4 days at camp Baku, 20 hrs on a boat of greedy gits, 8 hrs in customs and $450 later and we're finally in Turkmenistan. We now have 3 days to do 2000km! Tom
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Camp Baku
Time to update you on our progress. There has been none.
We've been in Baku for 2 nights now, camping at the port customs area waiting for a fax to arrive from Turkmenistan confirming that we are allowed to get on the boat. This has finally arrive today at 13:00 after having to do a lot of chasing around to the British Embassy and making phone calls to the rally organisers. To be honest, I (Tim) have done nothing but sit around drinking tea and napping under a tree.
There are 5 teams in Camp Baku - Operation Panda, Smith Monkey Madness, OB1-2-GOBI, Genghis Can and Team Fiesta. We've been out in the town, seen a few sites and generally relaxed in preparation for the craziness that Turkmenistan will no doubt bring. Apparently it's 50 degrees over in the capital at the moment.
We hope to get on a boat tonight which means we should be there some time in the next few days. They can take a while as they randomly stop in the Caspian for no reason.
Who knows when the next update will be? I'm not sure if they have computers in the Turkmen desert.
We've been in Baku for 2 nights now, camping at the port customs area waiting for a fax to arrive from Turkmenistan confirming that we are allowed to get on the boat. This has finally arrive today at 13:00 after having to do a lot of chasing around to the British Embassy and making phone calls to the rally organisers. To be honest, I (Tim) have done nothing but sit around drinking tea and napping under a tree.
There are 5 teams in Camp Baku - Operation Panda, Smith Monkey Madness, OB1-2-GOBI, Genghis Can and Team Fiesta. We've been out in the town, seen a few sites and generally relaxed in preparation for the craziness that Turkmenistan will no doubt bring. Apparently it's 50 degrees over in the capital at the moment.
We hope to get on a boat tonight which means we should be there some time in the next few days. They can take a while as they randomly stop in the Caspian for no reason.
Who knows when the next update will be? I'm not sure if they have computers in the Turkmen desert.
Monday, July 31, 2006
So...
...We made it across Azerbaijan with no detailed maps, using only a Collins Mini World Atlas (thanks for making us take that, Vanessa) and a compass. We're in Baku about to head to the port to see when the next ferry to Turkmenistan is.
T&T
T&T
Iceberg Dead Ahead
Been a while since we had access to the internet so very few updates from us, but now that we are in Azerbaijan we have found some super-slow internet cafe in which to let you all know we are doing okay.
Turkey was a major cause of delay in our route. The country is massive and we ended up climbing about 3000 feet into the mountains which took some time. Georgia was beautiful, some of the roads weren't so good though and late last night we had our first hairy moment driving around the Tbilsi ring road at night.
We ran over a large rock, which hit the underside of the car very hard making a pretty bad racket. After pulling over and checking the sump, exhaust manifold and fuel tank we could see nothing wrong. Later we found that a large chunk of seemingly unnecessary metal has been taken from Molly. Hopefully this weight reduction will aid performance.
Animals we have nearly hit so far include Dogs, Cats, Geese ,Horses ,Cows and Goats. They roam free in these areas and seem to rule the road! You have to be on your guard in case one of them decides they feel like a stroll in front of three lanes of traffic.
The border crossing into Azerbaijan last night was the most intense yet. They were very friendly but it was manned entirely by armed military and there were spotlights on the hilltops. I don't think it helped that we were crossing in the dead of night and that the bugs were out in force. Tom, Will, Felix and I felt like we were in some cold war film.
For 100km today we have been on the worst roads yet. Potholes everywhere and top speeds of about 30mph. When we finally hit some decent tarmac and decided to get the miles ticking over a bit quicker we were pulled over by a police officer. We had been caught speeding in two Fiat Pandas! About 10 minutes of not being able to understand each other ensued. We offered the police officer the equilvalent of $2 in Azer money and he laughed and eventually let us go.
So in summary, we are fine and this trip seems to be getting more and more surreal. We've just had confirmation of our Turkmen visas so we are about to power on to Baku to get the boat to Turkmenbashi.
As soon as we can get mobile signal or internet access Tom or I will update you again.
xx
Turkey was a major cause of delay in our route. The country is massive and we ended up climbing about 3000 feet into the mountains which took some time. Georgia was beautiful, some of the roads weren't so good though and late last night we had our first hairy moment driving around the Tbilsi ring road at night.
We ran over a large rock, which hit the underside of the car very hard making a pretty bad racket. After pulling over and checking the sump, exhaust manifold and fuel tank we could see nothing wrong. Later we found that a large chunk of seemingly unnecessary metal has been taken from Molly. Hopefully this weight reduction will aid performance.
Animals we have nearly hit so far include Dogs, Cats, Geese ,Horses ,Cows and Goats. They roam free in these areas and seem to rule the road! You have to be on your guard in case one of them decides they feel like a stroll in front of three lanes of traffic.
The border crossing into Azerbaijan last night was the most intense yet. They were very friendly but it was manned entirely by armed military and there were spotlights on the hilltops. I don't think it helped that we were crossing in the dead of night and that the bugs were out in force. Tom, Will, Felix and I felt like we were in some cold war film.
For 100km today we have been on the worst roads yet. Potholes everywhere and top speeds of about 30mph. When we finally hit some decent tarmac and decided to get the miles ticking over a bit quicker we were pulled over by a police officer. We had been caught speeding in two Fiat Pandas! About 10 minutes of not being able to understand each other ensued. We offered the police officer the equilvalent of $2 in Azer money and he laughed and eventually let us go.
So in summary, we are fine and this trip seems to be getting more and more surreal. We've just had confirmation of our Turkmen visas so we are about to power on to Baku to get the boat to Turkmenbashi.
As soon as we can get mobile signal or internet access Tom or I will update you again.
xx
Sunday, July 30, 2006
SMS Post
Progressing slowly but surely. Yesterday realised we've broken nearly all traffic laws in the maj of countries and 50 mph is standard for a wet mountain corner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
