Day 43

First up today! James looks like he’s unconscious but the tent’s boiling so I’m out in the sun on the beach watching the birds and listening to some music. There are some huge birds around - Eagles or Hawks of some kind, I can’t tell what though. There are also some seagulls fishing and then having to fight off the rooks whenever they catch anything.

Didn’t take long for someone to get up and make coffee and boiled eggs. Everyone’s up now, Hugh and I have spent about 30mins throwing stones at a glass jar about 20m down the beach. I was pretty much ready to give up when he hit it square on and it smashed. Now we’re off for a swim.

Well, that was refreshing - the water was pretty murky and has a load of foam round the edges. I feel nice and clean now! We’re off on the road to Mongolia again, in the baking sun, on some of the straightest roads ever.

Just had a walk around and a bite to eat in Taldy-Korgan, very busy bazar, lots of ice cream stalls and a lot of one way streets that make it almost impossible to get out of the town. We managed to get back on the road to Semey and are going to see how far we can get before it starts to get dark, then we’ll just see if we can find somewhere to sleep.

We’ve just been attacked! Nutella-bread to the windscreen! What a waste. We retalliated with similar weaponry but just missed Russ’s window.

Found a nice enough place to camp just before it got dark and then a dust storm decided to blow over us, so we’ve spent the last couple of hours just sitting in the cars.

The dust cloud has passed now and we’ve just had some noodles & tuna, although the tuna was a bit funny (it was actually salmon) it was pretty tasty. Washed down with a nice beer too, it’s strange drinking a bottle of beer that slowly gets cooler as time goes by. It’s getting late again now though, so time for bed.

Day 42

Morning on a landfill! Lovely! Nice morning coffee and nutella sandwich, now we’re off back into Almaty to see if we can register our presence in Kazakhstan, get some more money out and buy some food to keep us going.

Found the immigration police place without too much trouble and a woman there who helped us out and spoke pretty good English. To register properly, one needs an address in Kazakhstan and “my tent” apparently isn’t good enough. But rather than pay 400USD each for a hotel room we won’t even stay in, some hotels (including the one this woman works for) will cook the books a bit and register us within the hour for $20 (it can take over a day apparently) so we’ve gone for that and now we’re registered. No 200 dollar fines at the border for us!

Just had a long wander around the city centre, managed to get some cash out in dollars, change some more Pingus and do a supermarket shop - with our own security detail watching our every step!

Managed to hit rush hour traffic out of Almaty too and are now heading out to the North, back on the road we should be on! That’s the one to Mongolia. We just got some petrol and got a guy to blow some dust out of our air filter. He wanted 50 dollars for the service, then seemed happy to take my nail clippers instead but we haggled him down to some random foreign change. That change pile is getting smaller now - past turkey nobody uses coins - but it’s been handy.

Just arrived at the beach on the North shore of a Lake, just past an unpronounceable town where TYO may or may not have driven straight past a policeman who was waving them down. This place seems like it might once have been a popular resort but now it’s totally dead. It’s a nice enough beach to sit and have a beer on (we bought a 1 litre can of beer!) and go for a swim in the morning.

Day 41

After 40 days & 40 nights on the road, we were woken up by a policeman whistling at us and standing over the tent. At 6.30am! After thinking “oh shit.... this could be expensive” - camping in a national park and we seem to be the only ones - we got up, put some clothes on and went up to the road where our car is and the policeman was standing. It was absolutely no trouble at all! They were just curious, so we told them what we were up to, they scribbled on our car and then went to leave - but didn’t have any petrol in their BMW! So they came back and asked if we had any fuel, so we gave them some from our can and they gave us... A Kalashnikov! So we took some photos and then they set off. God it’s early!

Just back from a long wander up the canyon and a nice little swim, managed to walk back in the baking midday sun as well, turning nicely brown now so not too worried about sunburn, just mosquito bites that are a real pain now. Some of them seem to have swollen up like crazy, but none are too itchy unless I scratch at them. 

Just stopped for a bite to eat at a little village on the way to Almaty after another HUGE stretch of straight, flat road through the steppe.

Arrived in Almaty along with a huge cloud of dust and some rain clouds, had a walk around and got rained on. We eventually found a net cafe to spend an hour in, had a chat with Jen, Mark & Mike, nice to hear from home. Then we went to Burger House, I had a БУХ ХАУС (Big House) meal. Yum!

Just parked up for the night about 20 miles out of Almaty on a quiet road for some Nutella-bread, probably going to sleep in the car here, it’s still pouring with rain. Kazaks don’t seem used to the wet road conditions, there’s been crashes everywhere!

