I’m now several weeks behind present day but will endeavour to catch up. This is mostly because I’ve been busy travelling and I teamed up with other travellers which has meant less time on my own.
I left Tbilisi by night train heading for Baku in Azerbaijan. I was hoping for a few days in there but little did I know I’d be embarking on what seemed liked a never-ending journey towards the heart of Central Asia.
I had planned to meet up with Nick and Briony in Baku so that we could take the boat across the Caspian Sea together. Things didn’t go so well for me though. On the train to Baku I started to feel unwell. Overnight I got a fever. Everything ached and I was tossing and turning all night long, slightly delirious. Waking up in the morning I felt slightly better but not much.
I faced a dilemma. Stick to the plan or sack it off and check into a nice hotel to recover for a few days. The plan was to take a ferry across the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan. There is very little information about the boat however, and no set timetable. The only thing you could do was to get someone to phone every day to see if a ship was coming in, and if it was you’d make a dash for the port. The other alternative was to just head for the port and wait. The boats arrived around every 4-5 days.
Nick and Briony had been in Baku for a couple of days already, phoning every morning through their hotel. I wouldn’t know until I arrived in the morning and could get WiFi what the score was. The way I was feeling, if the boat was leaving that day I would have to abandon ship so to speak.
As the train was arriving in Baku the next morning I met an English guy on the train who was with his wife and also planning to to take the boat. He believed that it was going that same day. They were keen to share a taxi to the port straight away but I decided to head for my hostel and touch base with Nick and Briony. Once I’d made contact I found out the boat was indeed leaving. Despite feeling awful I decided to push on and go for the crossing. I had just enough time to check into my hostel, take a shower, carry out my essential ablutions and then check out again! We then hopped into a taxi for the hour long journey to the port of Alat.
We arrived at the port and were deposited by the entrance and some barriers. We found some guards who checked our passports and then gave us some vague directions to the ticket office. The place was huge and seemed to be just a giant car park for trucks waiting to make the crossing.
After quite a bit of hunting around we bumped into Matt and Anvita, the couple I’d met on the train and they directed us to the ticket office.
We ventured in to find two guys in the their slightly primitive office. They weren’t exactly enamoured with us for some reason but we managed to communicate that we needed tickets. We were after the 2 berth cabins but they didn’t seem interested in offering us a choice and we were given tickets for a 4 berth cabin. It was a strange system. We were issued a slip of paper which we then took around the corner to the ‘bank’, another shipping container, where we paid for the ticket and then returned to be issued with the actual ticket. During this process one of the guys seemed to get irritated with us for talking to each other and sent us outside like naughty children until he was ready to hand over the final ticket. But eventually we had them!
At this point we met Rob, a Dutch fireman who was riding his Honda moped from the Netherlands to Australia to meet his family. An amazing guy. He’d been waiting at the port for three days already so we felt quite lucky to be arriving on the day of departure. We weren’t given any information about when the boat would leave but he was under the impression it would leave at 9pm. It was at that point 11am so we were in for a long wait!
We found a tiny little restaurant where we were able to get a simple meal. I was still feeling dreadful but decided I needed to eat.
The waiting game started. I was not feeling well. Everything was aching and my stomach was not in good shape. I had to make a visit to what can only be described as the worst toilet in the world (although I would later discover there are worse). It was logistically and emotionally testing but I made it through, just.
We basically camped by the ticket office as there really wasn’t anywhere else to wait, and gradually a motley crew of travellers started to gather. Besides ourselves, Rob, Matt and Anvita we now had Nicholas, a young German chap who had cycled all the way from Germany and was heading to Shanghai, Josep, a Canadian on a round the world trip and a German/Austrian couple who didn’t have much to say.
It was a shame because it was becoming quite the social gathering but I just couldn’t offer anything. I pretty much just lay down by my bag. Despite it being hot, I was freezing. I had to put on my down jacket. I still had a fever. I think I’d felt better in the morning following the adrenaline rush of the dash to the port but I was starting to feel worse and worse. The hours rolled by and everyone was getting to know each other and a few games were on the go. All I could do was take out my inflatable sleeping mat and lay down. I didn’t want to make a fuss about feeling unwell so I think everyone’s first impressions were of a grumpy bloke who just lounged around keeping himself to himself.
Information about the departure was highly variable but the latest we’d heard was that it would now leave at 11pm. As darkness fell I got into my sleeping bag, shivering and went to sleep.
I was rudely awakened at around 11pm to be told we needed to board the boat. There seemed to be a hurry and Everyone was grabbing their stuff frantically. It was pretty stressful trying to pack everything back into my bag. It kind of all just got stuffed in any old way. I was now feeling worse than ever and picking up my rucksack was a real struggle. People were really kind and helped carry my surplus belongings though. We had to walk over a bridge to get to the border checkpoint where we strolled to the front of a queue of cars and vans. Rob and Nicholas had brought their bikes around as well. Here we had to wait for about half an hour for the border guards to even start checking our passports. I couldn’t stand so I just slumped down against my bag again like a sack of potatoes. It wasn’t a good moment for me. I thought I was going to chunder at any moment and was trying to recce a good spot to go but there weren’t any. I was also wondering if they’d let me on at all if I was sick all over the check point. I managed to hold it back though and eventually we had our passports checked. This seemed to take an eternity but I then found myself staggering towards the boat.
To be continued…..
Wandering Henry 