Turkmenbasi

 At last, destination achieved, although a little later than anticipated last night. No one could tell us what the duration of the crossing would be. We had various answers ranging from 14 hours to 20 hours. The longer time seemed depressingly unlikely. By last night the food was running thin, we’d already eaten the same fare several times, being a soup at first, turning to thin gruel with the addition of more water and not much food. It’s amazing how one adjusts. We would have turned up our noses at such food at home but here, alongside Turkmen, Azerbaijani and Russian drivers, we tucked in much like the prisoners we had become. No coffee either but we raided Nigel’s emergency bottle of Balvenie and polished it off rather quickly. 

The water ran out. No shower, no washing of hands, no brushing of teeth and no flushing of the loo…..

In the morning we expected to find land, perhaps even be docked, as we woke. A quick dress and up onto the top deck revealed sea in all directions. 

Oh. 

Maybe the longer journey prediction would prove to be more accurate. 

A couple of things encouraged us. First a small bird appeared. Not a sea-going bird but something you might find in an English garden (not identified, beyond being a LBJ). The other indicator of proximity was my mobile suddenly pinged. ‘Welcome to Turkmenistan’ it read. Ok, I was not expecting that. All investigations told us no foreign sim would work here but Mr O2 was proving to be an outlier. 

Eventually, land was sighted and we slowly made our way to the port. Our ship was still suffering from engine issues and we believe we traversed the Caspian on one engine only. This, in and of itself (love that bit of unnecessary frippery) was not a problem until we came to dock. Two pugnacious tugs joined us to manoeuvre us into the docking point backwards. A skilful job very ably done, but oh so slowly!

It proved to be a 24 hour crossing, and still we were incarcerated. Apart from everyone undergoing a Covid Test, for which they extracted $179 from us, it is not easy to understand what the delay was. The offloading ramps are stayed up for 2 hours. 

All the truck drivers seemed resigned to waiting (part of their lives I suppose). 

We disembarked 3 hours after arriving. Why? No idea. 

Then began the fun and games of customs, passports, road tax etc but interestingly a map too, telling us where we can go. We now have a defined route and woe-betide any variation or map reading errors. 

Customs proved to be particularly tricky. Apparently they have never had old cars through this port (Turkmenbashi) and there is a problem with right hand drive cars. 

Oh. 

They say we can’t drive in the cities. Ok we say, we’ll go around them. You can’t because there is only one road and it goes through the cities. 

Oh. 

We tell them we have all driven through Turkmenistan before (2010) in our old cars. It doth butter no parsnips with the customs man. 

I should tell you, we elected to have a state licensed travel agent guide us through this country. Thank goodness. He is charming and navigated us through the labyrinth and even got his boss to call the port authorities. We thought it might have swung the balance in our favour. 

Then a shocker….. the decision has been made, we may not drive anywhere with RHD cars in Turkmenistan. By now we had been in the port for 9 hours. We were stumped. But still it was not over. We had to subject the cars to a customs inspection. More forms. More money passed, all property receipted. Road tax, bridge tax, insurance, even though our cars could not be driven. 

We left the cars in the port area and retreated to a tourist hotel for a beer or three and some food. The plan is to transport the cars by truck to the Uzbekistan border, somehow join up with Ed Gambier and Didier, who is Caron’s replacement in one Lagonda. Ed will be joining Chris till we get to Osh. 

What a journey and only partially complete. We left Baku on Thursday morning hoping to catch a ferry. We blagged our way into one that day. It broke down. We were incarcerated on board in the port for 48 hours before we set sail. The sailing took 24 hours, not the normal 16.  After arrival it  took 9 hours to be told we cannot drive through Turkmenistan. This despite getting advice from the Turkmenistan Consulate in London, researching Foreign Office travel and various travel forums where no mention has ever been made about RHD cars. 

No photos can be posted.