Caspian Sea Cruise

Friday, June 11, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Saturday 5th June

Our sleeping arrangements for our last night in Baku was a bit of a change with some of the group sleeping in the truck at the port to make sure we knew exactly when the ferry arrived, others outside; some in tents and others without tents providing a nice meal for the mozzies, and the rest of us (10 in total) camped out in the only hotel room left in Baku – cosy! An early morning wake up call to let us know the ferry was docking thanks to Pete, Neill, Mike and Dennis and we were all packed up and ready to go. After a couple of hours at customs we were allowed to board our home for the next 36 hours.

A quick tour around the ferry left little to discover – probably a 1960s/70s ferry which would have been luxury in it’s time was in need of a little TLC. The map indicated a music hall and restaurant but these were non existent.  These ferries are rarely used for passengers and any food available is for the crew – good job Odyssey were prepared with cereals for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and pot noodles for dinner – excellent! We were given cabins but advised that it would be too hot to sleep there and we should try sleeping on the deck or in a common room (which was a little cooler). The toilets were in need of a good clean so Pete kicked one of the crew members out of his cabin for $20 so the group could have use of a “luxury” toilet (well it was clean at least). We set up our thermarests on the deck and lay in the sun for the day, played some cards, did a pilates class for the girls (and Taylor and Ben), had wine and nibbles in the evening and watched some films – what more could you ask for?

The next morning we woke up to see the Turkmenistan coast, but we had dropped anchor and weren’t going anywhere for a while. Although we were priority as we had passengers, other boats were priority as they were carrying fuel and the boat currently in the dock was taking ages. There is no real system in place so we just had to sit back and enjoy the sun until we were allowed to leave. Our new local guide was our saviour; he was at the port sorting everything out for us and eventually got us docked at 11pm, with customs ready to process us straight away. We later find out that our delays with the ferry were caused by the Turkmenistan President being in Turkmenbashi (the port) and the whole town was closed down – he has a complex about getting assassinated so foreigners are best kept out of the equation.

After a quick “medical” which involved a doctor writing our names down we all left the ferry and got settled at the port for a short nap before being taken through immigration and customs at 2am. Reunited with Maureen we were off in search for a nearby bushcamp. We are now 3 days behind our original plan which was get to Turkmenistan on Wednesday, bushcamp for 2 nights on the way to Ashgabat then 2 night stay in a hotel in Ashgabat so we make it to the Sunday market. As this route revolves around the Sunday market we set up for a bushcamp close to the port in preparation for a long days drive (600Km) to Ashgabat the next day so we make the market the morning after.

The scenery has changed dramatically since arriving here, we are no longer in green, mountainous farmlands but flat desserts, the sheep have been replaced with camels and the heat is hotter than ever, but I’m still working on my tan (ok – sunburn), so I’m happy!

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