Tuesday, the 1st of May
Another border crossing today: Iran – Azerbaijan. We’re guessing this one isn’t used much by passenger cars, because we had to look quite a bit before we found the entrance. On the Iran side everything went reasonably smooth. First we had a guy assist us with getting our Carnet in order (need that exit stamp to get our bail money back in Belgium!), then another guy that ran from office to office to get us across the border. He was rather ‘assertive’ about the whole thing, but as long as he got things done, that didn’t bother us too much. If we can avoid administrative hassle for a couple of euros, why not? 🙂
The Azeri side was a different story, though. Supposedly we had driven across the border so fast the camera didn’t register our car. So up and down the compound we drove. After that, we had to wait for a couple of hours before someone turned up to check our passports. The border guards were really working hard though; reading news websites, taking a nap, having tea… Must be exhausting!
From Astara to Baku was a pleasant enough drive, a bit boring maybe. No highway either, so driving 60-70 km/h for 200 km made us sleepy. Baku itself was a pleasant surprise! Due to an oil boom in the late 19th century, the center of town has a very stately, almost Parisian feel about it. So of course we had dinner in Paris Bistro. That first beer after Iran was very tasty, even if it was German…
Wednesday, the 2nd of May
Some real sightseeing of Baku on this day. Our first impression was confirmed by daylight: Baku is really worth a visit! (city trip?) It has a combination of an interesting old town (medieval), the stately avenues and shopping streets of a European town, lots of modern architecture (the Flame Towers!), and a nice seafront! And we had just missed the annual F1 GP as well (including a concert of Christina Aguilera)! Everything was still set up for the race through the center of town, much like in Monaco. We spent the entire day just strolling around town, taking in the sights, without really visiting anything. Very refreshing!
While visiting the Lamborghini shop beneath the Flame Towers, we ran into Beknur, a Kazakh guy. He would also take the ferry across the Caspian Sea, so we exchanged info on the practicalities. Really nice guy! We owe him a lot, as will become clear later on.
Thursday – Saturday, the 3rd – 5th of May
We wanted to visit some sights near Baku, before heading towards the ferry terminal. So we went to see petroglyphs. Supposed to be one of the 5 highlights of Azerbaijan, according to our Lonely Planet. While it certainly was ok, we wouldn’t exactly call it a highlight though… We heard from other people the other highlights weren’t much to look at, either, so we think Azerbaijan doesn’t have much to offer outside of Baku.
After this experience, we decided to just go and wait for the ferry. This boat has no regular timetable: you just call every day, or turn up at the terminal, and wait for it to arrive. In our case, this meant we camped for about 3 nights on the parking of the terminal.
This camping was quite an event in itself. We’ll try to summarize:
– The best part were the other tourists. By the end, a group of around 10-15 people had gathered, most of them camping as well. A couple of Germans (with an old Volkswagen van), a Brit and a German (cycling to Mongolia!), another Belgian (motorbike) and several Dutchies (with a Range Rover Deluxe, including collapsible minibar and rooftop tent) made for fun company. We also ran into Beknur again. These guys made the waiting bearable, because…
– You have no idea when the boat is coming. We would ask the port authorities every morning, and every morning the answer would be: ‘Today, probably, maybe. 50% chance. Ask again in the afternoon.’
– There were basic facilities. A separate toilet for the tourists. Which was nice, because the truckers’ toilet smelled like a… truckers’ toilet. A shower. Which we really needed after camping for a few days. Even a little shop, a teahouse. By the end, every Azeri there knew Wafa’s name, even though we didn’t mention it…
– Our car has a mattress in it for Wafa, but sleeping in it proved to be difficult. So on night 2 Wafa just slept in the tent, like a normal person. Well, sleeping… You’re on a truckers’ parking, so…
– We had a cookout: ‘pancake extravaganza’ (courtesy of the hyper-equipped Range Rover folks), with liters of Georgian wine (courtesy of a new Kyrgyzian friend). All we could offer in return was a Belgian post card of Brussels… 🙂 It was probably the wine, but a lot of ideas were generated: to start a proper ferry line, with camping and facilities, a boat that can actually withstand the waves, and has an actual TIMETABLE!
– Also a possible effect of the wine: Tom got very sick that night. As in; bowels emptying in mere seconds sick. Remember that separate toilet for tourists? It was locked with a key. The person with the key disappeared. Only the truckers’ toilet remained. Poor truckers.
– On Saturday, good news: a boat is coming! Probably maybe! It even has a name: the Mercury-1. We soon learn about the tragic fate of its sister ship, the Mercury-2. It capsized during a storm. And there’s supposed to be a storm under way towards us. Yay!
Sunday – Tuesday, the 6th – 8th of May
After a very short night, we were woken up at 2 AM Sunday morning, to start boarding. To give you an idea of how efficiently this was done:
– 2 AM: begin passport control (it’s not like you could do this the evening before, right guys?)
– 3 AM: park the car on the quay and start waiting for actual boarding.
– 4 AM: start actual boarding of boat.
(Really festive atmosphere, as you can see.)
– 4.30 AM: car is parked on boat, we go up to find where our cabin is.
– 5 AM: tired lady is surrounded by confused tourists, trying to assign cabins to a bunch of unhappy troglodytes in perfectly understandable Russian!
– 5.30 AM: after a lot of bartering (thanks for the help here, Beknur!), we finally get assigned the cabin we paid for: a 2 person cabin with a window. Which is actually quite nice, and not as decrepit as we feared. Most of us fall asleep immediately.
– 1 PM: boat actually leaves harbor. A collective sigh goes through the crowd of tourists. We made it! We’re going to Kazakhstan!
– 5 PM: boat stops and goes at anchor just outside of Baku. Reason: there’s a storm coming, we’re going to stay here for another 2 days… (‘-_-)
Life on the boat itself was quite nice though: we had ‘food’ (chicken for lunch and dinner, accompanied with either rice, pasta or cooked wheat and ketchup). We had a good bed. Movies/series to watch. Books to read. And the truckers had lots of wodka!
(“Hi guys, wanna have some wodka?”, he cried from his cabin window, waving his wodka partybox around.
These two guys were hilariously drunk, including falling into each others’ arms whenever possible.)
(Gambling machines in the hallway, still needed Deutsche Mark to play though.)
(No Titanic for us! Lifeboat looking prim and proper.)
Luckily, the boat left the following morning, and at noon on the 8th, we arrived in the port of Aktau, Kazakhstan. Ready to get on the road again!
Or not. First, disembarking took us around 3 hours (first all the trucks had to get out). Then customs took us another 3-4 hours (lots and lots of paperwork). After saying goodbye to our compagnons de route, we found a good hotel in Aktau and called it a day. Or so we thought…