"Stans..

So here we are in Uzbekistan, having a bit of R&R having covered over 7000k in 3 weeks.

I think that it is by far the most beautiful & certainly the most friendly plcae we have been to so far on our travels. But i shall get on to that in a bit.

When we updated last we were in the lobby of a somewhat shabby Soviet hotel - trying to sort out our internet banking which had been temporarily suspended as we had tried to access our accounts from some very odd places!!

After that we left Russia and headed into Kazakhstan - contrary to what we were led to belive, the border crossing was hassle free.
We were on a mission to get down to the Aral Sea. Adam was really keen to go here & photograph the rusted remnants of the boats in the ship graveyard out of town, we took a video and got some pretty cool pics - which will be up on here at some point soon. The town seemed to be o.k - not as deserted as i had imagined it may be but there was still an air of sadness about the place. The fish canning factory & boats had been the main source of employment in the town, and although that has now, gone recent efforts to "rescue" the north side of the sea means that a new factory has opened on the outskirts of town. The whole thing is an environmentl disaster, caused by the russians over zealous efforts to irrigate their cotton plantations. Sad.

From there we just kept heading south - ploughing on through Kazakhstan, which tbh we found a bit void of any real sights or cultural ooomfh - next stop a place called Turkistan - where we bumped into someone we knew.

No really!!

A old trainee of Adam's from his days at Dragoman - so we went out for dinner & had a good old chat and quite a few beers. I can't tell you all how great it was to see a friendly face so far from home, it was a good evening - and Dave if you get to read this - I'm holding you to our Overland Co plan - Rainbows and Albinos, it's the way forward.

Yesterday we arrived here in Uzbekistan & i think i have fallen in love with the place. The people are awesome, so friendly and good humoured, and now that we are here experiencing this it makes me realise that in Russia & Kazakhstan there had been a slight, almost undetectable air of tension. Subtle but deffinately there.

By contrast so far even the police here have been full of smiles!

Today we visited the Mosques & Mausoleums here in Samarkand - the most beautiful things i have ever seen. Totally amazing & i will let you judge for yourselves in the photos to follow...

Miss everyone heaps but ...... as it says on the back of our dear Treacle.. "one life, live it!!"

Russia & onward...

We have blasted on through the Ukraine (tough place, hard working people, they walk their cows like we walk our dogs :oS )- sad times for the big man as it is after all The Motherland for him xx - however earlier problems with the engine temperature sender guage unit thing meant that we had to use up our spare time in Krakow instead of Kiev.

Another amusing moment for you landrover fanatics out there will be that the almost impossible happened on route to kiev - in that the speedometer cable snapped as we were overtaking a lorry!! I am lead to belive that the odds are greater for adam's head to fall off or for the chassis to snap in half than for this to happen. We just put it down to our luck - and laughed it off...... Ha fucking Ha.

We managed to get another speedo cable form the decent chaps at "Britsh Motors Ukraine" in Kiev - Cheers Alexander top bloke - dealer prices though so be warned if you intend to get parts form deepest Ukriane.. $168... ouch!

We then traveled on from Kiev to Kursk inRussia - in day - then from Kursk to just outside of Vorozneh in another day. Today we have arrived in Saratov - in daylight !! a first for us - and although it took us 3 hours to find the hotel (the wrong one at that) we have had a nice meal of Meeeat and beer, and are happy in our luxury post soviet 3 star hotel... think decrepit holiday inn and you wont even get close to the luxury that we are experiencing right now. But happy days we are off to KAzakhstan tomorrow for the next chapter in our adventure xx

So here we go on our trip of a lifetime.

Waiting for the ferry at Dover.

Truck park - Belgium

N51 11.028

E4 17.441

Truck park - Poland

N50 58.718

E17 04.209

That's what we had for tea,YUMMY :-))

Our second night in Poland at ANOTHER truck park.

N50 04.855

E19 46.247

Morning sleepy head!!!!

WELCOME TO KRAKOW.

Our home for the next few days

Camping SMOK!

