Well....Rob has already left and has driven with the legend that is Daniel Haggarty, to Poland. I get up at 4.am tomorrow to catch a plane to meet them. Dan will then fly home and Rob and I will continue with our epic adventure!
We will try to write occasionally when we find somewhere that has internet. These places may be few and far between though so forgive us for not writing more often!
Er....so I guess thats it for now, write again soon! xx
Friday 3 July 2009
Sunday 28 June 2009
Iran.....
Not sure what to do about going to Iran.....its the place we were both looking forward to seeing the most, it looks amazing but the political situation is not looking good for us. We will keep track of the situation on our way round and see if we think its safe when we get a bit closer....will keep you posted.
Charity!!
With all the stress of getting the visas sorted we seem to have forgotten to mention the whole reason behind the trip!
When Rob was in his gap year he worked for a couple of weeks at an Indian Orphanage called Orissa. www.orissa.org.uk It is a small charity and has no overheads and so everything we have raised will go to help the children.
We have so far raised about £600 by doing car boot sales! We had some very kind donations of things to sell from freinds and collegues and with the weather on our side we managed to sell most of it in 4 weekends! Thank you to everyone who donated some of your unwanted goods.
We hope to have a just giving account set up for the charity so that if you would like to make a donation you can. We haven't wanted to ask for sponsorship for the trip but if anyone would liek to make a donation then we would really appreciate it.
When we get back we will carry on fund raising and hope to reach £1000.
Thank you!
When Rob was in his gap year he worked for a couple of weeks at an Indian Orphanage called Orissa. www.orissa.org.uk It is a small charity and has no overheads and so everything we have raised will go to help the children.
We have so far raised about £600 by doing car boot sales! We had some very kind donations of things to sell from freinds and collegues and with the weather on our side we managed to sell most of it in 4 weekends! Thank you to everyone who donated some of your unwanted goods.
We hope to have a just giving account set up for the charity so that if you would like to make a donation you can. We haven't wanted to ask for sponsorship for the trip but if anyone would liek to make a donation then we would really appreciate it.
When we get back we will carry on fund raising and hope to reach £1000.
Thank you!
Visa issues
For some reason Turkmenistan decided they didn't want us to visit them and refused to give us our visa's. We don't know why but it might be something to do with Swine Flu. So, we had to come up with a plan B!
We are now going to have to catch a ferry across the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan. This is fine apart from two slight issues! The 1st is that the ferry has no schedule and so we may have to wait a week to get on it. That however, will be the least of our worries as once we get to Azerbaijan we may not even be allowed in because right hand drive cars are illegal....apparently you can bribe your way in though so fingers crossed they should let us through. We don't really have a back up plan either as there are not very many options!
Getting the visa's for Azerbaijan was fairly straight forward and we now have all the ones we need. Its been expensive and stressful to get them all in time but we have managed it in the end with plenty of time to spare!
We are now going to have to catch a ferry across the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan. This is fine apart from two slight issues! The 1st is that the ferry has no schedule and so we may have to wait a week to get on it. That however, will be the least of our worries as once we get to Azerbaijan we may not even be allowed in because right hand drive cars are illegal....apparently you can bribe your way in though so fingers crossed they should let us through. We don't really have a back up plan either as there are not very many options!
Getting the visa's for Azerbaijan was fairly straight forward and we now have all the ones we need. Its been expensive and stressful to get them all in time but we have managed it in the end with plenty of time to spare!
Sunday 7 June 2009
Blaze Chardonnay - the Skoda
Rob bought the beige Skoda Favorit in all its OAP chav glory last year. Complete with savage exhaust, mutant sub, 5 spot lights and rally stickers it was deserving of a name to suit and seemed like the obvious choice for this trip.
Tested on a trip to the Isle of Wight, the Skoda can obviously cope with long distances....Having sat in a field for 4 months hibernating over winter, we revived it. After driving a mile, the front brakes nearly caught alight toasting a snail onto the calliper! We perservered and the trusty old car sailed through its MOT.
Since then we have modified Blaze for the trip. Removing the rear seats, servicing the engine, and taking a radiator fan and installing it under the dashboard for that air conditioning effect! We have fashioned some sun blocks out of cardboard and old sheets and painted the wheels blue (to make it go faster!)
We hope to arrive home with the car but pot holes, foreign drivers, 10,000 miles and high temperatures may make this quite a challenge!!
Tested on a trip to the Isle of Wight, the Skoda can obviously cope with long distances....Having sat in a field for 4 months hibernating over winter, we revived it. After driving a mile, the front brakes nearly caught alight toasting a snail onto the calliper! We perservered and the trusty old car sailed through its MOT.
Since then we have modified Blaze for the trip. Removing the rear seats, servicing the engine, and taking a radiator fan and installing it under the dashboard for that air conditioning effect! We have fashioned some sun blocks out of cardboard and old sheets and painted the wheels blue (to make it go faster!)
We hope to arrive home with the car but pot holes, foreign drivers, 10,000 miles and high temperatures may make this quite a challenge!!
Hello!
Hello! This is our blog about our drive round the Caspian Sea! The planned route (as if its not obvious from our map on the bonnet!) is Oxford - France - Belgium - Germany - Poland - Ukraine - Russia - Kazakhstan - Turkmenistan - Iran - Turkey - Bulgaria - Romania - Hungary - Austria - Switzerland - Germany - Belgium - France - OXFORD providing everything goes to plan that is!
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