Just got a call from Hugh & Russ, they’re at a net cafe in Almaty! Interrupted by the curious police, we decided to drive back into Almaty to meet up with TYO again!

Woohoo! We found them at the station no problem - Friends Reunited - at last, we’ve missed their radio banter and navigation “skills”. We went for a pint together in a nice little cafe which was pretty expensive but well worth it. Then drove out of the city again to the quiet little road, which it turns out goes through a land-fill site! But it’s stopped raining and there’s some flat dirt so we’ve all pitched tents and are off to bed, it’s gone 1am - our latest night in ages!

Day 40

Up nice and early again, plenty of time for a morning coffee, and some bread dunked in honey. The honey is definitely best in the morning when it’s cold and doesn’t drip everywhere!

Just arrived at the Kazak border, it’s a tiny stop on a crappy road. Hopefully this will be nice and easy.

It was! Slight worry on the Kyrgyz side when they were telling us in Russian that we wouldn’t be able to come back to Kyrgyzstan but when we understood all was fine and they let us go. The Kazak side was very easy too, a couple of stamps, a customs form for the car and we’re off. One of the Kyrgyz guards fancied my leatherman, but settled for some foreign coins.

The horrible horrible road turned into a dead-straigh, dead flat tarmac road just south of Karkara and we’ve made it to Kegen in no time, just changed some Euros into Tengu (I think that’s what they’re called) - we got 20 grand for 100 euros. Then filled the tank with petrol - also pretty cheap, and now we’re back on the straight, flat road to Almaty, next stop: Charyn Canyon.

We found the canyon no problem, just driven down to the river and parked the car under a bridge to hide from the sun, might go for a swim but the river is very fast flowing. There’s a nice pool to paddle around in just off the river though, good for keeping cool in. The other side of the river looks like a good camping spot too, but there’s no way to get the car down.

Some Kazakh tourists just turned up and parked next to us, they seem to be stopping here for a swim and a drink. One of the women speaks pretty good English so we’ve managed to explain what we’re doing and how long we’ve been on the road. They all seemed quite interested too.

They emailed us this photo just after I got home.

After seeing the Kazakhs do it, we decided to go for a swim. The waster isn’t all that cold, it’s just very fast and the sun is plenty warm enough to dry in. Nice to feel clean(ish) again! The group of Kazakhs also just came over again for some photos and took our email address and website.

We’ve just crossed the river to set up camp on the greener side, where there’s plenty of wood for cooking dinner. This is definitely a great lace to spend a lazy afternoon.

James has spent about an hour trying to make fire by rubbing sticks together (with no success) and I’ve been keeping cool by paddling at the side of the river.

We’ve managed to fix my flip-flops too! Some blue string and a bit of ingenuity is all you need! Duck tape might make them slightly more comfortable but they stay on my feet properly.

Just cooked tea with no problems at all, both had rations today, mine were Pork Casserole & Fruit Dumplings in custard. They were actually delicious!

The only downside to this spot is the mosquitoes - there aren’t swarms and swarms of them, but they’re around and they’re bloody annoying! So we’ve put the tent up quite early and since it’s dark we’re going to jump in and I’ll probably play solitaire for a while, good old ipod!

Day 39

Woke up to a nice warm tent again, James has already got up and gone to the car, so I’m sitting in the tent sprawled out just listening to music, will get up when the heat is unbearable.

Finally got up at half 8 - it’s sooo strange that 8.30 feels like a lie-in these days! If I was at home, I wouldn’t be up until at least noon!

We've just finished completely tidying out the back of the car, it’d become a complete mess - probably not been tidied for about 2 weeks. Now we’re of to see if we can find a nice beach to spend a few hours on before we head towards the Kazakh border.

We've found a lovely little beach, just a few fishermen around and one family with kids splashing around when we arrived but the family left again not long after we sat down. The water here is really cold though, so we’ve just been for a quick dip to cool dwn and will probably just sit and read in the sun until we get too hot again.

I went for one more dip then waited until I was dry and we went back to the car. James didn't want to get wet again, I recon he’s just scared of the cold. Now we’re heading back to Karakol to pick up some food and then head to towards Kazakhstan so we can do the border nice and early tomorrow.

Managed to spend all our remaining Som on food in Karakol before heading towards Kazakhstan on a god-awful road through a lovely valley. We found a little track down to a river, with a great little camping spot, there’s definitely been people camping here recently too.

