Saturday 7 March 2015

T -3 Months - Now Counting!

Firstly I must apologise to all those keen followers of this blog for my lack of activity in the last month or so but much has been happening so let me update you now.

So, where to start.  Well firstly I have been working in Wales for the last month and this has created some challenges with getting things organised but thankfully much can now be done on line.  The Internet rules!  OK, what have you done then I hear you ask.

Well, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan visas, Iran authorisation code and a request for a Turkmenistan letter of invitation have all been applied for so now we just wait.  Sarah and I have also filled in the application form for the Russian business visa that Otkitrie Capital are sponsoring and have passed that back to Eddie so waiting to hear about that too.

Using the powers of Skype as well as lots and lots of emails I have managed to find a guide for Iran and Ali (the guide for anyone having trouble keeping up) has sorted out what looks like a great itinerary for our visit.  We are going to take 20 days to cross Iran and he will be taking us to some places off the beaten track such as Ardabil, Musalah and Kandovan which is a Trglodye village where people lived (actually still do) in homes carved out of volcanic rocks.  We're also going to Tabriz, Isfahan, Yazd and of course Tehran.  Sarah's already looking through travel guides to make sure we see everything.

Goreme in Cappdocia (Turkey) similar to Kandovan
So, what else has been happening? well Sarah and I have now applied for our International Driving Permits which are going to be needed for some countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Krgystan, amongst others.  Also I need to arrange a Carnet de Passage to import/export Albert from some couuntries such as Turkey and Iran so need to update all of Albert's documents to reflect the fact he now has a new engine as apparently all the documentation must be correct else bureaucracy will take over and things will become harder than they are already likely to be.

Anyway for the moment we are very much in a 'hurry up and wait' mode although once I'm finished in Wales Sarah and I will start doing some journeys and a little bit of camping to get into the swing of things so watch this space!