Sweating buckets

After 12 hues of waiting we boarded the sweat box across the Caspian sea and nearly drowned in our own sweat. The cabins were hotter than the outside temperature.

We managed to sleep for 10 hours consequently we missed breakfast and lunch with 6 hours until dinner

We arrived in Aktau and were welcomed with 5 hours of paperwork, bureaucracy and men in various shades of camouflage enthusiastically stamping bits of paper.

We are now in a Kazakh cafe deciding between Bulgarian gays and Eggplant Loving for breakfast

Road maniacs, trolls and the capital

Yesterday we left Batumi in the pouring rain with Georgian drivers overtaking and undertaking on single lane roads, visibility was poor and traffic was bad but we put in a solid few hours until the darkness came. We struggled to find a place to camp, firstly driving into a farm and then to a weird area where there was a creepy man in a Mercedes waiting around. Time to move. We ended up following a road and camping under a bridge, like trolls, only to realise after we'd pitched and had got into bed that it was near a very active train line. They are not quiet in Georgia.

Today we found ourselves in the old city of Tblisi, Georgia. Andrew bravely wrestled with the traffic in the city centre and we decided that the day was best spent enjoying the city and staying the night became the plan. We climbed up to the large statue of the 'Mother of Georgia' and scrambled around the ruined fortress that over looks the city. Meanwhile due to mosquitos enjoying fresh British blood we are starting to look like we have chicken pox. Nice.

Turkish Delight

Yesterday we crossed the border into Turkey and had our first run ins with border guards who found it extremely entertaining to send Andrew on a wild goose chase for some green card insurance and knock on an empty booth for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile Rob and Tori had the bonnet open pretending to know things...there appeared to be a crack in he coolant reservoir, poking the crack revealed a hole which we managed to tape much to the approval of a local old person. We then went on to camp with some local kittens and today drove to Istanbul where we spent an amazing day wandering the streets of the old city and negotiating the busy city traffic (thanks to Tori)

Tomorrow Asia awaits...

Blagging the Bulgarian border (and other stuff)

Right it's been a few days but much has happened. We have driven the transfargarian highway and sunning ourselves on the beaches of Constanta.

We also spent a night at Camp Dracula, no it's not a gay bar, but currently we are just outside Varna in Bulgaria having given the border guards a photocopy of our registration documents and hoping they would be convinced they were original.

Hopefully we can update from Istanbul so I can take some photos on this phone

Rain and motorways

So far it's rained for 18 hours straight but the good news is we're really good at putting the tent up in the rain! No run ins with the German police this time though

Heading to Prague today for a beer and a shower...not at the same time