Note: I’m writing this whilst in China although the events are from 14/15th September.

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Following the customs and immigration checks we made it onto the boat. It was a struggle to haul myself up the steep metal stairs to the floor where the cabins were. I pretty much dumped my stuff, made my bed with a little help from the others and lay down to go to sleep feeling totally out of it.

To explain, the boat we were taking was a cargo ferry which carried mostly Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Kazakh lorry drivers and their cargoes across the Caspian. It was an old ship and pretty rough and ready. Above the hold were the cabins for passengers, mostly truckers, the galley/mess room where food was served and a small area with a few seats and a television. Up on deck was simply some space and all the workings you would associate with a working ship. You were free to wander around the ship. You could check out the engine room or go up to the bridge. A big regret is that I was too unwell to do any of that.

The cabin which I shared with Nick, Briony and Nicholas (the cyclist) had no window and was cramped. During the night this led to the room turning into what can only be described as a hell hole (for me anyhow). It was unbearably hot and coupled with a fever I really suffered. I tossed and turned, delirious. I had to escape the cabin to be sick several times in the night. The first time I left I was puzzled as to why they were blasting music out of the ship’s speakers. I got back into bed and was further surprised to hear it in the cabin as well. What further torture could I endure! It wasn’t long however before I realised I’d accidentally started playing music from my phone and that was the source! I wasn’t quite with it. I’d managed to wake everyone up with it in the night.

Not being able to bear the conditions in the cabin anymore and feeling in a bad way I relocated to the seating area by the tv and tried to get some sleep there. I lay out on the seats but was then told off by some truck drivers for having my feet on them. After some pondering I repositioned myself with my feet resting just over the edge of the seats instead. No further complaints.

It was the early hours of the morning and the engines were definitely going but there was no way to tell whether we’d left the port or not. I couldn’t make it out on deck. I’d heard it takes many hours to load all the lorries. Besides the fever I had an underlying anxiety about getting sea sick as well, which I often do. That really would have added insult to injury. Whilst spread out on the seats a few Kazakh truck drivers had gestured to ask what I was doing and I did my best to signal that I was unwell. Despite their rough appearance they seemed very nice about it.

Around 6am or so and after a couple of hours of broken sleep I returned to the cabin until the others started to stir. My fellow travellers were extremely kind to me and really looked after me throughout the journey. We eventually ventured up onto the deck. We were definitely on our way and out at sea, and it was a beautiful day. The sea was flat as a pancake fortunately. The others sat and chatted on the deck whilst I lay and snoozed in the sunshine.

During the day I spent quite a bit of time sleeping back in the cabin. I managed to venture out for meals though in the mess room. The food was very simple but actually surprisingly good, all freshly cooked. I didn’t manage to eat much apart from a little bread and a few slurps of soup but it all helped. It was quite an operation in the large kitchen preparing meals for all the truckers, and although we never quite figured out the system there appeared to be two sittings. A couple of times we arrived at the advertised time only to find the door chained shut with everyone inside. There was a nice young chap however, who ushered us in through the kitchen whilst the remaining regular passengers had to wait for the next serving.

My fellow travellers spent the day exploring the ship, playing card games and Rumikub up on deck and trying to get a bit of exercise by pacing about. I missed quite a bit of this but by the end of the afternoon I was feeling significantly better and was able to join everyone up on the deck for a chat, even if I couldn’t manage the games. I’d also encountered the Kazakh drivers from the night before who gestured to see how I was feeling now which was really sweet.

By sunset I felt much more human and we all congregated on the deck to watch the sun go down. At that point I decided to go below deck to fetch my camera and returned to find out that the others had seen a few Caspian seals over this side! Gutted. Apparently these are very rare.

The sun set and everyone was in high spirits. We had some fun and games making some sunset videos with our silhouettes. Nick produced a portable speaker, put some classic tunes on and then Rob appeared with a large tea pot of hot water and a load of glasses he’d commandeered from the kitchens and we made some luke warm coffees, the closest we could get to cold beer. We stayed up a while chatting and sharing stories before turning in for the night. Definitely one of those moments I will never forget.

As the evening drew to a close and we still didn’t know exactly where we were or when exactly we’d arrive in Kazakhstan. Our best guess was that it would be sometime in the morning. Following the horrendous conditions of the previous night we decided to sleep with the door to the cabin open.

We were all rudely awoken at 2am with loud banging on the door and shouting. This we assumed meant we were coming in to port. The lady making all the noise had been dubbed ‘Helga’ by my fellow travellers. I’d not encountered her the previous evening as I was festering in my bunk but she was a ferocious Kazakh lady who had yelled at some of the others over the cabin arrangements. In charge of the accommodation and food, she ruled with an iron fist and was not to be messed with. Rob had had quite a running with her the night before. Within a few minutes she was back yelling and banging on the door again and so we came to and started to pack and gather our belongings.

Matt and Anvita, the British couple appeared to tell us that they’d met some men who were driving a convoy of cars into Uzbekistan which was in fact everyone’s next destination. For around $80 they would take us all the way there. It seemed like a good deal, and following some brief discussions myself, Josep, Nick and Briony decided to get in on it. Nicholas and Rob were on bicycle and moped respectively and the less than sociable German/Austrian couple were not consulted. Still recovering from my illness all I really wanted was a bed in a hotel in which to convalesce but I decided to stick with the group.

We arrived in port and it was unclear how we got off the ship. They had taken our passports when we boarded and so the first job was to retrieve them from the cargo decks which we eventually did. We then found out that we had to venture back to the upper decks to the crew’s quarters where a temporary customs office had been set up. After a short wait, brief interviews and mug shots taken we were able to disembark. It was a joy to be back on land and feeling better.

We were ferried into a minivan to negotiate further border checks on land and then we were out the other side in a small car park, in the darkness, in Kazakhstan!

Speaking with Matt and and Anvita it seemed we would need to wait for our ride. It was 4am and there was a solitary, obese Kazakh taxi driver eager to take us to the next town. The nearest civilisation was a place called Aktau which was about an hour away. We were torn between waiting for the ride all the way into Uzbekistan or heading to Aktau for some R&R. We’d heard that it can take up to 6 hours for cars and ferries to get off the ferry and go through customs but we really didn’t know. After initially holding back I voiced my view much to the relief of the others as were all thinking the same thing. A night’s sleep in a hotel was far preferable to many more hours driving in the back of car with an unknown wait before we could even get going and then who know how long after that to the final destination. Matt and Anvita were determined to stick it out and were clearly chasing a different sort of adventure and so we left them to it.

We said out farewells, especially to Rob and Nicholas who had one hell of adventure ahead of them. I was much in awe of what they were doing and extremely envious.

With a hilarious back and forth using google translate we negotiated a fare to Aktau with the taxi driver and off we set. The excitement in the car was palpable, and there were quite a few comments along the lines of ‘by Jove, we’re in bloody Kazakhstan!’ None of us had been anywhere quite like this. As we set off the sun suddenly appeared on the horizon and all we could see in any direction was endless desert. The scenery was epic….and then camels! Camels everywhere. On the sides of the road but often just sitting or standing in the middle of it. We sped along towards Aktau with the taxi driver blasting his techno music out of the speakers. Another unforgettable moment on the trip for me.