Azerbaijan

We where only allowed to have the truck on the roads for 72 hours so we had to get to Baku in that time for the truck to get into customes. So we only had a couple of days in the country first of all we stop in Seki and had a look around a loverly old palace, the walls inside had so much detail on them we had to wear funny blue shoe covers and the guide was very keen to tell us what had been restored.
Next we where to head for some mud volcanoes except the road we needed to go on was close due to land slides we kept driving and some other mud volcanoes where found I dont know what the other ones wouldd have looked like but these ones where prety good.

We then drove to Baku, it still had all the euro vision posters up it looked like they had a great time. We needed to get on a ferry across the caspin sea but it turned out we needed a visa for Turkmenistan before we could get tickets even though they would let you get a visa the other side. So the next day we all got into a little bus and the driver started to take us to the embasey, now I some off us haven't had the best of luck with taxi rides when we have been in a taxi together and today was the worst. Instead of going where he should of taken us the driver thought it would be a good idear to go where the embasy use to be ( not a good start). He then took us to where the new embaey is but didn't have a clue where it was so we drove around for a bit hoping it might just turn up.

It did in the end but only when people got out the bus and run a round looking for it so we waited for ages and then had to re fill the visa form again and we where done Rogan only had to wait round all day for our passports. We got the ferry that night, we left the hotel at 9 o'clock at night to get the ferry that was surpose to be thier at 10 o'clock it turned up at 2:30 when your not feeling well sitting around a port in Azerbijain is not much fun.

We had all heared stories of what the ferry could be like but it was fine we all had a lovery cabin with very comfey bunks, toilets that flushed had loo roll we even has showers with hot water!!!

It took us about 12 hours to get across they then put the anchor down and we waited for another 12 hours till we where able to get into the port apparently there was the wrong type of wind.

Georgia on my mind

Well that was a tad cheesy but that's alright because their is a lot of cheese in Georgia.They seam to sell it everywhere and it comes in smelly or smellier, they also like to put it in bread, yum warm cheese bread.

We spent about 2 weeks in Georgia with a couple of days in Armenia. The 1st stop was in Batumi on the coast of the Black Sea, its mainly a sea side town with some very large hotels being built right next to the old blocks of flats which are covered with corrugated iron. That night was spent on a boat having a Georgian dinner, the wine was very cheap and everybody had a great night dancing especially Nick.

The next town we stayed in was called Kazbegi we stayed in a home stay is was great more like a hotel and it had a great view over the town as it was right up on top of a hill. That afternoon we had a look around the town, the drivers have got steadily worse the more east we go and at one point I saw a man cross him self before he crossed the street, I didn't follow him, to get into town we went on the cable car it must be one of the cheapest in the world only costing 1 lary.

We next visited Gori the birth place of Stalin, we went to his museum you can see the house he lived in till he was 4 and the train carrage he used to travel in because he didn't like flying. He even had a bath on it. The museum didn't exactly cover all the terrible things Stalin did, but there was a small room that motioned about it just, it was added a couple of years ago and I think before it may have been a broom cupboard.

After a bush camp on the way we drove up the Military Highway to northern Georgia just south of the boarder with Russia we had to drive throught the mountains and they where very pretty. We climbed up to a monastery, it was defiantly worth the walk even though it took me 2 hours.

We drove back down through the mountains for a couple of nights in Tbilisi the capital of Georgia it a lovely city but the people in the countryside of Georgia are very poor and in Tbilisi they have spent money on a very fancy bridge that contains a small light show.

We had one last bush camp in Georgia before we went to Armenia for a few days, it was up a very narrow muddy track and at the top was an old abandoned village that over looked a massive canyon and the other side was just countryside not a man made structure in sight. That night we had an amazing thunder storm the thunder was so loud and went on for longer than I had ever heard and you could feel it thorough the ground. That night I went to sleep watching the lighting through the tent and listening to the rain on the tent. In the morning everything was muddy and the truck got stuck it took a while for it to make it down the track and apparently walls where taken apart in another field so a 3 point turn could be made.

The next stop was Armenia we had all tried to complete our visa's on line but nobody had revived an e-mail to say it had worked so we all stood in line and completed a visa form, half way through the group they decided that our online visas had just come through so they just stamped the rest of us through. We had two nights bush camping in Armenia we where suppose to camp by a lake the 1st night but because we got stuck in the morning and the roads where steep we couldn't make it. We found a village and camped in a field just outside it which was full of wild flowers and later a few of the locals arrived with some Armenia Cognac. The next night we spent in Yerevan the capital of Armenia it was very nice and I got my hair cut for £5. Are last night in Armenia was spent by the lake we where suppose to camp by on the 1st night only about 2 hours from the capital the weather was awfully and its not the best lake we have seen on the trip so far.

Are last few days in Georgia where spent bush camping near a monastery where Zara our guide was married. That afternoon we where sitting around when all of a sudden the wind got really strong and it didn't stop all night there was another thunder storm which we watched from inside the truck and in the morning we woke up to find that the tarp on the side of the truck we use when it rains had riped a bit, but the good news was that the toilet tent had survived YAY. The next stop was in a town that seamed to have every road dug up it was Georgian independance day and eurovison. We tried watching but it didn't start till 11 o'clock. The next day we left just before lunch and that afternoon we had wine tasting most people where very happy when we left there was a small party on the truck on the way to the bush camp and Shelagh even did some pole dancing.

That night some locals arrived and they brought some cha cha with them its not the nicest drink in the world but is quite impressive when but on a fire.

Two days later we crossed the boarder in to Azerbaijan and as we where leaving Georgia the sign said Good Bye and Good Luck.