Category: baku and back

I sit perched on my pink beach chair, laptop sat on our “floor table” looking over the Black Sea in front of me. The sand black and magnetic. It’s not a place to get lost with only a compass. This time 8 weeks ago we were loading the van on Good Friday and getting ready…

We’re high up in the Caucasian mountains near the Russian border. It’s cold and the low clouds obscure the peaks that we know surround us. To add insult to injury the clouds drizzle cold wet rain on us.  We’ve driven 100 miles to get here up treacherous roads so steep that we were forced into first…

We’ve now been in Tbilisi for 24 hours. We came knowing political uncertainty existed and that as we travelled in beautiful Georgia things were happening that we didn’t really understand. Where ever we’ve been we have felt welcomed, albeit in a more reserved way than in Turkey, but none the less genuine. It’s a bit…

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…

After just over three weeks driving east across Turkey we finally ran out of road and headed north and west towards Georgia. Initially uncertain as to whether to stay another day in Turkey we decided given the impending rain that we would be better off driving than huddled in the van. For the most part…

It’s days like these that we live for. Days that chop and change, twist and turn. Days that are seemingly certain, but actually quite uncertain. Beautiful, unexpected and ones that make you think about what you have and what you do with it. I can’t even say that today started off like any other as…

We’re well into our fourth week. When we arrived in Turkey we didn’t really have much idea of what we wanted to do or see. The first few days were about taking things as they came, one day leading to the next. After about a week it came to dawn that Turkey is a big…

As we entered Austria, Juliet played a rendition of the Blue Danube Waltz on her harmonica. By this time we’d already encountered the Danube as we tracked south and east on our journey in Germany. When thinking about this trip the Danube was never something I’d given much thought to, although a few people mentioned…

It’s two weeks ago now since my last day at work and a lot has happened in that time. I write this sitting on a park bench. The Aegean Sea less than 10 meters away. Mirror like, a gentle breeze passing in the trees above. A white wagtail happily chirping as it sits on the…

The adage goes that you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.  We possibly disproved that statement on Easter Sunday when we rocked up to stay with an old friend and his family just south of Bonn.  Easter Sunday in the sunshine the scene set for a 10 plus year reunion. A…