How to get around the Caspian Sea?
There’s several options here: the North route, the Ferry across, and the South route.
The North option is probably our lease likely choice, as it requires entering Russia. We will be getting Russian Federation visas anyway, but unless one gets a three year visa, only two entries are allowed. This makes the later route complicated – basically our second entry is needed to get to the finish line, so we’d probably have to drop Mongolia. A half second’s thought had us rule out this option, as it seems to be missing the point of the Mongol Rally to not even get to Mongolia.
There are two ferries that cross the Caspian Sea from Baku, Azerbaijan; one up to Kazakhstan, and one across to Turkmenbat, Turkmenistan. Both of these ports are near places we want to go, the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, and the Pit to Hell, Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. Kazakhstan needs no visa for us as Americans, but the Turkmenistan visa process is rather complicated, so leaving our entry in the hands of weather, tides, and a possibly unreliable ferry crew may be something we want to avoid. Some horror stories from previous year’s teams have us a little apprehensive of this route.
The South route takes us through Iran. Despite the complex political atmosphere between the US and the IRI, Iran is supposed to be one of the most amazing countries and cultures to visit, and this may be our only chance we get to visit for some time. It’s expensive; we need to get a carnet for the car, and the visa process requires us to get a letter of invitation from the Iranian government before we can apply for the visa, and we as Americans will have to hire a guide to be with us the entire time we are in the country. Luckily, some teams from the UK are putting together a convoy that might be able to share a few guides between several cars, sharing the cost. This would also give us a hard date for entry into Turkmenistan, and also sets guidelines for when we will be in certain spots along the route, making team member entry/exit points easier to nail down.
The route we are shooting for is clear, but nothing is quite confirmed just yet. For the four of us that would be in the car, Josh, Kevin, Lori, and myself, it’s $520 per person, and we have to be at the Iran border in Armenia on July 26th or we don’t get in. In exchange, we get 7 days in the country and guides taking us to cities, monuments, and UNESCO heritage sites, with hotels and breakfasts included.