We thought you may like a quick update of where we are up to currently. We had good and bad news concerning our Iranian Visas. We were granted permission to apply and provided with a permit number but our chosen consulate in Dublin informed our agent that they couldn’t possibly process them in only 4 weeks!! Agent was furious and suggested that if they turned on their computers then they might find processing visa a bit quicker!! Anyway another option became available when another customer needed his urgently and was prepared to pay for a courier to fly to Frankfurt and back next week and get it over the counter. Other than Dublin Frankfurt seems to be only consulate not requiring fingerprints. So by next week we should have our Iranian visas but this has more than doubled the cost. Iran is becoming very expensive for just a few days but is crucial to journey so we have bitten the bullet.
When the visas gets back we will thern sort out Uzbekistan visa which should be no problem. Just the Turkmenistan one to go then. Have any of you had any thoughts about that one? By way we got Kazakhstan visa without need to provide hotel details. Just shows how arbitrary the whole process seems to be.
Our application for a second passport was turned down by the Identity and Passport Service last week. We appealed but that was also turned down. We claimed that the countries we were visiting were incompatible and added USA into our route but they claim it would be no problem entering USA with Iranian visa in our passports. They even said that Israel would also not find it a problem. Should have lied and said we had visa from Israel so couldn’t get Iranian but thought we would get them as we used a letter that had previously been successful. Asked them for a copy of the list of countries that they consider incompatible but got no real response so will follow up with a letter when we get chance. When we have all visas we will make a few dummy passports to use outside borders.
Still waiting for RAC to come back with Passage de Carnet cost but expect that any day now.
We are in midst of immunisations for Rabies and tick borne encephalites and got ourselves a one to one medical trauma day for 24th of May with company who gave training to Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. The MD was also the chief medic on the Land Rover G4 competition to Mongolia. He spent 5 months recceing routes before Land Rover pulled the plug. He had some useful advice. The country and people are fantastic and best country he has been to. As a result of severe temperatures diesel is difficult to get and quality is poor with plenty of water in it. Two inline filters sound a good idea. The more modern Land Rover engines found it difficult but older Tdi and Td5 were fine. Presume Olav’s Land Cruiser will also be fine. LR bought in their own diesel and had a tanker for their use. Terrain is very volcanic and punctures were a daily occurrence. Suggested that as well as ultra strong sidewalls a few inner tubes would be useful. He warned that maps and GPS tend not to match. Whole towns can be 20 miles out on map!! Features can disappear as well. Whole lakes were on maps and when found no longer existed.
and to continue with the task of getting visas. We spent a whole day at Real Russia in Islington filling in visa applications and parting with a load of money. At least this relieves us of the stress of visiting all the embassies and getting it sorted ourselves. Saved Isabel a load of grief with her knee into the bargain. By end of week we have our Mongolian and Tajikistan ones sorted and the Kazakhstan one in process. Timetable is tight but by paying for express when possible we should have the all by middle of May. Magic Carpet are dealing with our Iranian ones. We have applied for second passport which should help.