We made an early start with over 100km to go to the border! Another border! And this one we were really worried about... Russia... wow! The horror stories we've heard about this border! We were prepared to arrive at 8am and be there for the entire day. The Kazakh side probably took more time, and at the fourth and final official ink-stamping office building I noticed a sticker by the window for 220B - They are massive Sherlock fans, and desperately want to live n...

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 ...

From Saki we headed to Qobustan to see the "mud volcanoes". What a strange sight! We couldn't find it from the directions in Lonely Planet (the book I am coming to least trust in the entire world) so we pulled into a police hut and asked for directions. So helpful, for just a small fee(!) one of the policemen rode with us and gave directions -to be fair we would never have found it! On the way up we did notice lots of abandoned drill sites... the water/mud is no...

After a mess around with the Azerbaijan embassy we did get our visas. We spent our last few days in and around Tbilisi with Greg and Maria looking around the markets, enjoying dinner and wine and Georgian traditional dancing and singing. We all went on a bit of a random adventure looking for a fishing spot and got caught up in a rally! That was just after Fintan had been attacked by wasps. His leg swelled up and I was a bit worried... but sitting around in the ai...

Hoorah! We both received our passports back to the Marriott Tbilisi, with 60 day single entry L type visas! After months of planning and organising and everything revolving around the China leg of the trip we finally have a visa and a confirmed itinerary! And we have the carnet du passage! We have to say thank you to the Marriott for signing for our packages, even though we weren't staying there! The list of papers and documents to collect is getting shorter... ...