Grand Hotel Europe Baku

... to cut across several lanes of heavy traffic and disappeared into the night, not to be seen again as it happened for many days!

Bas and myself, with Pete in tow, paused at the roadside and pondered our options and decided on a hotel, preferably close, and even more important with a cold beer and a hot shower. At this point a small crowd gathered and one bloke came up to us and started to chat ...

... to stop her sliding off the oily deck into the sea. Fantastic. I have met a Russian lorry driver called Alexander, who has taught me to play Kazio. He thinks the crossing will take 3 days. I hope he's wrong but he has apparently done this journey many times.

... lost on the metro, but eventually got back to the Gordons. They had a few friends over and we spent all evening outside chatting and barbequeing. It was fantastic and we will all be reluctant to leave the land of real food, showers and beds.

Spent the day in Baku and met up with the Gordons in the early evening. We had showers! I was disappointed to find that most of my tan was ingrained dirt. Graeme took us out for a curry and few beers and we returned to sleep in beds! Chris and I shared a double bed, but he only hugged me once in his sleep. It was a special moment.

... stop. The road we traveled on to start off with was appalling, but it is like the M3 if you like in Azerbaijan, but it was broken up and the tarmac was scraped off. Now the worry is that what we drive with the bus we will cycle with the bikes back to Baku.....!! Nice So where we normally would have crossed the border from Georgia and stayed the first night we now drove to, to not miss too much of Azerbaijan...Oh dear me...! "I am cycling in Azerbaijan" Saki to Qabala - 92km ...

... chimney. The mountains to the left are getting lower and further away, with large white clouds above. The land is getting drier, particularly to the south, now broad acre grain growing, with harvesting by mechanical harvesters already occurring. Small towns in the valley, with greenery and Lombardy poplars. Turn off the main road, and come to a large, ornate to the point of gaudy, striped stone double gate, which is the portal ...

... that the other northern route to Tbilisi was almost flat all the way, to make me decide to turn back. Yep, fack that! I rode all the way back to the border to get my visa rectified, which meant going back into Turkey and coming through again, this time demanding the 3 month tourist visa, which I got for another US$60. I blasted north up the coast to Kobuleti that night and was enquiring about accommodation When I met Pascha. Fluent in German but very little English ...

Dagurinn hofst a rutferdalagi og endadi med uppkostum, thar a milli skodudum vid hellaristur i Gobustaneydimorkinni eda semi eydimorkinni eins og Narim kallar tad. Eg komst ad tvi tennan dag ad su kona hefur otrulegan talanda en nanar um tad sidar. Tharna i Gobustan hafa fundist fleiri steinristur fra stein- og bornsold en hun hafdi tolu a og milli thess sem hun fraeddi okkur um myndirnar og ruddi i okkur upplysingum um lif folksins sem bjo her a ...

... vittoriosamente in suolo azero. Ormai e' pomeriggio inoltrato e sono cotto... Due giorni dopo al ritorno il viaggio fila via liscio e tranquillo e ormai non faccio piu' nemmeno caso al rumore prodotto dal solito Antonov AN24 sempre della compagnia SCAT ovviamente. Atteriamo ad Atyrau quasi puntuali e appena sceso dall'aereo estraggo la macchina fotografica per immortalare quello che per me rimarra' il simbolo di questo viaggio: l'AN24. Purtroppo non ci riesco ...

... trip. As I laid in my tiny bed, on the moored-ferry-cum-slum-hotel, a constant buzzing from blood-thirsty mosquitoes filled the air. The irritating buzz grew louder and louder as more insects streamed into the room. Seeing as my cabin window didn't shut all the way, a fleet of invaders had taken up residence in my tiny room. "No problem" I thought and pulled a sheet over my head, to block them out. No good... The buzzing continued. I tried to shut the noise out by shoving my ...