N50 02.883

E19 52.815

Bangers and mash polski style!!

Not quite tesco's but it will do.

The garage we hoped would have the engine temprature sensor but unfortunately it only has parts for new cars!!!!

Takling of new cars here is beauty and the beast!!!!




Krakows main square.

Auschwitz

N50 01.689

E19 12.035

Birkenau

N50 01.689

E19 12.035

KRAKOW - CONSTITUTION DAY

N50 03.211

E19 56.246

Don't you just hate it when you are about to take a picture and someone else just jumps right in front of you!!!

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Cheers Adam xx

Story so far... viva Polski!

As you will have all gathered by now - we have left the u.k - and actually managed to leave the house pretty much on schedule for our journey to Dover...

Got on the Sea France ferry and we bid a cheery farewell to the white cliffs - joyous at last to be off on our adventure.

That first day was pretty epic - as Adam drove the whole day, from Bishops Tawton to Dover, then through France, Belgium and into the Netherlands. I have never seen so many haulage lorries on the roads, it was bizarre but then i guess thats how Europe stays so well connected. Our first night was in a lay by at some services alongside some of these huge lorries we had seen. Pleasant facilities if a little noisy with their commings and goings.
The next day we pushed on again, this time through Germany and into Poland. I managed to do my first stint at driving, which was pretty scary but i quickly managed to pick up the way in which the car responded & the stlye of the other drivers. I drove through most of the aftrenoon & early evening & it was quite exciting as i was the one who got to our first proper border crossing - Germany - Poland.
After this Adam took over again until we reached our overnight spot at another lorry park. It was around this time that we came to the realisation that there was a part we needed for the Landy - an engine temperature sender unit - or some such device - as ours was not functioning correctly. In basic terms it tells you how hot the engine is and for us, considering how heavy she is and how much potentialy rough terrain, hills etc we may encounter, we simply can't do without it.
Dad to the rescue - he has arranged for the part to be shipped out to us via DHL here in Krakow. Amazing & we can't thank him enough for this - <3

So that has left us with some unexpected free time to explore Kracow and the surrounding areas. And i'm so glad it has worked out that way - we were both pretty tired after pushing so hard to get out here (one day covering over 1090k) and needed the rest. We are staying in a great campsite "Camping Smok" which i belive means Dragon - and up until today the weather had been gorgeous.

We have been able to spend a day at Auchwitz & Birkenau - something we both were interested to do. And it was a tough day - we watched a documentary showing a brief history of what had happened - and then went to look around the buildings and evidence that had been left by the fleeing nazis. Some of the things don't really come across too well in a trivial blog such as this & adam has taken a few pictures which better convey the feeling of the place. Suffice to say, the scale was vast and the suffering - horrific.

On a lighter note we were able to witness a Constitution day parade the next day at the Wawel Castle, with serving soldiers and war vets, and a strange group of oversized boys scouts on parade too :oS.

Yesterday we went to Wawiel Mine which was an awesome day - deep down undergound where the miners had made carvings from the salt, including chapels and a massive depiction of the last supper.



When the part arrives for the car we will head off agin, on to L'viv in Ukraine, then east to Russia and into Kazakhstan. Due to having to wait here for 5 days, we now have some mega long driving days ahead of us to stay on track and meet our visa deadlines But so far we are having an fantastic time & i for one can't wait to see what the next chapter brings!!

Visas - Done & Dusted... well nearly!

The last two weeks have been somewhat of a rollercoaster, starting with the news we had been waiting for, for so long. The return of our passports!!!

Our passports came back last Thursday - I watched the postman come towards the house clutching the silver envelope - Adam & I gathered in the lounge to rip it open together.
My heart sank as I saw a piece of paper in the envelope with our passports. I knew instantly what this meant - we had been refused our precious visas for Iran.

Although Adam had tried to prepare me for this, I was totally shocked & distraught.

With out over dramatising the situation, the Whole trip was now in jeopardy.

