Odyssey Overland 2011 London to Australia: Oh hey, hi guys, me again, so what’s new?

Last entry saw us pondering life from some rather comfortable camp chairs up in the mountains out of Telavi. This run of camping was followed by a delightful wine fuelled evening at a beautiful home stay in Telavi. Clothes and bodies were once again cleaned and livers were once again punished with the local hooch. We did in fact contact the office at early o’clock to let them know what a great time we were having. I feel sure they appreciated that!

Home cooked meal at the Telavi homestay

Jim and the ladies having a laugh

Odyssey Overland family members

Richard and the ladies... it's a hair thing

So refreshed and resupplied and with a spanking new 35m water hose, Jim and I finally flipped at the one brought with from the UK, we set off.

We stopped for yet more culture at the 17^th Century citadel of Gremi, sacked by the Shah a long, long time ago. From here it was a short drive to a steamy bush camp as we readied ourselves for the Azerbaijan border.

Calypso at Gremi

Bushcamp enroute to Azerbaijan

Time to relax and take it all in before hitting the Azeri border

Not too much to report there. Took a few hours and we were in. A rather bouncy but otherwise pleasant drive saw us arrive at the town of Sheki, or Saki or Sexi depending on which map you have. Here we stayed at a classic Caravanseri, a hotel from the past....it has been very well redone and once again is offering weary travellers a safe haven on their travels. Another good night ensued and Jim was seen preparing the ladies for sale in return for some camels!

Caravansarai hotel, lovely

Jim getting ready to trade some damsels for camels

From Sheki our transit through Azerbaijan continued with lovely sunny weather and a slightly worse for the wear road. Last night saw us camp at our best bushcamp spot so far, a place discovered by Pete, Odyssey owner, and what a great place it is. A wide open plain with spurting mud volcanoes...whose crust is not as thick as it looks, just ask Jim.

Awesome wild camp

Mud volcano wild camp

Oops, Jim sinks into the mud!

Then this morning it was early up and into Baku, the thriving oil fuelled town on the shores of the Caspian and our launch spot over to the “stans”. We deposited the group at the hotel and then went to the port to sort a boat. I will not bore you with the details but the only way to describe the port is absolute chaos, trucks, cars and people everywhere and no order at all. Throw in some trains and animals and there you have it. 5 hours of negotiating and we are in possession of a waybill for the truck and tickets for us. We are going cabin class this time so will see what they are like. Timing is a flexible idea and nowhere is that truer than here...we are all due to meet at 2.30am tomorrow morning, I KNOW!, then the boat comes in, theoretically, at 4am then we get on and go.....sounds as good a plan as we are going to get!

Thus in all likely hood this will be my last mail for fair few days as we are in Turkmenistan and then northern Uzbek where connection can be iffy. And on that note I will leave you with one of my favourite quotations and one I am relying on today....”Be realistic, plan for a miracle” Hasta la pasta, CJ and the travelling Calypsoites