It is Tuesday morning, we’re still in Baku. Still waiting for the process for the visas to kick off, which has taken longer than hoped (the time difference between the Turkmen embassies in London and in Ashgabat mean there’s little if any overlap, so things that could be sorted in an hour take a day or longer….).

The guys waiting for the Kazakh ferry are still waiting, they’ve been here over a week now. More Kazakh ferries are rolling up to the port, so it might be due soon. As for ours - they go more or less daily it seems, but without the visa or lots of official looking stamps, we’re stranded.

And properly stranded - our 3 day transit visa has expired, so the car is locked away in the port. I have my camera and toothbrush with me (as our tourist visas have a while yet to run) so can happily wander the streets aimlessly. It is bloody hot though, 35C during the day. The guys at the port took pity on us yesterday, inviting us into their shady hut for a game of dominos and some time in front of the fan. I lost the dominoes game. Badly…

We had fears about getting into Azerbaijan having heard from two other teams with right hand drive vehicles being turned away from the Azeri border. We took the northern border, expecting it be quieter than the main border crossing the others had been turned away from. Rolling up to the border, we were faced by a young lad with a very large rifle, who stood and stared at us for about 15 minutes sat on the bridge in no mans land before opening the gate and letting us in. And from there, it was all rather smooth. Took less than an hour, with no stress or problems at all. The border staff even brought us hazelnuts from the tree to eat while we waited, had a nice chat, they recommended some places to stop on the way and tried to set Ollie up with some Azeri women. Team F7F7 followed closely behind (we’d bumped into them earlier, pulling out of a Carrefour in Turkey and convoyed with them ever since) and we were in.

Today, we’re sat stranded in Baku. Last night we drove through the night to try and catch today’s ferry,  but there’s no chance of that now - we’re here until Monday or Tuesday at least. They won’t let us on to the ferry as we can’t produce a Turkmen visa, even though it is waiting for us in Turkmenbashi. The customs and police at the port are fine to let us though, but the guy who sells the ticket won’t budge.

Having spoken to the Turkmen Embassy in Baku, we have to wait to Monday to get in touch with the Turkmen Immigration authorities, who then have to get in touch with the embassy, who can then write us a letter, which we can then show the guy at the port, and fingers crossed bargain a decent price for the ferry. So we should be on our way by Tuesday.

We’ve met 2 other teams at the port - 2 guys in a Discovery who are also going to Turkmenbashi and 2 lads in a Corsa van - who have had their vehicle impounded at the port as their 3 day vehicle transit visa has expired.

Still, all looks promising… and we get to see Baku, which looks interesting at least. Lots of lovely posters/signs of their president dotted through the countryside and the biggest roundabouts ever. Andy (We Show Up On Radar) had warned be he and Pete couldn’t wait to get out of the place, but we’ve enjoyed it so far - a nice change from Georgia.

Previously - a brief update since Istanbul:

- Spent our day off in Istanbul trying to ensure we could get into Azerbaijan. We went to the British Embassy, who weren’t that helpful, tried to find the Vienna Convention in cyrillic/Azeri and the rest of the day trying to get US dollars out.

- Following day we drove through most of Turkey, attemping to find a campsite to the west of Samsun. We rolled past somewhere, that looked a bit like a refugee camp, thought the 5 dollars they asked to camp was a bargain, so started to unload the car… One guy came over, who had clear mental issues/learning difficulties, and a few more came over. Security then moved them away and another guy who spoke some English and worked there said “People here aren’t really like normal people…. they’re…. how do you say…. horny?”. Needless to say, we packed up fairly quickly and left, finding a campsite further along the road not full of sex offenders.

- Crossing the Turkey Georgia border was utter chaos - the line of lorries stretched back at least 2 miles. We overtook them all, but it still took 2 or 3 hours to get through. That evening we stumbled upon a homestay north of Batumi after Ollie befriended 2 lads on the beach. Ended up having a great evening with them and Team F7 F7, lots of beer and plenty of kebabs on the beach, and then back to the apartment for more food and home made wine (which was seemingly endless in supply!).

- A day driving fairly non stop across Georgia, and another day yesterday driving fairly non stop across Azerbaijan once we’d crossed the border in order to get to Baku. So we’ll wait here for a few days, hope the Turkmen situation sorts itself out, and hopefully be in Ashgabat by Wednesday or Thursday. From there we’re planning on convoying with the Disco and the F7 guys, who might be heading off into Kyrgystan after Uzbekistan. Visas are easy to get in Toshkent it appears, so we may join them for the mountains and the Pamir highway. Else, it’ll be straight to Kazakhstan…

Bugger ıt.  We’ll get there and brıbe our way through. The lovely chap at the Azerı Embassy ın London poınted out ıt should be fıne - so here we come corruptıon…..

