I missed you too

So, last we spoke, we were spending our last night in Iran.

The next morning we headed for the border to Azerbaijan - what border?

We drove around Astara for about half an hour and were directed down a filthy side street with rutted tracks - of course, a major international border.

4 Hours spent in diesel smelling sheds - more suitable for large scale HGV repairs. After an enormous amount of paperwork and at least an hour cooking in the hot sun, we were through to Azerbaijan.

There was only one problem, it was closed for lunch.

So, with no cash, we decided that a dip in the Caspian sea was the right thing to do. WRONG!

I practically lost the whole front end in the sand. After a lot of help from the locals, the car was restored to firm ground. We had a wonder ful dip and emerged to find that Azerbaijan had re-awoken from its siesta.

We went to the bank - got money, water and an ice-cream and headed for Baku.

The roads were not so good and after several hours we reached the outskirts. We pulled in at a beach resort and, after several dry days, enjoyed an ice cold beer and meal. It was hellishly windy and chairs and skirts were flying everywhere.

Into the city.

We were greeted by designer shops, posh hotels and no sight of the port.

We checked into the Abshoram Hotel and headed for the bar.

Suddenly, from nowhere, we were surrounded by other teams - it was the bottleneck for the ferry to Turkmenistan.

We drank into the night in the knowledge that I had to get up early to go to the Turkmen Embassy - rumour was that visas were not going to be issued