Had an interesting few days since the last post and are now in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

The British embassy were actually quite helpful and directed us to the port who suggested (although without any mutually comprehensible language) that we could return with the car on saturday to leave it at the port and take the next ferry on sunday or monday. Afterwards we met up with Paul and Lisa from the visa queue in Tbilisi who had a far smoother journey here on the overnight train. We had a few drinks in the "Old England Pub" complete with HMS Victory bar and a rubbish late night indian. Baku is actually quite a fun city full of expat related bars and restaurants but all quite cheap.

Friday we went to visit the mud volcanoes of Qobustan, 60km south of Baku. On the way we were stopped by police after money. They tried to tell us we were going too fast (surprisingly we actually weren't) and when we asked how fast they told us 30... We laughed and wandered off. The mud volcanoes proved quite difficult to find but eventually after half an hour off road the Lying Planet proved its worth and we were staring at stark little piles of mud with bubbling pools at their summits. It was all rather surreal and quite a lot of fun, although the landscape was treacherous and only Lisa got away without getting significantly muddy. In fact the whole landscape round baku is rather surreal - barren plains with pools of oil and hundreds of old school oil wells, all covered in a network of pipelines and pylons. Its quite eerie in a post apocalyptic kind of way.

Chinese was quite good in the evening although even more MSGey than the guide suggested - I've almost never been so thirsty.

On Saturday we returned to the port, only to find that apparently they can't get us on the ferry and can't look after the car after all. The embassy advises us to get a customs extension at the ferry port so we head down. At first the customs guy seems quite relaxed but goes out of the office to check something and when he returns the atmosphere has changed. We HAVE to get the car out of the country RIGHT NOW. He sends me to pick it up and impounds it on the spot. We go to fetch a guy from the ferry company to speak directly to customs as we can't really communicate with anyone, and suddenly we're on the ferry tonight! Just enough time left to get some food (to eat cold while going through the customs procedure) and we're on the boat. Fortunately we've already checked out of our hotel in readiness for losing the car. To be fair the customs officials in Baku were all above board and never asked for any bribes.

The ferry crossing was 24 hours, and we arrived in Aktau port at around 1am on monday morning. The first night on the boat was rather fun as the crew invited us into their various cabins for food and drinks. They served us the legendary fermented mares milk, a national drink in all central asia. It is even more horrible than it sounds and the neat vodka was easier to down. Before long we were thoroughly drunk on the endless compulsory vodka toasts but no problem - the crew members were now going on duty. In an alcoholic haze I just remember steering the boat and playing with the radar system before passing out in bed. Oh well, one childhood dream has been fulfilled.

On the boat there was a Danish guy, Ole with 1 mongolian and 2 tajik travelling companions. They were good fun playing cards with on the boat to fill the time. He was in potentially quite expensive trouble - left kazakhstan to enter azerbaijan without the required visa and got turned back, but now without a valid kazakh visa either. He was also trying to drive an expensive new car west so had that as an added responsibility. He currently has 2 weeks left on his transit plates to get to Denmark and at the time of writing the authorities are trying to fly him to Baku where he can get a visa on arrival while the Tajiks drive his car back onto the ferry (for the 3rd time!). Nice to know some people have worse problems than us (though his description of the roads in Kazakhstan were not encouraging)...

After the ferry landed we got into the country with relative ease. However the car didn't as the customs guys didn't get back to work till 9 in the morning. By the time we'd ascertained this there was nothing to be done but stay in the port waiting room until they arrived. The waiting room has been deliberately designed to discourage this - metal rows of chairs, concrete floor and no heating (-5 outside).

At 9 a fixer from the port authority arrived. He was actually extremely helpful and got the car sorted with a minimum of fuss if not delay - some of the staff there were still mired in the Soviet mentality. We got our first look at Aktau at about 11. Its a fascinating place, 100s of miles from anywhere designed as a utopian soviet city of the future. I love it! Its kind of like a milton keynes meets skegness with a nuclear powered desalination plant as a water supply and no grass whatsoever. Less endearlingly all the hotels are full, but we're not sure why. We eventually got in the soviet era (in every sense) Hotel Aktau which was the last option outside the 5* $300 per night one...

Today we're attempting to buy warmer clothes for the expected siberian temperatures, apparently down to -30 at night. We shall also be buying jerry cans as petrol stations are few and far between. Finally snow chains sound like a good idea...

Tomorrow we shall head off again to Almaty, around 2500-3000km away with very little in between. Thankfully the ipod still works!