As with all visas, when refused the consulate in question has no obligation to offer any explanation as to why you have been rejected. We have surmised that perhaps the current political tensions between Iran & the U.S have had some bearing on it.
We spent the next day or so trying to plot a different route to our final destination - Mongolia. It was a really tough time for both of us, as we tried to hide our disappointment & distress from each other.
Finally between us we came up with a plan. Instead of travelling to Syria, Jordan then Iran on to Turkmenistan before arriving in Uzbekistan.... we would now head to Russia first, then directly into Kazakhstan.

This would mean changing one visa that we have from a single to a double entry (still pending) but apart from that everything else managed to just about fit together.

So Monday morning I left for London to apply for our Russian visas, Uzbek visas & to get the Kazakh ones amended.

I went to Real Russia first to collect our visa support letters. They provided us with a great service, friendly efficient & helpful, then straight on to V.F.S who deal with all applications on behalf of the Russian embassy.

I was pretty nervous when I got there & didn't have to queue long. I gave the woman our passports, visa support letters & application forms. She glanced at them and told me I was missing a document. I had no idea what she was talking about!

It turns out that as we had applied for an unusual visa we need some extra documentation, also our visa support letter said we were going to Russia for Cultural purposes and our application forms said Business.

I was stressed but not defeated!

I then decided to carry on to the consulate for Uzbekistan to try my luck there.

In this instance we were required to present a letter of invitation from a company in Uzbekistan. I got this though a lady called Alena at Stantours. She has been an incredible help to me throughout this daunting process, and has since provided us with a similar document which hopefully will help us amend our Kazakh visas.

I was really keen to get this one as there are so many places in Uzbek that I am interested in seeing - particularly Samarkand, Bukhara & Khiva.

I was able to get this one urgently by paying a little extra, so my first day in London wasn't a complete write off!

I spent Tuesday chasing up the extra documents for our Russian visas, and lodged those on Wednesday a.m - ready to collect on Thursday p.m.

Finally, Friday I spent over an hour queueing in the Kazakh consulate to submit our forms & passports. I was told these would be ready for collection on Monday & as my parents were in London this weekend, they will be collecting those on my behalf as I had to return that day.
I am uncertain as to whether or not my covering letter and letter of invitation will be sufficient to get those changed to double entry, but we can only hope. The biggest downside of those not being changed will mean that we will not be able to enter Uzbekistan as it is effectively inside Kazakhstan. (Those not so hot on geography - check out our little route map - top right of page - by clicking on it to see our original routeplan)

So we pretty much have everything we need now - and dare I say it.... think we will actually be leaving early doors on Tuesday 28th April 2009 ;o)

the state of the Landy cab about 14 months ago!

Visa Trauma N51 03.406, W4 03.040

So far with this trip, my main responsibility has been to research & organise our Visas. Initially i found this to be a very daunting prospect, but with the help of the relevant Lonely Planet guide for each country and the wonderful internet, things got a little easier.

As i write this we have managed to obtain visas for the following countries;

Mongolia
Kazakhstan
Syria
Kyrgyzstan


We are currently waiting on our passports to be returned from the Iranian embassy, at which point we will be able to get our 3 remaining ones, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan & the dreaded Russian multiple entry business visa. We plan on getting our Jordanian ones at the border crossing, which is quite routine.


We had thought that we would use a company such as Travcour to get the visas on our behalf as we live so far form London, but after toting up how much this would all come to we decided against it.
Most of the embassies have on line application forms and accept postal applications. The only times we have used outside help has been for a letter of invitation to Uzbekistan, and a letter of invitation to Russia.
If you are travelling to these countries as part of an organised tour then your travel company would arrange all this for you, but as independent travellers it gets a little more complicated. In effect we have had to buy an invitation from a company based in the respective places we wish to visit.
At times it has felt like an awful lot of hoops to jump through - almost as if they want to make it as difficult as possible for tourists to get in and explore these places, but if the preparation for this trip has taught me one thing, it's that Nothing Good Comes Easy!!
VB