So we arrived in Baku, happy and excited to begin the Central Asian leg of our journey by taking a Alat, Azerbaijan to Aktau, Kazakhstan ferry. We met with our fixer Ishmael, who was clear that ferries left on a erratic schedule, but was excited to tell us that a ferry was leaving that day (July 31st). We threw our stuff back in the Panda and drove from Baku to the port to Alat, where we officially departed Azerbaijan. We were happy to find 6 other teams also ready to cross the Caspian lined up and quickly made friends, all of us excited that the ferry would be leaving in the next two hours. And then…. we waited.
A brief snapshot of our time in the Alat port:
Happy to be finally onboard the ferry, we drank to Nostanistan and the memories of the lot, our new friendships, and the promise of Kazakhstan!
Then the ferry didn’t move till 5 am the next day.
A brief snapshot of our time in the Alat port:
- 6 teams (some joined later on) & 16 ralliers joined us in the parking lot, also stuck in waiting limbo. Trucks & their drivers made of the majority of the lot.
- We sat for 30 hours at the port, waiting for our ferry to arrive. Every time we asked what was going on, the guards would inform us that it would just be another two hours
- As night fell on our first night at the port, we decided we should get some proper sleep so we set up our tents & camped for the night, occasionally visited by the parking lot gang of dogs
- As we woke up the next morning, we were told it might just be a couple more hours. We settled in for a long wait, idly discussing plans and chatting with nearby truck drivers. One was kind enough to point out where in Kazakhstan there were scorpions. The answer: pretty much everywhere
- At some point, we christened our parking lot “Nostanistan,” a land of no laws and our own language. We discussed holding elections and officially greeted the port authority visitors.
- As the sun set on our 28th hour, we were approached by port agents and told to pack up. We were boarding our ferry at long last!
Happy to be finally onboard the ferry, we drank to Nostanistan and the memories of the lot, our new friendships, and the promise of Kazakhstan!
Then the ferry didn’t move till 5 am the next day.