Turkmenistan is a bit of a crazy place in so many ways, the locals are friendly people, always happy to help where they can, though due to past rule they are always a bit nervous around foreigners. The customs and immigration procedure is long and involved and took us about 4 hours. When we finally got through it was about 5pm and we planned to run all the way to Ashgabat, the capital, that night so as to catch the famous Sunday market. A must for everybody visiting Central Asia, possibly be the best market around. It was an interesting drive, due to government policy most people are banned from driving at night, mainly due to a police force that are too lazy to run all the control points at night. At every check point we had to negotiate our way on. Ata our local guide excelled himself and negotiated our smooth passage allowing us to arrive in Ashgabat at about 2 in the morning, enough time for everybody to get enough sleep and head for the market the next morning. Our discovery the next morning that the local currency had strengthened by 50 % was a bit of a shock, and so Turkmenistan is now officially the most expensive place en route for a bottle of water or beer. Ashgabat is also special for it’s the crazy design, all by local and French architects and built by the French. It’s amazing in so many ways, though an amazing waste of the people’s money. Amazing that one man can build so many monuments to himself!!


Camels at the market

After two nights in a fancy hotel with a great pool, heaps to see and explore and a chance to get all the laundry done, we headed almost directly north for one of Turkmenistan’s really special sights, the burning gas crater of Davassa. Arriving early evening we set up camp in the desert, while Ata the local guide, hiked off to find a monster desert truck to bounce us over the sand dunes to the gas crater. It’s an amazing drive to an even better spectical. Arriving just before dark there is a slight glow from the massive crater and it gets more spectacular as the skies get darker.

Camping just outside the crator

Ata our local guide

The Gas Crator

Our group

The following day was an early starts as we continued to head north for Uzbekistan. Most of the day was spent driving through Karakorum Desert dust storms with temperatures hitting 42 degrees, lucky a dry heat so liveable. Arriving in Uzbekistan and it seems our border luck is back, with hardly any hassles and only a brief search of some of the truck and luggage. Then a short drive to Khiva, our first fantastic silk road city and the home of our local guide Jalol.
We stayed in a great family run guest house which proved the idea venue to celebrate Terry and Lesley’s wedding anniversary. The family lay on an Uzbek feast even with the local port wine and a group of wedding dancers to entertain us for the evening. A fairly early start the next morning to try and see as much of Khiva in the cool and with Jalol as a guide everybody had an amusing look at the history of the town.

City tour with Jalol, speaking with intense passion for his country

Wedding Anniversary celebration dinner at our homestay in Khiva

Khiva



Bukhara was next on the list, with two full days to enjoy it, was a nice relaxed time and the girls decided it was time for a girl’s night out. A big session of pampering and talking rubbish I am sure, followed by dinner out and then off clubbing. Though, the club they got sent to was having a kiddie night and closed at twelve, and no the lads had nothing to do with it. Surprisingly though, the lads seemed a bit lost without the girls, and the Irish definitely lost the ability to drink.

Bukhara

Wood carving

Uzbek Monies

Girls night out - beautiful toes



Next we headed for the Kisikylm Desert for two nights camping on the shores of the desert lake. En route we stopped off in Nurata to view the holy fish before rolling on to the lake. We ended up not rolling, as we searched out a good spot really close to the shore, the truck broke through the hard crust into the muddy layer bellow, with only a small amount of the back wheels showing. We were forced to set camp and start digging and jacking up the truck to get it out of the mud. Jalol disappeared of over the hill to find a truck to pull us out, Cheryl and most of the rest started setting up camp, while Pete and Tim, helped out by a couple of the lads, started getting the truck up on an almost level plane. It was a great sight when a big Soviet build dump truck roared over the hill to give us a pull which would save us hours of jacking and sand matting. We paid the local driver for the pull and soon we were all in the lake having a bit of a cool down. As it got dark the wildlife emerged and decided to put on a bit of a show. All bush camps have some wildlife and it is very seldom we have any hassles, but there did seem to be a fair number of scorpions in this camp and even a small snake.

Holy fish

Poor Penelope stuck

Next stop was Samarkand and its fantastic Registan Square and our hotel was just 2 minutes away. This was our last silk road city for a while and we headed off to explore it with Jalol.

Registan square

Registan square

Tashkent our next stop is seen as the hub of Central Asia. This modern wide streeted capital is so different from what we have seen over the last weeks, big shops and restaurants with western influences. I think everybody enjoyed a bit of a break from the history and a chance to relax and kick back around the pool.
Approaching the end of our stay in Uzbekistan, a jump across the mountain barrier to the Fergana valley, the bread basket of Central Asia, was required. Due to politics and some crazy rules, no passenger carrying vehicle is allowed over the pass if it has more than 5 seats so the truck was forced to transit through Tajikistan, while the group hopped over the hill with taxis. First stop was Kokand and the Khans palace before heading to Fergana city to stay in a luxury hotel for the night. Owned by the presidents family for some crazy reason we get really good rates and so can afford to stay in this crazy place, there was a full on pool party going when we arrived with the locals putting on quite the show.

