So we won’t get to Baku, but we will get back. Sadly the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan remains closed for land travellers and that means we can go no further east through “safe routes”. While it is possible to cross north into Chechnya or south into Iran, for us these are not routes we currently wish to tackle. Therefore that’s it for us going eastwards and we will have to turn around and start tacking west.

As I write we are sitting in the garden of a man named Jeffrey. Jeffrey from West Virginia who now lives in Georgia. We in a village off the beaten track and are definitely the only travellers within a 20 mile radius.

Jeffrey isn’t here. In fact we’ve never met Jeffrey. We’ve spoken to someone who said he is called Jeffrey on the phone who says he owns the house we now find ourselves camped beside. Were we back in the UK the neighbourhood watch scheme would be having a field day!
Such are the vagaries of travel and Park4Night that we are now camped in a random garden and a stones throw west of Azerbaijan.
Baku was never the goal. The goal was always the journey and while it’s sad not to be able to have a swim in the Caspian sea, that dream will be parked us as we look forward to all that lies along the road as we head west once more.
So far we’ve managed to drive a 54 year old van that was made in Luton in the late 1960s, a van that has an Ikea bed strapped to some home made drawers all the way to the Caucuses. We are less than 300 miles from Baku.

We’ve met so many beautiful people along the way. Only one time have we felt we’ve encountered hostility and that was in Cappadocia when we tried to camp too close to a Danish party that had paid for exclusivity. We were given short shrift by the Danish.

Travel is a privilege, one that we understand and see the further we go. So many of the people we meet simply do not have the opportunities that we as European travellers are afforded. As such we try and travel with humility, compassion and care in our vintage van.

Now all we have to do is get home.
Sounds like an amazing adventure. Lots of love xx