Have you ever been well on your way to organizing a big project, and then out of left-field, suddenly have a seemingly unsolvable problem crop up? That's exactly how it went with our Silk Road planning! Obviously, traveling the Silk Road is going to pose some challenges, need for flexibility, and a bit of panache in navigating bureaucracy. We were ready (or so we thought) to deal with all that. Visas, letters of invitation and a required guide for Turkmenistan, toll systems and different types of fuel, where to get gas (for cooking and heating), water filters and pumps, .... all the details were well underway when suddenly: Achim happens across a comment in a forum about Azerbaijan land borders being closed. WHAT?!!
Why this is a big problem: to reach the Stan countries, we have to travel to the east side of the Caspian Sea. The options to do that are:
Take a ferry across, starting in Azerbaijan (in Alat, about 80km south of Baku)
Drive around it to the north, crossing through Russia
Drive around it to the south, crossing through Iran
Given the state of world, we decided early on that options 2 and 3 really are not options for us, so we planned to take the ferry. But if the land borders are closed, how are we supposed to drive to the ferry port? Yep, exactly...(long string of expletives which I won't share)
In all honesty, I was ready to give up and execute Plan B (which was taking a trip through the Baltics and Scandinavia). But my tenacious and resolute husband is not so easily deterred. He began sending emails, making phone calls, working his network. Talking to people at the embassy, getting in touch with Azerbaijani Ministers of xyz, trying to get support for our endeavor. Weeks went by, with no good news. I again suggested Plan B (which is btw also an awesome adventure opportunity). He kept at it, finally determining that the only realistic workaround is to load the Giraffe onto a transport truck and bring it into Azerbaijan as cargo while we fly into the country and pick it up there. Okay, great - suitable logistics partner contacted, everything discussed and looking good, vehicle specs provided, and then, "Oh! We can't do that. The maximum height allowed in Azerbaijan is 4 meters and the combined vehicle plus trailer height exceeds that." And BOOM - back to square 1.
With a doggedness that is unsurpassed, Achim presses on. Contacting yet more people, obtaining additional contacts, calling them, and eventually locating two logistics companies who say they can do it. It requires a very special truck, but they can get one and make it happen.
And so it happens, that 4 days ago we navigated ourselves to an obscure parking area 30 minutes south of Tbilisi, Georgia. Where we handed the keys and paperwork to a guy sitting in a container "office" on the side of the lot, talking to said guy's brother on the phone (who speaks a bit of english - the lot guy does not - and also is the son of the CEO. So we guess it's the CEO that Achim's been dealing with, but who knows?) And now, we are in Baku, Azerbaijan, anxiously awaiting news and ideally imminent delivery of our dear Giraffe. Yesterday we heard from some other overlanders that they saw it still parked in the lot. So at least it's not gone missing, but it also wasn't yet on it's way to us! So keeping fingers crossed...
Are we overly naive and trusting? Or just the right amount of optimistic and it'll be here soon? What do you think?
Fingers crossed!