The Caspian Cruise

Everyone was quite excited and there was no problem getting piled into taxis and screeming off towards port, in a mix of mercedes benz's and a couple of local Lada taxis.

We soon cleared customs and immigration and the wait to board the ferry began. After a long delay that should have worned us of things to come everybody was shown to their cabins. We met up on deck to watch the lights of Baku and the lights of the oil rigs dance in the sea around us. I think it can be said, the first night was fairly festive with a birthday boy on board, well, actually no, it had ended at 12am while we were waiting for the ferry, but this was a good excuse to party the night away and for some to see the sunrise the following morning.

A normal Caspian crossing with all associated port entries and departures usually takes about 20 hours with an actual sailing time of about 12 to 16 hours, depending on the weather. The next day by mid afternoon we sighted the port of Turkmenbashi and all thought we would be back on terra firma that evening. It was slightly alarming when we dropped anchor about 3 miles off shore, and so the wait began, 2 and a bit days. But this is a group up for every challenge and in the end I actually think everybody will look back fondly at our cruise, though stationary on the Caspian.
Deck games were the order of the day with the hammocks coming out and the main lounge area turned into a snoozing area. Food soon became an issue, as when you are only expecting a day and then work out you may be there a bit longer, 20 hungry people can go through a lot of food. The trucks emergency stocks came out and made sure everbody ate well. I think we will be remembered fondly by the Caspian crewe who radioed the other ferries that were waiting, to say, cheer up, its not all bad, our passengers are having a blast.










Fishing from the ferry deck

Pictures from Azerbaijan

Cliff edge going to Lahic


















Bush camp by the river













Mud Volcanoes
Mud Volcanoes
Mud Volcanoes

Roof seats on route to Lahic

Azerbaijan

Its been a while since I could sit and type up the blog, to say the least, it has been interesting times, and I take my hat off to an amazing group who are a pleasure to travel with and are determined to help us make this the trip of a lifetime.

The sad news is that despite all efforts, entry to Tibet has proved impossible, and so an alternative route has had to be added. It's sad that we will not see Tibet, but considering the situation there at the moment, it may be a good thing, as all would have been rather depressing.

The show must go on! Yep, we have had to skip over a special part of the journet, but the new itiniary will take us to some amazing places and these are going to be great to explore and experience. Odyssey Overland will make it to Australia, there is no turning back.

Many expeditions have turned back this season and it has been a terrible year for all overlanders, but with the Olympics, Tibetan riots, a major earthquake and the closure of Tibet, there was not too much that we could do about it. But, everything points to next year being back to normal.

We are all sad to say goodbye to Penelope our faithful truck, the sweetest truck around, with Tim and Cheryl about to head off and drive back to the UK over the next 25 days or so, before flying out to meet us when we arrive in Bangkok. This said, another truck has been arranged and soon the group will be aboard Archie, heading off to explore Northern India and Nepal, and then on to Thailand where we will get back to the original plan. It seems very fitting that we will be visiting the home of the Dali Lhama in exile, but more to come on our routing as we go through.

Some time has passed since we left Georgia to head off into Azerbaijan and a lot has happened since then, we even found time to do an extended cruise of the Caspian Sea, our thanks goes to the crazy twisted people in the port of Turkmenbashi, who decided to let us float outside the port for three days while they awaited a train. Yep, Turkmenistan is a rather strange place, but first Azerbaijan.

Folks were sorry say goodbye to Georgia's amazing scenery and friendly people, not to mention the food and wine. The border crossing was fairly uneventful with the strangest part being that we all had to pay for a medical check at the Azerbaijan frontier, then once the money was paid no doctor showed up to do the check, so we rolled on into Azerbaijan. At first it seemed a lot like Georgia, but as we ran along things slowly changed and soon everyone was well aware that we had entered another strange country with loads of new experiences awaiting us.

We had camped the night before and now headed for another bush camp, so everybody was fairly keen to find a spot where the promise of a river to have a swim was high on the agenda. Temperatures had started to rise and cool refreshing water would go down a treat. After lots of slowing down and speeding up I finally found the right turning to take us to the camp we had used the year before. With a big popular tree for shade and great views to the surrounding hills, it was not long till most people had jumped in for a refreshing swim, and were now ready for a good night enjoying the many gallons of wine we had brought from georgia.

It was an early start the next morning as we made a bee line for Sheki and its famous slik road caravanassari, now a hotel, its still great to wonder and get a feel of what it must have been like in the old days, when caravans plied this route with their spices, silk and other goodies. A visit to the Khan's summer palace was also one of the big attractions with some great woodwork and painting. The entire building was built without the use of nails and relies on elaborate wooden joints to keep it together.