We managed to cook dinner tonight on a proper open fire, James had Kyrgyz supernoodles and I had the first of our ration pack meals - Beef Stew with Dumplings & Chocolate pudding, it was LOVELY!

We sat and watched the fire die for a while until I realised I had seen some dry wood down the track earlier, so I went and got it and threw it all on and the flames got huge. We managed to burn all of our rubbish too, including a few pairs of socks and a couple of pairs of boxers I just couldn’t be bothered washing or taking home. Boxers burn REALLY WELL! Now it’s pretty late and there’s nothing left to burn, so it must be bedtime. Border tomorrow!

Day 35

What a great sleep! Tent is in a lovely grassy spot, feet downhill and it was freezing! I was nice and cozy with the sleeping bag done up right round my face and it was still cold in the morning, a bit cloudy and the sun didn’t rise over the valley for ages. Fantastic!

Just popped into the “North Face” shop to see if they sell stoves, but no luck. It was mainly clothes and the closest they had were gas refills.

Spent the morning hiking up to a waterfall in the park. Weather’s nice, but there’s clouds on the bigger mountains so we’ve had a couple of small showers, but the sun’s so hot that it’s just like walking through a refreshing mist.

Day 34

Got up nice and early so we can get to the embassy before it opens to make sure we get the application in today. Bread+Nutella for breakfast again!

Bummer! Just been pulled over for the second time in Kyrgyzstan, this time it’s for crossing a double white line in the road, ironically, the white lines start round a corner and are the only road markings we’ve seen on the way into Bishkek. He wanted to keep hold of my license for a month, and wouldn’t shift below 10 USD to get it back, so we paid and got back on our way to the embassy. Still plenty of time though.

Well we waited around for the embassy to open then got in after not too long, had to copy a letter to the Kazakh Embassy and fill out an immigration form, then he said come back Thursday evening to get the visa, so we should be sorted now, going to head South to Ala Archa National Park this evening and stay there until Thursday afternoon. For now, we’re going in to town again, back to our favourite Net Cafe.

Well, I managed to spend about 5 hours on the internet, typing up this diary and putting up some photos. James gave up half-way and went to read in the car and have a walk round the park.

Just popped into the supermarket again for bread, juice and more nutella, going to head out to Ala Archa now.

Wow, this place is amazing, it’s a huge canyon through some huge mountains. There’s quite a bit of cloud this afternoon, so you can’t really see the bigger mountains behind the valley walls, but the foothills are huge themselves. It reminds me of the valley in Chamonix, but it’s pretty dead too, if this was anywhere near Europe, it’d be mobbed with walkers, climbers and picnicers.

We’ve just had a walk up one of the trails to the river, it’s FREEZING but I didn’t expect much different, it’s glacial meltwater. Doubt we’d last long if we went for a swim. Just back at the car now, off to find a spot for the tent.

It’s getting cold now, we’re pretty high up and it’s been cloudy but we’ve found a nice spot for camping, just off the road, but hidden by some trees and not too far from the river.

Bugger! The stupid stove isn’t working again! There’s a “North Face” shop in the in the National Park which might sell something to replace it, but I was looking forward to a hot meal.

James is carving a chess knight from a piece of wood and I’m getting cold, so I’ve just eaten half a loaf of bread and going to bed. It’s a zipped-up sleeping bag night!

Day 31

Woke up today after a great night’s sleep, must have got about 10 hours! We got up and were treated to a huge breakfast, as much tea as we could drink, plenty of bread (with cream to dip it in) and a large bowl of soup which seemed to be made from last night’s plov. It was delicious, Botir’s family have been amazing, but now we have said our goodbyes. Off for another swim in the river then on to the border.

Oh dear! First major car trouble of the trip, and we’re on our own. To get to where we were swimming yesterday, we had to ford a small bit of river, but when we got out the other side Rudolph was spluttering out a lot of black smoke and totally unable to idle. My expert opinion is that some thing's wet and might fix itself if we leave it and go swimming. So I managed to drive it (with stupidly high revs) up to the place we parked yesterday. Now we’re going for a dip.

Well that was a nice refreshing swim, but the car is still pretty dead. We tried revving up a lot trying to see if it would dry out, then decided to try driving it back to the village and if it’s still bad, go back to Botir’s mother’s and ask for some help. I managed to miss the turning off the dirt track so had to do a 3pt turn with man-power. Then it completely died! Starting to worry that we’ll need to get a mechanic out now.

Well, I had a brainwave, what if we fight this problem with our sensor problem? So we plugged the sensor back in, and miraculously it could idle okay. It could also rev quite high with a little gas, but nothing with the foot down. So we drove it like this to the village, then unplugged the sensor again, and Hooray! it works fine again. There’s still the odd splutter here and there, but it works properly. Now off to the border.

Easiest border yet, maybe even took less than an hour! A couple of customs forms to fill in, a stamp we had to chase for and then we were off, in to Kyrgyzstan!

James isn’t feeling very well today, so I’m driving while he cowers from the sun and tries to get some rest. The roads here are pretty good, with lovely scenery. The first part of the drive was quite flat but we could see huge snow-capped mountains in the distance. Then we drove up through some mountain passes and along the side of a huge reservoir and some lakes. Driving has been fairly uneventful, regular poo-stops for James, one road toll (which may or may not have been official), and now I’ve been stopped for speeding. 89 in a 50 zone, he wanted 100 USD, but I got him down to 5 and set off for a campsite. Side roads don’t exist in steep valleys though.

We saw the Spigots’ car at a truckstop so stopped to chat, they are camping round the back tonight so I think we’ll join them. James just wants somewhere to sleep.

Stayed up chatting for a while, then pitched the tent. Nice and gravelly ground, but James is sleeping in the car, so I’ve borrowed his roll-mat.

Day 27

Rudolph’s been getting slower and slower since we headed into the Turkish hills and last night he was getting unbearable, the engine just wouldn’t rev up at full throttle, but would rev a bit with the first few mm of pedal. We figured it was just because micras are crap, but it’s definitely been getting worse. So this morning Hugh and Georgio & Tree from team Rastamouse are having a look under the bonnet to see if they can fix the problem. All three of them did or are still doing Motorsport Engineering at Coventry uni, so should be able to sort it out if it’s something simple.

Just spent about 30 mins looking at spark plugs and coil packs and trying them out in various configurations, conclusion: They aren’t the problem, let’s try the fuel filter, maybe that’s full of gunk.

Well, it’s not the fuel filter either, they just spent well over an hour bypassing it with the tube from a pen and a bit of hose that was lying around in Reggie (their van) but the problem was still there, so it’s not that.

Hugh just randomly unplugged something electronic that sits under the airbox and bam! problem solved. Rudolph will now rev like an absolute maniac and scare old people at traffic lights! Now we’re off to see the sights of Bukhara.

Some lovely old Mosques with intricate blue mosaics all over them and carved wooden pillars and a big old fort known as ‘The Ark’ are the main sights here, there was also a couple of little market stalls where you can buy most things way below the original asking price, James bought himself an Uzbek T-shirt. Our trip to the Ark was interrupted by an irate policeman coming to find us and shouting at us in Uzbek that we can’t park where our cars are (even though about 5 policemen watched us park there and said nothing.) so we went and moved them and then went back in. 

Back on the road again! Four teams are convoying up to Samarkand together, it’s great fun driving in a slightly bigger group, especially since Rudolph’s working properly now. Communication is slightly more difficult, only us and TYO have radios but it’s easy enough to pull alongside the others and shout.

We’ve had a lot of fun driving this afternoon, Hugh’s been hanging out of TB4’s hatch waving their team flag and there’s been lots of driving around each other, nobody’s managed to crash either! We’ve just stopped to take photos of a donkey pulling a cart with 2 sheep and a COW on it! It’s a hilarious sight.

Just arrived in Samarkand, found the hostel TYO had booked, but no sensor here, oh dear. It’s a nice little hostel, we’re all spending the night on their rooftop terrace with breakfast and showers included for only $11 each. I’m off for a shower!

Just back from dinner, we found a nice looking Italian place but they were just closing, so we got a taxi to a pub where we got some kebabs, rice, chips and a beer. It was great, and my first beer since Turkey. Now we’re off to bed, Rastamouse & Mammaquatia (Jeandre & Adina) are already asleep, they stayed here and cooked their own dinner.

Day 26

Well the tarp seems to have held up all night, we didn't wake up buried in sand anyway! We're off to the Uzbek border today, hopefully it won't take too long, the heat is already unreal and the sun's only just come up!

Stopped not very far along the road now, another rally car out of service, this one's another 4x4, one of their wheels and the axle had come right off and flown across the road. Turns out they'd had troubles with the bearing before and had replaced it with a tractor one, which failed spectacularly. They managed to keep it under control though, and noone was hurt. The team were canadian and had 3 cars, two smaller ones (Chevrolet Metros) and the 4x4 (Chevrolet Tracker) so plenty of people too.

We stuck around to watch the car get put on a turck and see them struggle to work out how much the man wanted (Turkmen money is crazy, they have New Manat, Old Manat - 5000old = 1 new and USD, and a lot of people quote your price in old manat but leave off some 0s). Then we helped them out by taking some of their bags into the town for them and now we're off again, looking for some food and cold water.

Team Young Offenders stopped at the only food shop they could see on our drive through Turkmenabat and we bought some bread, water and some lemonade. The lemonade tastes like melted strepsils - Yuck! The bread is pretty solid and horrible, and the water isn't even cold, none of us like Turkmenabat, it's a total shithole.

We've just realised that we've paid about 20USD to cross a bridge! We thought when we were paying that it was some border type charge, but no, just a crappy sinking bridge - it's made of metal rafts tied together and bounces up and down depending on how many lorries are on your section of raft.

Finally made it to the border after driving around Farab for quite a while and now we're out of Turkmenistan. Unfortunately we're not out of the heat! Hugh almost passed out in passport control and was looking quite green for a while. We've just bumped into Jeandre and Adina again: Disaster! - their Uzbek visas don't start until October! They camped in this little car park last night and don't seem to have any solid plan to get out before October. They don't seem bothered by it at all though.

We stuck around and chatted for a while, bought them some water and used the no-man's-land tap to have a wash, we also bumped into Morris2Mongolia again but only briefly and through border fences. Now we're into Uzbekistan! We're sitting at a checkpoint 2km from the border waiting for Rastamouse to get through (Russ knows one of them from MSN chat and we bumped into them just before Hugh nearly passed out).
After a brief argument with a soldier in order to get Mondo2 (My American football) back, we're back on the road, now a convoy of 3, towards Bukhara.

Just stopped in a little farm or something because we caught up with the Canadians with the broken bearing. (They put the old one on to get through the border and are just parking it up here for a while) Lots of local kids around having fun on the mountain board, and some of the girls have been given cuddly toys by Charlie of team Rastamouse.

Had dinner in Bukhara, 7 of us round the table for all sorts of who-knows-what, great meal had by all, hopefully no food poisoning!

As we were driving out of town we saw Jeandre & Adina's car! We found them in a restaurant just starting their meal, so waited for them and drove out of town together, 4 cars! to find somewhere to sleep.

Photos from the day.

Day 25

Up nice and early again, joined pretty early by a pair of South Africans, Jeandre & Adina (brother & sister) who are also on their way to Mary! We told them they were on the wrong road and they seemed in quite a hurry to get to the border - They need to be out of Turkmenistan a day before us - so they turned around and sped off again.

The Canuckleheads have just left us, Bruce made an executive decision to head back to Ashgabat and past Darvaza (the route they had originally planned) Alex didn't seem too happy, but they've gone now.
After quite a bit of doubling and tripling back on ourselves, we're on the road to Mary again! Now looking for the old city of Merv.

Just eaten a bizarre meal: Soup, lots of bread and a kebab. At a tiny little place at the side of the road, We had stopped to ask if we were on the right road to Merv (we are) then TB4 died about 500m down the road. Instead of wait for 20 mins in the baking heat of the semi-desert, with no shade, we piled all 4 of us into Rudolph and drove back to the eaterie. The mutton soup was a little different, but it was a tasty enough meal, I'm stuffed now. When we got back to TB4 there were another 2 rally cars pulled up, team morris2mongolia - They'd just stopped to see if anyone was around or if there was a problem and were about to set off again when we returned.

We convoyed with morris2mongolia for a little while, laughing at their very proper use of radio-speak but we've stopped for a toilet stop in the desert and they've shot off because they don't want to wait 20 mins for the thunderbird to cool down. Some locals stopped for a look around our cars and a mimed chat while we were waiting, and now we're back on the road.

30mins down the road now and we've pretty much run the walkie talkie batteries flat just by talking utter nonsense in a very proper way. We also just passed a petrol station with a thermometer reading 47 C!! No wonder we've drunk about 2 gallons of water each!

It's getting dark now so we've found somewhere to pull off the road and pitch camp, it's going to be far too hot to get to sleep for a while yet.

We've spent the last couple of hours just sitting on a pile of sand playing with cameras (Hugh's camera has a 10 second shutter time so we wrote our names with torchlight!) and generally fooled around to pass the time.

I've decided to just sleep under the tarp tonight, it's far too hot for the tent or car. Everyone else seems to like the tarp idea, so all 4 of us are going to sleep under it. Good thing we bought a GIANT tarp! (3m x 5m).

Photos from the day.

Day 24

Got up nice and early to get to the lake as early as possible, we were told it is open dawn ‘til dusk, but it isn’t, it opens at 9am. We got there at around 8am, a long time after dawn. So we killed an hour by sitting around chatting, Hugh and I climbed up the hill, but forgot to take a camera, it was a great view point for the dusty desert. Then 9 came and we went to go in but the man at the gate wanted 40 Manat each and noone wanted to pay that much, Lonely Planet had said around $10 per person, at the current rate 40M is around $15 but the price for Turkmen was 3 Manat! We wouldn’t pay that much tourist tax, and he absolutely wouldn’t budge on price, so we left it. We were, however, all desperate for a wash so we asked the man washing the toilets if we could borrow his hosepipe. He didn’t have a problem, so we all washed down under this huge hose and went on our way back to Ashgabat to find the Bazar.


After much driving around in circles we found the Bazar and it was HUGE! Hugh says he read 680 acres somewhere, I have no idea how big an acre is, but this place was massive, it actually feels like a bazar too, people are haggling, there are stalls everywhere and anywhere, it's not like the fake touristy version in Mashad anyway.


We had a long wander around some of the stalls, tried a couple of times to haggle cassette players down to dirt cheap, but people here seem to think they’re worth something. We all got tasty kebabs and then hid in the shade for a while all gulping down the bottles of cool water. Then we got back on the road to Mary. Going to try and get past Mary to camp somewhere near the ruins of the ancient city of Merv, so we can go and visit that tomorrow.


We’ve just pulled over at the side of the road because there’s a Mongol Rally car in a field! A Terios had a blowout and rolled down the bank into the field, nobody badly injured, but it looks a mess and will probably cost a lot to fix. This road is full of potholes so it could have happened to anyone. The 2 guys in the other car that was with them (The Spigots) had also rolled their car in Turkey!

Just been into town to buy everyone some cold water and the police have pulled the Terios out of the field and burst another tyre in the process. They’re off back to Ashgabat to try to get it fixed. We’re back on the road to Mary.


Oh dear! We must have missed a signpost or an obvious turning because we’re not on the road to Mary. We’ve just been stopped at a checkpoint where the soldiers laughed at us and told us we’re at Serahs, a town on the Iranian border! Russell blames missing the sign on his desperation to find a nice spot to use the poo chair, and his terrible night-vision.


Just driven back up the road a bit and found somewhere to camp beside the road (The road back to the road to Mary!)

Photos from the day.

Day 23

Up early! Eurgh! Sun wakes me up every morning now, it just makes the tent feel like an oven even though we’ve started just pitching the inner part. Packing up our last camp in Iran, I can’t believe we’ve been here for a whole week, it’s been one of the best weeks I’ve had in ages though, we’ve met so many friendly people. They’ve all been very helpful and hospitable and pretty much treated us like celebrities at times. What an amazing place to be!

Sitting in the Iranian side of the border waiting for passport control to give us back our passports, James’ American stamps may have something to do with it.


Now we’re through to the Turkmen side, lots of trapsing around collecting a million different bits of paper, but at least we’re allowed to wear shorts on this side. A team from Calgary has caught up with us at the border, The Canuckleheads, they’re a father/son team and are going to convoy with us for a while, see Ashgabat and the underground lake at Kol-Ata.


We’ve just stopped at a bank in Ashgabat and WOW! The city is incredible! Everything is marble and gold and it just appears out of nowhere after a steep pass through the mountains, through a HUGE marble archway. We’re also a lot lower than we have been for the last while and it’s HOT HOT HOT! No idea what the actual temperature is, but I’d happily make tea with the water in the car.


We’ve spent the last hour driving around looking for a hotel from the Lonely Planet book which is actually under reconstruction so now we’re sitting around trying to decide what to do and keep out of the sun. I think the idea is to go for a closer look at the centre of town, then drive out towards the underground lake and camp near there then double back and head for Merv, the other side of Mary tomorrow.


Just back from a lengthy trip to the supermarket (where we met a couple more teams and had a chat) and the sight seeing - The Presidential Palace, Arch of Neutrality and other huge marble buildings in the middle of the city - all very impressive. Still haven’t seen a single postcard since Istanbul though!

Just arrived at Kol-Ata and found a place to sleep, next to what looks like an abandoned trailer home or something. Super tired now though, and getting fed up of the heat.


Photos from the day.

Day 22

Today we’re going to try and get to the No Man’s Land between Iran and Turkmenistan and camp there for the night, first we need to get our cars washed though, they are absolutely filthy and you can apparently be fined in Turkmenistan for having a dirty car in the city.


Just stopped at a tyre place in Quchan to get our air filters cleaned out and asked where we could find a car wash. The guy pointed us round the back of the next building.


So we went round and waited until the guy there had finished cleaning a bus and then our cars got the full treatment: pressure hosedown, even underneath, then covered in soapy wax stuff and scrubbed with a brand new brush, then hosed down again. They both look completely different now that they’re clean.

We decided to stop and have lunch in Quchan too, little corner shop, Nutella & Bread, then round to a little park to eat it on the grass under a tree.


Just arrived at the border in Bajgiran but we’re not getting through, it’s closed for the day and it isn’t even 4pm yet! We just saw a guy turn up on a motorbike and not realise that there was a barrier down after the open gate! Clotheslined!


We’ve changed our Iranian money back to USD and now heading back down the road to find somewhere to camp. Shouldn’t be too difficult to find somewhere, the road to the border was a lovely winding road through the mountains.


We’ve stopped under a bridge off the main road where it’s nice and cool, the sun is absolutely baking.
We played a bit of Nerf-ball, and ate a bit under the bridge, but it didn’t look like comfy camping so Hugh and I had a look around the area in TB4 and found a nice flat spot (it’s still gravelly but so is everywhere else) We also got some firewood, so we’re setting up camp here, having a nice fire then off to Turkmenistan in the morning. I can’t believe we’re almost in The ‘Stans!


Photos from the day.

Day 21

Just driven into Mashad, really busy city, but managed to find a car park, and met another English teacher, she managed to point us in the general direction of the Holy Shrine and the city centre, so we’re off to get lost and wander around the city like tourists. First stop: Holy Shrine.


Just back at the car from a good day out in Mashad. The walk in took quite a long time, but we got to the shrine eventually, and had a look around, we had to sit and watch a bizarre video about the place and weren’t allowed into the actual shrine part because we’re not muslims. We had a walk around the various courtyards though and saw the huge solid gold dome and minarets.

Then we took a long detour on the way to the bazar, because I managed to read the map completely wrong. The bazar wasn’t that great, just shop after shop of the same things. Then we went for pizzas at a fast food place, which I though were really good but not everyone’s cup of tea. Then we went to a net café where I spent an hour on MSN, trying to check other teams updates but struggling with the speed. Facebook doesn’t work in Iran. Then we decided to get a cab back to the cars, the first one we got in refused to take us anywhere without an address card, so we jumped out and looked for another one, which took all of about 10 seconds, then the white knuckle ride out of the city centre.


After a crazy ride we got back to the cars and had a walk around the park, did some dishes waiting for the traffic to die down a little, and had a chat with a local man. Now we’re back on the road towards Quchan again, looking for somewhere to spend the night.


After looking in a couple of small side roads and just finding mudbrick villages with a lot of stray dogs, but now we’ve found one with flat dirt ground again, still full from pizza, so no food, just bed time.

Day 20

Woke up after a lovely sleep (the best in ages) and served tea and breakfast (bread + butter + goat’s cheese) which was lovely and then the whole family gathered round to see us off, I gave the little girl the S-Club 7 album on tape (sorry Jen!) and she seemed to love it without having a clue what it was. We said our goodbyes and thank-yous and were on our way, with one of the brothers to make sure we got on the right road to Mashad. He got out at a roundabout in the nearest big town and jumped in a taxi (we hoped he wasn’t going straight home again).


The road has turned to desert again through a lovely rocky valley, I’ve just gon to get my camera from my bag and I think I must’ve left it at Mustafa’s! We’re 50miles away now on pretty slow roads and we swapped addresses (both real and electronic) so hopefully we’ll be able to get them to send the memory card on at some point. Losing the camera isn’t the end of the world, but there were some good pictures on the card.


We’ve just made a toilet stop and been welcomed to Iran by a man and his wife, son and daughter who gave us some fruit (pomegranate or similar) and wanted to take some pictures with our cars, they also gave us their address in Mashad and offered us a bed there for the night. We’re not sure we’ll make it all the way tonight though.

The road to Mashad is getting better and better, but also seems to be getting busier. We’ve stopped on a steep uphill section to play some rummy and get sunburnt while the Thunderbird cools down a bit.


Stopped again in a small town to have a wander round and buy some food. Every shop here has loads of nuts and seeds and some blocks of horrible chalky stuff.


Found somewhere to camp about 40km from Mashad, just past a town which isn’t on the map and seems to be totally under construction or brand new, probably some kind of trendy resort in a couple of years, doesn’t look as though the area gets much rain!


5 boiled eggs for dinner, what a nutritious meal! Anything would’ve been a let down after last night’s chips, beef (or maybe lamb) and a lovely tomato sauce!

Photos from the day.

Day 19

Woke up and all the sand around was wet, but only from rain not the sea. Spent quite a while just pottering around on the beach and not actually doing much, Hugh went for a swim, but it’s pretty overcast so I can’t be bothered getting cold.


Most of today has been driving along busy roads between Nowshahr and Gonbad, very stop-start in the town centres so we’ve had to stop quite a few times for TB4 to cool down. It’s great fun though, everyone is extremely friendly, lots of bikes and cars have been pulling alongside us for a chat. At one petrol station the guy who owned it came out for a chat, he’d spent 14 years living in the states so spoke proper English. He paid for TB4’s fuel and gave us a free plastic jerry can.


We love Iran! Just got stopped by the police for speeding (Me and Hugh driving) but they let us off with a warning, then ended up just having a chat and letting us take photos with them. Now we’re just looking for a place to camp for the night, hopefully one without an irate farmer telling us we might be shot in our sleep
We’ve found a spot that’s reasonably flat to camp on, it’s a bit lumpy but will do. Hugh’s pitched his pop-up tent as a decoy incase anyone turns up to tell us to get lost.


AMAZING! The opposite to last night happened, a motorbike stopped to speak to us and ended up saying we should follow them for a place where it’s okay. We didn’t realize they meant their house!


We’ve been treated to as much tea as we could drink, a lovely dinner and excellent shower! Everyone is really friendly even though we can’t understand each other at all, we’ve been making conversation by passing round James’ Farsi phrasebook and a lot of hand-actions. There’s a hyper 7 year old girl running around like crazy, her reaction to seeing herself on a digital camera display was so funny I had to get the Polaroid printer out of the car for her, she absolutely loved it, and has stuck a photo of her and Hugh to their TV cabinet.


This family is huge and everyone is friendly, the guy on the bike, Mustafa, has 7 or 8 brothers, most of them are here, some with kids and his father and grandfather (we think) are also here! We’re all sleeping in the main room with little mattresses and blankets, we have been given pyjamas too! I am amazed at their hospitality and kindness, I doubt anyone in Britain would treat someone they’d seen camping in their field this way! It also seems bizarre to think that we only met Russ and Hugh 4 days ago and it seems like ages since we left the teams we met in Turkey. I’m genuinely having the time of my life, and absolutely loving Iran!

Photos from the day.

Day 18

Got up at 7.30 to make an early get away from the beach. Two of the guys from last night were there to see us off and let us out through the locked gate. Now we’re on our way south round the Caspian coast, heading for a place called Ramsar which has some hot sulphur springs according to TYO’s map.


Just stopped in Rasht because we’ve seen a toolshop that might have a footpump, James is off playing charades now.


A couple of trips across the road, one cup of tea and £10 later, we have a footpump which looks very robust and should definitely last the rest of the trip.


Stopped again, still in Rasht, TB4 is too hot again thanks to the slow traffic, managed to end up right next to a cake shop though, so Russ and James have just bought a HUGE box of pastries, while Hugh and I had a chat with a friendly traffic policeman. Finally leaving Rasht now.


After driving around Ramsar stopping to ask numerous policemen where the thermal springs are, we’ve found them! There’s a huge fancy hotel with the spring baths in the grounds – There are individual baths, bigger ones for groups and a public one. We’ve gone for a group one between the four of us for an hour and are off to get hot and egg-smelly!

Wow, that was different! It’s like a Jacuzzi and a sauna all in one, the water’s so hot we spent most of the time with just legs or an arm in the water, then hosing down with cold water and bombing in again. Off towards Nowshahr to find somewhere to camp.


We’ve found a nice little spot on a dirt track behind a small village off the main road, next to the hills, just trying to find some firewood now.


It was a nice campsite, until a short angry farmer came up and started shouting in Farsi at us and miming that if we camped there we might get beaten or shot in our sleep. So now we’re back on the main road looking for somewhere a little more friendly.


Just arrived at a beach campsite resort type place which is £2 per car for the night. Nice and cheap and looks very busy. We’re going to pitch the tents on the beach and hopefully the tide won’t come in too far!


Photos from the day.