Day 30
We go on a tour of the city in the morning and see all the major sites in the old town. We are told of the Irish bar on the tour so we head there for lunch. The bar has a great atmosphere and the menu is great. I have the Enda Kenny burger with hash browns instead of a bread bun. It was great! We also sample a few of the cocktails. As we are about to leave the owner arrives. He is American but his parents were from Cork. He insists on giving the all the Irish a whiskey. His wife, he tells us is sailing in Ireland and is bringing back the white pudding for the Full Irish, which was missing from the menu.

After a few skype calls we head out for dinner, a kebab on the street. It is delicious. They are barbequed in front of us. We have discovered the essential cooking equipment in the kebab shops, a hairdryer. Every shop has one to get the coals going again when they get an order.  After another short power-cut we start to wander the streets to find a good bar to go to. We give up and go to dance bar. The guide from the tour earlier arrives and some of his friends. They are nice and we dance the night away.


Day 31

The market is our main aim for the day today so we set out after breakfast. It takes a bit of navigation but we find it only to discover that it is not a food market but a flee-market style market on the road side. It has a bit of everything in it with china sets and light fixtures on one side and tools and antiques on the other. There is a little park nearby with beautiful paintings and art work hanging on the fences.

Back at the hostel after lunch it is a computer evening, typing the blog and chatting on skype.


Day 32

The hostel workers wave us off leaving Tbilisi. We head for a little monastery, as we arrive we have to overtake a pair of cows who refuse to leave the road. They are still on the road as we leave. We head down the military highway. The view of the mountains is spectacular but the road itself is terrible. We are all a bit shaken about as we are so high up on the truck.

We arrive in Kazbegi and have a few hours to wander in the village before heading back to give a hand with dinner. The evening is spent around the campfire listening to a mix of music. We are joined by two guys from Tbilisi who are on holidays in Kazbegi. I am very impressed by the number of languages spoken by a lot of the people we are meeting on our travels. It embarrasses me that I cannot speak another language. The guys we talked to most of the night were able to speak 5 languages.


Day 33

After breakfast a group of us set out for the monastery in the top of the mountain. It is a tough trek but the scenery is beautiful and it is nice to be doing a bit of exercise.

When we get back down we are all starving so we stop off at the bar for a hot lunch. We all order the Kinkali, a Georgian dish a bit like meat dumplings. The meal is delicious.  There are two museums in the village and we visit them after lunch and find a nice craft shop also.

The evening is almost the same as yesterday with a campfire but instead of our Georgian friends, we are joined by a group of Polish bikers who intend to climb past the monastery to the glacier beyond.

Day 34

We leave Kazbegi the same way we entered via the military highway. The morning is great and there are no clouds in the sky so we get a great view of the glacier. Having lunch in a sleepy village a man and woman travelling on a donkey and cart pass us dressed in the old style clothes. It is like something form a postcard.

We cross into Armenia after lunch and while trying to ask where to go, a man kindly steps forward to help with the translation. It turns out he spent some time in Dublin with work. Small world or what!

We bush camp in a field not far from the border and watch the goat and sheep herders looking after their flocks. With one whistle the herds would change direction immediately. We are off to bed when the police arrive. Our first impression is that he is the only police man in the area but it turns out that he is leaving a colleague with is to keep watch over night. It might have something to do with the guys buying bear for the head of police in the area when they couldn’t find a shop.


Day 35

Today is one of the ladies birthdays so we have cake for breakfast. Then it is off to the nearest town to change money but the bank is closed. We head for Sheki getting our first feel for the Azerbaijan countryside. It is very dry and barren in comparison to the lush green of the last few countries. The fences are woven sticks and the bottoms of the trees are painted white.

Sheki is a beautiful mix of old buildings and new. They all have lovely stone facing. We change our currency in the fancy new hotel and head for lunch. We meet our friend from the border again and he helps us to order from the menu.

After lunch we head for the Kahn palace. We are met with a sea of colour. Every wall, inside and out, are covered in paintings. The guide tells us that it took 8 years to complete the painting.

Our bush-camp site reminds me of the moon or something for Planet of the Apes. It is the birthday girl’s dinner choice for dinner so it is roast lamb, potatoes and veg, yum! And to our delight when dinner is called there is gravy!! After a short waltzing lesson it is off the bed to try and seep in the heat.


Day 36

I wake to the worst part of our trip, the unbelievable urge to scratch the latest mossie bites! We must have been as tasty as our dinner for them last night. It is a big drive day and we are on cook group tonight. We help with the food shopping at lunch and decide on BBQ chicken and salad.

Our interesting it of today is the prehistoric painting museum and trail. It is fascinating. The museum is only just open and has loads to see but we are in a bit of a rush as they close soon. We rush through the museum to give us enough time to wander through the trail. There are all sorts of animals and people drawn on the walls. They is even pictures if pregnant women.

We bush camp at the mud volcanos tonight but as we’re cooking we’ll have a peek in the morning before making breakfast.

Day 37

After a quick dash to see the bubbling mud hills, we make breakfast and head for Baku. We are greeted here with all the huge designer names on flashy buildings and high rise 5 star hotels. It is almost like the main street in Hawaii on a much bigger scale. There is definitely money in this city.

We meet up with the new truck passenger and head for the hotel. The rooms aren’t ready yet but after a short wait we decide to go exploring and get some lunch. Pizza in an air-conditioned restaurant sets us up for our search for a supermarket to replenish our bags. We do our best but when you are passing Versace and Armani on every corner Tesco isn’t easy to find so we give up after a bit and head back to our rooms.

Steak is on the menu for dinner, it take a bit of searching before finding the place and when we see the menu we understand why no one knew where it was. It is extortionate. Some people share a steak and say it is delicious; we stick to the salad which was great. It is off to the USSR bar where we party the night away, dancing to a mix of Eurovision songs and dance tunes.

Day 38

The next morning we are all in a panic to get our visas sorted. We spend half an hour at the Turkmenistan embassy and then are sent to a bank on the other side of town to pay and get colour photocopies of our passports. We have heard a rumour that the ferry is going tonight so we are rushing to get everything ready but by the time we make it back to the embassy it has closed or the day. 

We trudge back to the hotel, check back in and get some lunch. We spend the evening in the hotel room sorting ourselves out and chatting on skype.

Day 39

We arrive at the embassy at 8:30am the next morning and wait for it to open. Before it doe open a crowd form the Mongol rally turn up. They are driving from London to Ulaanbaatar (capital of Mongolia) for charity. It sounds great! They are hoping to get their Visas sorted today also.

Once we have our visas sorted we head for the ferry port to wait it out u till the ferry leaves. The ferry has no schedule it leaves when it is full whenever that is. It is still early and there is no sign of a ferry leaving today so a bunch of us head to the shopping centre nearby to kill some time.

We are moved from one port to another and told that the ferry might leave tomorrow so we are sleeping on the roof of the truck tonight. I’m looking forward to it. Some others have done it before when bush-camping instead of putting up their tents.
Dinner is first. We wander down the road and hope to find somewhere to eat. We stumble across a lovely local place hidden just off the road. We are served up a feast of bread, salad and kebabs for just 10euro each. It is after eleven when we finish so it is back to the truck and up on the roof for the night.

Day 40

The Mongol charity rally guys appear the next morning and we spend the morning chatting to them while we hang around for the ferry. They have great stories from their trip so far and how they got involved in the first place.

By 12mdday we are pretty sure the ferry is going to leave today and Will is sorting out our tickets. Unfortunately we have to leave two people behind because their visas didn’t come through in time and they have to fly over Turkmenistan. We are all sad see them head away in the taxi.

We are loaded on the ferry by 5pm and get going by half six. The ferry is nice, a lot nicer than last year apparently. They music comes out and we all chill out for a bit. Dinner consists of chips and bread. The locals are amazed by the other ladies drinking beer on the ferry. We seem to be the topic of interest for the evening.

Brenda and I head out on deck to have a look before sundown when a local guy beckons us to the front of the ferry using hand signals of driving. We are ushered into the captains deck and encouraged to take photos. It was great fun. Every deck hand nearby  it seems wants a photo. After all the smiles we rush back to tell everyone.

The evening turned into a bit of a party with one of the Mongol rally guys getting piled high with cereal boxes, flip flops, and sun cream when he fell asleep. The locals thought this was the funniest thing ever and rushed to take pics before he woke up. When he did wake up he was very good about it.

There was one of the Mongol rally guys from the North and when we heard where we were from you will never guess!!!! Yes, he said “Do you know …?” and of course we did, he lived with a brother of one of the guys from primary school in college. How mad is that!! One of the other guys commented that this wasn’t helping their idea of small little Ireland.

Day 41

We were all looking forward to a lie-in this morning. We all assumed that the ferry would take at least 16hours but a head pops into our cabin and tells us to get. The ferry docks by half nine and we are all off be ten waiting for the border to process our passports. The morning is filled with napping and chatting. We had arranged our visas to start tomorrow but we are all hopeful that they will let us through anyway, but they don’t. We must wait until midnight.

The rest of the day is spent eating lunch, napping and catching up on diary entries. There are about 40 of us waiting between the Mongol Rally people and ourselves. Karen kindly invites all the others for dinner. It is a great success, there is the lads form England and a group from Italy. Stories are exchanged about how everyone arrived to the port and their plans for the rest of the trips. Drift wood has been spotted around so there is a scavenger hunt for wood as we have none left. Everyone chips in and the guys all gather around the saw and prove their manliness (hehehe).

After a cup of tea around 11pm the border guards come over and ask for the driver to start the enry process. I won’t bore you with every detail but we ended up sleeping in the border office hall and the drivers did not make it to bed until 4am with their wallets significantly lighter.

Day 42

At 7am we are woken and sent on our way. We have a bit of breakfast in the car park and set on our way after goodbyes and good luck to the other groups. We meet them a short time later when we have been stopped by the police to prove our documents.

I catch my first glimpse of wild camels and desert terrain today. It is fascinating seeing the vast sea of sand and the mountains in the distance. The truck is very quiet today, I think everyone is tired out and drained from the last few days.

After a small technical issue that is quickly rectified (small power steering oil leak) we stop at the next town for some local cuisine. The locals are a little wary but the food is good, a plate of dumpling type things with meat in them.

We bush camp in the hills near the underground lake. We are all really looking forward to a shower and clean clothes. I walk to the top of the hill while waiting on dinner. The view is fantastic. Again a sea of beiges, browns and yellow with the twinkling of the street lights starting to come on in the distance.

Day 43

The underground lake is our first stop today. We have a little wait though because they aren’t open yet so we chill in the little café before our swim. As we descend the stairs we get the sulphur musty smell and it gets warmer the closer we get to the lake. The facilities are basic but with the low lighting they set a great ambiance. We have a great swim, there is only a few others at first but by the time we get out the locals are coming down in droves.

We hit the road again and head straight for Ashgabat. We have all heard and read loads about this city and it is everything we expect and more. It is full of huge white marble skyscrapers with barely anyone in the streets. There are pictures of the president everywhere and flags flying above every building. We immediately scramble for our cameras only to be shouted at by the police “NO CAMERA!!!” We did get a few sneaky pics though.

When we get sorted into our hotels and all get showered, we head to the British pub for a bite to eat. There are only two restaurants in the lonely planet guide so majority ruled the local place out. At 10:40pm we are all astounded when the barman closes that bar and ushers us outside. We then remember that there is a 11PM curfew. (Crazy or what!) So we head back to the hotel to continue the party.

Day 44

We had earmarked today as a sight-seeing day but seeing as we had seen most of the city yesterday when looking for the hotel and realised that the city was huge so we settle for a trip to the hub of activity, the shopping centre. We are all looking for the local Turkmen dresses. They are beautiful full length fitted dresses with short and long sleeves and an embroidered piece around the round of the neck. Unfortunately we discover that they are all made to order and we don’t have the time to wait for one to be made.

We have dinner in the Chinese next to our hotel tonight which is really nice. One of the girls parents come from China and we are all very jealous of her food when it comes out. We have decided that she can do all the ordering when we get to China. She also shows me how to eat with chop sticks which is a great success.

Day 45

After stocking the ruck with food for the next few days we head for the gas crater. It is a long drive to get there and we get there just after 4pm. Last year they didn’t attempt to get up to the crater but our truck has four wheel drive so we give it a go.

We get most of the way up when we get stuck in the sand and it is out with the shovels and sand mats. It goes well and after a few runs on the sand mats we are at the top. It is still bright so when we look into the huge hole in the ground the small pockets of fire in it aren’t too impressive. After dinner it is a different story. As dusk begins to settle in the crater starts to glow and by the time the sun fully disappears the true splendour of the crater come alive. The heat hits you as you walk near this glowing pit in the ground and the smell of gas is in the air. We take lots of photos and are joined by more Mongol Rally people with horror stories of the ferry. We sleep on the roof of the truck tonight.


Day 46

We end up sand-matting most of the way down form the crater. We are all wrecked and have sore shoulders and hands by the time we are setting up breakfast at the bottom near the road.

It is another long drive day today. We are hoping to cross  into Uzbekistan and bush-camp as close to Kiva as possible. We stop off on the way to see the ruins of Kahn Urgench. They are beautiful when you consider that they are from the 13th century.

The border crossing is very relatively easy and I think the border guards are the first Turkmen people I’ve seen smiling.

We bush-camp just over the border tonight to the sound of wild birds and what sounds something like a frog.