We then headed for the mountain village of lahic, another hidden gem, well off the beaten tourist track. Will another mountain pass road, we soon had a good number of people up on the roof seats as we wound our way up into the hills. Mind blowing scenery and a great hamlet of narrow streets yielded the local copper smiths hammering out amazing designs. We canped for the evening in a local tea garden with our first game of volley frisbee played by a number of very competative people emerging from the group.

The next days plan was to get as close to Baku as possible and then go into bush camp for the night and head for Baku early the next day to get as much time as possible in the crazy oil funded town. At about 4pm a small dirt track was seen meandering up into the hills and so it was decided to check it out as a possible bush camp. Narrow, winding and getting a couple of people a bit on edge it was worth every bit of the adventure for when we crested the hill, we drove onto a high plain dotted with active mud volcanoes. Sort of like a star wars theme gone wrong, but a fantastic setting for another amazing bush camp with poeple just blown away, sure to come a regular stop in future years, a hidden Odyssey exclusive!!

Baku never disappoints with its crazy oil fueled viabrance, though it does empty your pockets rather quickly. This was expected to be our most expensive stop on the trip outside Europe, little did we know what lay ahead for us in Turkmenistan.

The crew headed straight for the docs to find out about trans Caspian ferries, as there is no regular service and it is a matter of going down to the port and begging and bribing your was onto a ferry. As soon as we arrived they informed us that there was a ferry leaving that evening and there was no guarentee when the next one would leave. We declined, as we had only just arrived, and returned to the hotel before heading out to a cool restaurant in the centre for a good meal, and then for the adventurous, out clubbing.

All was good to go by day three of our stay in Baku, with a ferry due to leave at about 1 o'clock in the morning.

Finally an update!!

Just seems to be so much happening, just been a constant flow of amazing things to see and do and everybody seems to be having a total blast. Sorry if you been waiting for this update, must admit I have been having too much fun. I am sitting up in the mountains in small mountain hamlet called Mestia in Georgia, been the first chance that I have had as all the group have headed out some to a trek up into the mountain and some in jeeps to drive even further up into the hills to another village famous for its Christian relics and setting as it is surrounded by 5000m plus peaks. But more about this later.
We have made it into Central Asia, after an interesting border crossing which took about 4 hours longer than expected due to some new crazy permit required for the truck we rolled into Turkey rather late. We headed straight for Istanbul and based ourselves right in the middle of the historical heart with the Tokapi Palace, Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia all about 3 minutes walk away. From the roof top terrace of the hostel there were stunning views of the Bosporus Straits and with Asia on the other side is it so close and exotic, many folks jumped on one of the many boats and head off for a cruise on the Bosporus and landed somewhere along the Asian shore to put their foot into Asia. Think everybody felt the change as soon as we drove into Turkey. Romania and Bulgaria are the wilder countries we passed through as we came through Europe but still have a Europe feel to them, but Turkey our first Muslim country is so different and as we rolled along through the hills every town had its mosques and minarets and everybody will soon become familiar with the regular call to prayer.
As we headed for Turkey we spent some great time in Romania with its stunning landscapes and friendly people. Sighasora, famous for being the birth place of Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler and said to be part of the influence which inspired the novel Dracula is a great place to wander and explore the old citadel. We decided to upgrade to for 2 nights to a nice hotel as camping through Europe has taken it out of a couple of people with the weather not being too great, strange in many ways, but I think when we look in months to come Europe will be seen as some our most hard camping. The weather has been the worst I have ever had while coming through Europe. We have done two free camps to date, one in the hills near Rosnov Castle in Romania close to a river with snow capped peaks hanging over us and the other as we entered Bulgaria on the shores of a stunning lake. I think everybody is getting a feel for overland style free camping and all are looking forward to some of the great camps we have coming up. We also spent some time in Brasov and Bucharest, though due to the Easter holidays in this part of the world, a lot of the attractions were closed while we were in Brasov, but by hanging in Brasov for a day we were able to arrive in Bucharest with everything open on the Tuesday. The next highlight and in some cases horror was the Palace of the People, said to be only beaten in size by the Pentagon, this crazy waste of the people’s money tells a sad story of Romania’s past. For dinner the one night we ended up in a stunning restaurant, made you feel as if you were dining in a museum, but was a great start to get the first truck birthday celebrations going, Elaine got the full works with a birthday cake, Terry and Lesley came out of retirement and even did Elaine’s hair as a birthday present and then we found “Revenge” a really cool basement bar which we soon had managed to turn into our own birthday party venue, needless to say a lot of people got well into the celebration and some video evidence the following morning of the pole dancing on the bar left a couple of people a touch uncomfortable , negotiations are ongoing as to whether I should make the video available on YouTube.


