TWO friends from Tavistock are currently experiencing one of the greatest motoring adventures on the planet and have compiled an update especially for Times readers.
Chloe Brockington, 27, and Joe Goode, 35, set off on July 19 and are attempting to travel through approximately 20 countries, crossing 10,000 miles of desert through Europe and Asia in a small, second hand vehicle completely on their own with no back up, no support and no set route.
Week two, Joe writes:
‘Since last l wrote we have covered a further 2,500 miles moving ever closer towards our destination. We pushed down south from Istanbul to Cappadocia — nothing prepared me for what we found there, as it held quite surreal landscapes, old ruins of homes carved into cliffs and rocky outcrops emerging from the ground like giant termite mounds.
‘Next stop after Trabzon was the Georgian city of Batumi. The border crossing into Georgia went smoothly and we found ourselves in a country which houses some of the craziest drivers I’ve ever come across, l think the best way to describe the general attitude is; the rule is — there are no rules! Two lane roads have four lanes of traffic in areas, apparently the best places to overtake (or undertake) are winding hill roads, but you eventually find yourself driving like a Georgian as sticking to our highway code there would definitely cause you more harm than good!
The country itself is beautiful, we had several days there between the city of Batumi — a city that couldn’t really decide what it was; it had a Vegas-style strip, a coliseum, a leaning tower, a building situated by a lake styled like an old American riverboat and an LA-styled brick boulevard . . . the list goes on.
‘The capital city of Tblissi is on the other end of the scale, harbouring beautiful architecture and a very rich cultural presence.
‘The people were friendly and keen to try their English on us — l was stood in a mini market buying something that resembled cheese (not understanding a word of their language doesn’t make for great shopping) when an older gentleman approached me.
‘It was a random conversation quickly turning to their conflicts with Russia. He told me about how they resist the hold of Russia and still ‘walk strong with smile on face’. We passed within ten miles of the conflict zone, but life there seemed to carry on as normal.
From Georgia we headed east into Azerbaijan — my comments on this place l’ll keep brief as when you haven’t got anything good to say it’s best not say anything at all.
‘It all started with the Georgian border exit guard wishing us ‘luck’ as we left which we thought was a bit weird. From then on we encountered corruption on rather a large scale — police circling like vultures as we made our way to the capital, a lot of the teams were pulled over and presented with ridiculous fines for fictional charges — we’re talking $500 for being 17mph over the speed limit (that being their invention). At every opportunity these guys will extract what they can.
Week three:
‘We rolled into Baku in Azerbaijan after a gruelling 14-hour push from Georgia.
‘It was around 10pm when the “fixer” we had enlisted to get us on the boat met us. After a hurried conversation basically outlining we needed to get to the port straight away if we were to catch this elusive boat, we jumped in our cars and followed this crazy guy through the city at pace.
‘It became apparent he was quite a connected fellow as he avoided a traffic jam by leading us through a barrier which was raised by a security guard and down a single lane road — which was the rear entrance to the Grand Hilton Baku; we drove round the front through the main entrance where Bentleys and Ferraris had stopped for their valet parking — much to our amusement and their disgust!
‘We arrived at the ferry port — then began our 43-hour ordeal, better than most actually, as some people had been waiting for days already on the promise that the boat was leaving the day after. Customs and boarding took about five hours by which time it was around 3am. No cabins were available so it was our inflatable roll mats and the floor. Sunrise and sunset over the Caspian Sea from a boat is incredible, with an even more interesting view at night as we approached Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan.
‘To the left we had land with all its twinkling lights and to the right what looked like land, with the same lights, but in actual fact it was a sea of offshore rigs all clustered together.
‘We disembarked the ship at 4am after our second broken night’s sleep. Now on hour 29, a little hungry and a lot tired, we weren’t quite ready for what was about to ensue – welcome to Turkmenistan, land of many customs windows — twelve in total!
‘Our most confusing border crossing yet. The amusingly named ‘Turkmenbasy’ is where we stayed for around eight hours building up a collection of pointless stamps. When it actually became time to leave we positioned our two car convoy at the gate where we were kept waiting, these guys didn’t want us in their country and now this was abundantly clear, finally managing to get out when a lorry pulled up behind us to leave. The guards asked us to move, we refused, there was a lot of shouting, the gate opened, we exited quickly!
‘Turkmenistan is dubbed the North Korea of Central Asia due to its very closed borders, secretive existence and not forgetting ruthless dictator leader.
‘We were excited to see what this country had to offer, first observations — no Visa or MasterCard, no 3G, no wifi or Internet, this place is locked down tight!
‘I’m probably not painting a great picture of this country so l will turn focus onto the wonders we encountered; Ashgabat its capital is a city made up of huge white and gold buildings, a kilometre long fountain through the centre of the main boulevard leads you into the square adjacent to the palace, vast fountains with golden horses dot the city which is laid out on a grid system, with golden statues of the dictator himself positioned in front of the ministries.
‘With this comes, as you would expect from a dictatorship, a massive military and police presence. As we were touring around these incredible sites not a moment went by when we didn’t have a set of eyes on us, we were eventually asked to leave the areas when they became flustered. An interesting fact is that around only 1,000 people a year enter Turkmenistan — they don’t like tourists!
The following day we headed north to the middle of the Karacum desert to the aptly named “Gates to Hell”.
‘The site was identified by Soviet engineers in 1971. It was originally thought to be a substantial oil field site.The engineers set up a drilling rig and camp nearby, and started drilling operations to assess the quantity of oil available at the site.
‘When they instead found gas, the ground beneath the drilling rig and camp collapsed into a wide crater and disappeared.
‘Expecting dangerous releases of poisonous gases from the cavern into the nearby towns, the engineers saw it as best to burn the gas off.
‘The gas was estimated to burn out within a few weeks, but it has instead continued to burn for more than four decades after it was set on fire.
‘Reportedly local spiders are attracted to the heat and often throw themselves into the pit, we, however, felt no compulsion to do the same!
‘We camped about 6km from the site itself next to an old abandoned yurt. A couple of locals were kind enough to offer us transit to the site using their jeeps so we headed in after nightfall.
‘Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw, simply a giant burning hole in the middle of the desert, truly a great wonder of the world.
We left camp the next day ready to push on towards Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan for me was starting to feel quite claustrophobic — life under a dictator even just for the few days we were there seemed quite unorthodox.
‘So dusty, dirty and in a balmy 45 degrees we headed to the border on a road with potholes the size of our car, ahead of us the great Pamir highway and our biggest most dangerous challenge yet.’
To track Chloe and Joe’s journey visit www.teamalliance-mongolrally.com
On the website there is also a ‘Just Giving’ link for those who wish to donate to their three chosen charities.