We’re currently in Istanbul. Just found out from another team that there are problems getting into Azerbaijan - they won’t let right hand drive cars into the country. No other route we can take really, so instead of a nice day in Istanbul, we’re off to sort boring/important things. Joy.

Other stuff of note:

Spent a day driving 350 miles back to pick up Mike’s camera, which he’d left in Macedonia, once we’d got half way across Greece. A long detour….

Toll booths in Turkey are manned by men with sub machine guns to ensure you take a ticket. Seems a barrier would be easier…

Driving in Istanbul is INSANE. Ouch.

A quick update on the trip so far. We are currently in Bosnia and still alive. In fact, we have had no problems at all. The transmission on the Land Rover makes a funny rattling noise between having the throttle on and getting engine braking going down hills, but seems fine. Might get it looked at in Instanbul just in case.

We have been through France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and arrived in Bosnia yesterday. The weather has gotten much nicer the past 2 days - plenty of thunder storms in Austria and Slovenia, the temperature soared into the low 30s driving south through Croatia. Plan is still to get to Turkey, via Albania, Macedonia and Greece by Saturday night.

Bosnian driving is…. interesting. Overtaking at speed on blind bends seems to be the norm.

No border problems so far - though the Croats gave us a bit of a talking to on leaving the country, probablz more through boredom at the tiny rural crossing we went through. The Bosnians barely bothered looking at our passports.

Most of the time we have been camping (illegally) at service stations, though we found 2 gorgeous camp sites, one by a lake in Bled (Slovenia) and last night on the Adriatic coast in Croatia, just south of Split.

Plan is to get another blog update when we are in Turkey.

NB - typing this takes for ages, these crazy keyboards have swapped round lots of the letters (y is in a very odd place), with lots of silly letters interspersed.

So after several months of preparations, route changes and visa problems, I’m just about all set to leave for Mongolia this afternoon. The aim is to try and keep this blog roughly updated with short snippets of what’s happened and how far we’ve got, though the further we travel the more difficult it could be to get internet access.

We’ll also be trying to keep the Facebook group more or less up to date, as and when we can.

You’ll also be able to follow Team Water Aid’s progress on the Charity Rallies website. We can text in short messages and a location, and the snazzy bit of software then tracks exactly where we are on a map.

I went in today for my TBE injection, with rabies, Hep A and Hep B scheduled for tomorrow. The nurse was a touch impatient though, so I got all four today. Needless to say, my arm aches a touch, though less than my wallet (….£106!).

A more pleasant experience than Mike had on Tuesday morning though getting his jabs. The nurse spent ten minutes wiggling a needle around in his arm, before giving up and starting afresh with a new one. Not nice.

I say our - only Mike and the car appear in it. The rest of us were all filmed but obviously aren’t angelic enough for the North East News!

Our spot is about 14 minutes in and lasts around 3 minutes. The link below will only last until the 6th July, but we’re doing our best to get a video clip permanently hosted for your indefinite viewing pleasure!

ITV News North East - Team Water Aid

So, with 3 days to go and browsing the BBC News site over breakfast, it appears the president in Mongolia has declared a state of emergency. Fears of vote rigging in elections isn’t just in Zimbabwe at the moment it seems. There has been overnight rioting, looting and violence.

Can’t imagine there’ll still be unrest in 4 weeks time when we arrive though. Hopefully.

Full story on the BBC News site.

After our TV appearance in Durham, we drove up to Weardale Outdoor for some tuition and to meet up with Land Rover Owner International Magazine. The location is beautiful, atop the fell with sweeping views of the surrounding hills.

Excitingly, it was also the first chance I’d had to drive the Defender 110 (or any Land Rover for that matter).

All four of us received half an hour or so’s instruction, learning how to climb and descend rough terrain, use the low ratio gearbox and the locking differential. Most of the day was spent in the quarry area on top of the fell, scrabbling up and down the rocky terrain. Hopefully, it was more extreme than just about anything we’ll encounter on the trip, safe in the knowledge both we and the car conquered all!

The Defender (or “Bertie the Beast” as its known within the team!) performed admirably, though overly hard tyres made grip occasionally hard to come by, as did the very new and still hard suspension. Still, besides crashing the differential on a rock as I lumbered up and over some rocks for some cross axle photo opportunities, all was good.

The car didn’t quite escape the off road terrain without noticeable injury. Our free roof rack decided it wasn’t quite up to the job, with one, then two and eventually the third support giving way before we arrived back at base. Better for it to pack in then, rather than in Azerbaijan or later though! Durham 4 Wheel Drive have done a bit of welding since and it s reattached and looking much stronger, so fingers crossed it’ll hold out the next 10,000 miles.

The rest of the day was spent with Mark and Tom from Land Rover Owner International Magazine, doing a series of action shots and stills to appear in a feature in a forthcoming issue, being interviewed and generally having a bit of a play with Land Rovers on the off road terrain.