View from the hotel boat we stayed on in Batumi

Goreme and getting ready to go ballooning



Istanbul is such a great city to explore, with so many great sights to see, Sam and Maura soon headed for the grand bazaar to search out a truck guitar and all going well we will have some great tunes around the camp fire in nights to come. From stunning mosques to churches build in 540AD which was converted to a mosque in 1456 and now works as a museum there is so much to see and do. We then wandered our way up onto the Black Sea Coast and spent a full day just chilling, the weather seemed to find us again and we had a bit more rain, but overall everybody enjoyed the day to update dairies and catch their breath. Next up was Cappadocia with its crazy landscape and underground cities and the chance to go ballooning. A Turkish cultural night, in many ways exactly what we try and avoid as all seems a bit touristy, but Cappadocia is a special place and you soon forget the other tourists and just enjoy it for what it is. The Cultural night always seem to be a winner with everybody having a blast with Kirsten and Terry giving us a great show as they were dragged onto the floor by the belly dancer, well actually Terry could not wait!! With three full days in Cappadocia everybody had heaps of time to see the sights.
From Goreme Cappadocia the next section we spent wandering the Turkish country side for two drive days, taking the back roads we drove some amazing roads and found two epic camps one a free camp and the other a river side restaurant we took over for the evening. Our end destination was Trabzon and the nearby Sumela Monastery. Trabzon is always a great town to explore and the group soon had all had a good wander. From camping shops filled with crazy guns, amazing little restaurants and sitting in the main square drinking tea with all the village old men was good to be back in town for a while.
Into Georgia and we spent the first night in the old Russian resort town of Batumi and headed out for our first Georgian style feast, think it can be said that everybody had enough food and wine. The next morning it was an early start as we headed up into the Caucasus Mountains. Took us 7 hours to do 132km to Mestai and managed to break a main suspension spring as we wound our way up the mountain some rather bumpy nerve racking roads. Climbing more than 1000m we had our first chance to use the roof seats, these allow 4 people at a time to basically sit with their head out of the sunroof as we roll along. The grinning faces after each group finished their session getting the wind in their hair and flies in their teeth said it all. The first bunch up even got a free shower, some of the tunnels with the roof leaky roofs helped a couple of people got a touch wet, Tim also chose this moment to drive nice and slowly and seemed to drive a bit of a erratic course which took us from waterfall to waterfall.
Having broken the spring we were forced to go into camp a bit early and having had a chat to the local farmers we setup in the field with snow capped mountains on all sides and soon had drawn a good crowd of locals all rather interested in Penelope and the crazy foreigners who emerged. Soon though the kids where having the time of their life as a hill side football game commenced, while the crew split themselves between making a tasty dinner and changing the broken spring. We also had the local police arrive and after having been suitably introduced they informed us they would be staying the night to ensure that we were safe and well cared for. Bit strange having two machine gun toting men looking after you, but this region after troubled times in 2004 are determined to get tourism back and all stops are pulled out to look after any visitors. Strangely the rain found us at about 2am and really poured down with enough water that by the next morning the truck had started to settle and so we had our first truck bogging, but with the aid of sand mats and everybody giving us a good push it took us about an hour to get out.
Have now arrived in Tbilisi the capital of Georgia and a really funky city. From Mestia we had to wind back down the mountain the same way we had come in, on the drive in it had been spectacular, but with no clouds on the surrounding peaks the drive out was mind blowing. Once down we headed for Kutaisi a local town with a great market and the ruined Bagrati Cathedral and Palace after a short visit here we headed out of town and managed to find another great bush camp on the banks of a river. Yet again the local police showed up and insisted on looking after us for the night, once the local police chief had been down to see the these crazy tourists. He worked out that in the interest of safety all machine guns should go home with him as there was a fair chance that our guards for the night would be welcomed by the group and offered a couple of beers, guns and alcohol just don’t mix well. With an early start the next morning we headed to Gori to visit the Stalin Museum for at times rather comical and one sided view of his life. From Gori it was a short drive to Tbilisi the funky Georgian capital, but more about this in my next update from Baku, Azerbaijan.

Bush camp on the way into Mestia in Georgia

Cheryl one of the crew

Last of Europe and into Asia

Been a while since I last got either a good connection or had the time, all my good intentions of updating the blog in Istanbul got pushed back as Istanbul as it can kept everybody flat out from taking a boat across the Bosforus to Asia, eating fish sandwiches with the locals on the edge of the Golden horn. As soon as the folks spell check my blog script a more detailed account will be uploaded.

Our bushcamp in Bulgaria just before entering Turkey

Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Spice bazaar, Grand Bazaar

Driving across the Bosforus as we enter Asia

New toll system on bridge holds us and it seemed

like most of Istanbul up for more than 1 hour


Street near the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul