With the help of our new friends we managed to get tickets for the ferry to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan. This is a tricky business, and in the 4 days that we were in Baku going to the ferry port we met several others trying to get tickets either for the ferry to Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan. You see the ferry is actually only a cargo ferry and although passengers can normally get a ticket, a passenger with a vehicle is a different thing altogether! There is a lot of information on the internet but Fintan and I found it was all very subjective and there is a sliding scale of how successful different people have been. If you are considering this it is essential to have someone to translate for you. Any opportunity to ignore you will be taken by the port, and not understanding each other is a pretty decent excuse!

Yesterday we had been told there was a ferry in thee afternoon, but when we got to the port office, we were told it had left at 6am, useful! So we came back to the port this morning… the official told us to come back between 3 and 4pm with our friend Tahira. Then 5 minutes later he called Tahira and told her to come at 5pm… later that day she was told to come at 6pm.

So after a manic 30 minute drive searching for the 57th Harbour, we arrived and waited to be seen. Tahira was wonderful and made sure all our paperwork was correct. At 8pm we had our tickets, well Fintan had his ticket and had his cargo listed as:

Toyota Landcruiser 2006

Jackson-Hicks GBR*PassportNumber*

Cargo?!?! Hmmph! Well, at least I'm on the ship…

We went for a dinner together and some drinks at Otto (good live music, and nice people that even allowed Nico on stage!) before heading back to the harbour for loading. We arrived at about 1am (13/07)…Having the girls with us clearly worked wonders with the Port Officials - we got priority boarding, and a cabin! So just to be clear, "Priority boarding" took us 2 hours and meant we were allowed on before the Turkish Truckers, and allowed to park by the gate! We were on the ship by 3:30am! We said our goodbyes to our amazing new friends, who had waited with us to be sure we got onboard and were safe. I was exhausted so went to bed. Fintan wanted to drink his cold beers on the deck with a German motorcyclist we'd met, Tobias. We're on the boat!!