerr who had been told that there was a boat leaving for Kazakhstan today with tickets available later in the day. So Trev and I walked back to the hotel, checked out and returned to the port with our stuff. The other teams sat around the port resigned to the fact that Turkmenistan would not happen.

In one last bid to make something happen, Trev and I returned to the Turkmenistan Embassy and at 1.30 pressed the intercom. “Nothing yet. Call us at 9am tomorrow”. This could go on for days.

Decision time: Do we give them another day or do we go for the Kazakhstan ferry? If we don’t get that ferry it could be 5 more days before the next and based on the performance of the Turkmenistan Embassy, there was no guarantee that we would be any further forward tomorrow.

Back at the port, we discovered that another team had arrived – “Team Subaru” – another 3 man team from Scotland – Pakistani/Scottish. They had left on July 5th and taken their time over nearly 3 weeks. As it was, they timed the ferry just right.

Around 3pm, we started the procedure. The drivers bought tickets for the vehicles and themselves ($370). Then everyone else had to line up to buy their tickets which took an age. I disappeared and spent our remaining currency on water/cheese/bread/beer at a local shop.

Upon returning, I had to wait while the ticket lady had a tea break, made tea for all the other male ferry officials and called her friend on her mobile. In your own time love. I was finally dealt with 40 minutes later.

Waiting by me was an elderly, skinny Czech Republic man with dual Australian citizenship. We had met him at the Turkmenistan Embassy where he had spent 12 days trying to get a visa and like us, given up. I had nicknamed him the ‘Grim Reaper’ – just bad luck to be around. We had been turned down at the Turkmenistan embassy when he was there.

Now, they wouldn’t let him on the ferry as a foot passenger and he asked if he could pretend to be with us. Since the ‘Disco’ only had 2 seats, this was problematic. How would we fit him in? Having spent 5 days being refused by these officials to leave their country, I was also wary that I didn’t want our jeopardize our escape. There was also the fact that I had seen other pedestrians waiting to board so why not him. Eventually we were both issued tickets anyway. But it took an age with all our details being hand written in a ledger. I don’t know what it was about this guy but I just felt bad luck around him.

By the time I walked down to the ‘Disco’, they were already boarding. Trev couldn’t move because I had the paperwork (to prove I was travelling in a vehicle to the ticket seller). We had to get it stamped to allow us out of Azerbaijan. Then we were supposed to get the paperwork stamped somewhere else but there was no time. Meanwhile the Road Tax man was hovering around asking for another $10. We ignored him.

To get onto the ferry, every vehicle had to pay a $20 ‘tax’ to use the ramp onto the ferry. Trev drove the ‘Disco’ onto the ferry and parked. Meanwhile 3 long metal pipelines were brought on by a forklift truck. But they were too long to balance properly and scattered onto the ramp. There was much shouting and attempts to get them on using various methods.

We didn’t care. We were leaving Baku at last. Our route may have changed but we were leaving Azerbaijan. Or so we thought.

Today, Trev drove 0 miles (2649 total) and I did 0 (1265 total) = 0 for the daily total = 3904 miles after 12 days. Apart from the 30m ramp onto the ferry which cost $20.

Fuel - £518.96
Accommodation - £192.21 (12 nights)
Food - £61.94
Other - £358.83 (inc Kazakhstan ferry, Turkish road insurance etc)
Total - £1131.94