Its been a while folks but here is the 3rd and final update most likely before we hit Ulaanbatar, Mongolia... Day 30, 7,500 miles covered and our 20th country. When we last wrote we were leaving Georgia heading south for Azerbaijan to Baku, we spent a few days here awaiting our boat (which was delayed for over 20hours) eating at the KFC palace and a night out in Baku with fellow ralliers sipping 70p pints so all was well. Once we arrived at the docks for the boat at 2pm we were told it would leave in 2 hours... 15hours later at 5am we boarded te boat and all 10+ teams and its members slept on deck to be woken at 9am (the boat still hadnt moved) to move to our cabins which were ready. Once we got to our cabins and slept all day we woke at 5pm and te boat had only left dock... A long ride over the Caspian Sea we arrived at the Turkmenistan Coast, noted the 2nd hardest country to enter in the world behind North Korea and I can see why, customs took merrily just 8hours to get through. This was desert country, proper dessert where we spent driving in 40 degree plus heat to our first tourist site in Ashkabat the capital, such a strange city, veryodern compared to the poor state of the rest of the country, pictures of the king everywhere and huge lit up buildings everywhere you looked, we were loured in by crazy Russians to there house for drinks and food.... Things got strange very quick and we fled for the road!! Camping at the side of the road we then head for the ring of fire a huge crater 100m wide on the ground full of me than gas which has been burning for over 30 years, an amazing site not to be forgotten. We then left for Uzbekistan, 3 days of torture well not all bad as The first night was good we arrived at a hotel and slept in a bed for the first night in a long time, then setting off the next day we discovered the country had a huge shortage of petrol as all cars run on gas, so hours upon hours were wasted everyday trekking for petrol in side streets and buying as little as 10 litres at a time off strangers at there homes. The 2nd evening we were heading for Bakara when 3 locals stopped there car beside us and have us a tour of a couple of citys and ancient buildings on the way to the capital. The generous its of people on this trip has shawn from start to finish and we are vey grateful to have been welcomed into each country by the locals. The next day when leaving Uzbek, we were told you had to register at a hotel every night there, we stayed 3 nights and camped two of them and due to this we were told we may face a fine up to 1,000 dollars each.... Not soo good for team moral but hurrah the problem was solved and we got out of there as fast as we could after a miserable few days. We hit Kyrgizistan which was strange and heat dropped from 40degrees to less that 15 just by a boarder crossing!! The road here scales through mountain passes along a river which we stopped at a tourist spot full of Russians etc for a dip and some local food which was amazing! Next we followed the road to the boarder a full days driving up and down the mountains reaching heights of 10,000ft at times, the views once again as always in this trip was incredible. We now sit in Kazakstan, the final straight of our journey with only a few problems with the car... Our front left shock has snapped, the result of a combination of horrendeous roads and probably equally questionable driving And our front left window has been smashed when it wouldnt go up, not ideal at night when the temps are lower and also in he rain... So you could say its up the left. Anyway here is a few pictures of or journey, on the home straight but as always on this trip the finish is unkown... Thanks for the support.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 03:46:25 +0000
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