2019/2020: North Cape/Russia/Central Asia/Iran and back

[T-One]

Hi,

it's getting serious, 7 months to go and we start our next big journy.
https://www.tripline.net/trip/2019/2020_copy-40303401720710139BDBCFFE93474423

At the moment we gather all the visa infos end send our visa requests for the notoriously slow visa countries like russia, turkmenistan and iran, also our russian gets better every week (yes, me and my SO are learning russian since last year)

As austrians we have the benefit to get our hands on russian business visas for up to 6 months.
So the plan is to drive up the north cape at end of april, drive through russia in 6 to 8 weeks to lake baikal.
July in Mongolia, August - end of oktober through Kazakhstan - Kyrgyzstan -Tajikistan - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan. In mid november we should be in Iran where we stay 3 months till mid january, then about one month in Azerbaijan to avoid the cold jan/feb months in Armenia and Georgia (it gets really really cold there...).
Then we plan to travel through Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Greece and back to Austria along the balkan states.

Looking forward to a great adventure, maybe i can meet with some Overlandbound members from Central Asia or Russia.

Anyway, i keep you guys updated on the visa process and all the troubles involved in this thread.

Regards

 

[Superduty]

I'm sure Iran is a beautiful place, but not a place I would go in this lifetime.

Good luck and be safe.

 

[T-One]

I'm sure Iran is a beautiful place, but not a place I would go in this lifetime.

Good luck and be safe.

Why not?

I only heard overwhelmingly positive stories from people who vistited Iran, many told me that they encountered an unmatched level of kindness from all people including officials.
The other thing is politics and as a overlander i'm not interessted in politics at all and it's better to keep it that way, especially in all of the *stans, armenia, turkey and iran, politics can get you into a lot of problems in this states. That's why i'm not interested in countries, my interest belongs to the people inhabit the countries.

 

[Superduty]

Why not?

Because I'm an American and the official position of the Iranian government is "death to America".

I'm sure the people are very nice. However, the government doesn't like me.

 

[T-One]

Yep, that's true. But there are not many alternatives for my route.
I noticed during planning that Iran and Russia are the gates to Asia, there is no way around overland , also no car ferries on the caspian sea, to get from Kazakhstan (Turkmenistan only issues 3 day transit visas) to Azerbaijan it's literally asking captains if they have space for a car.
Back through Russia i not an option because of the 6 month visa limit.

I also thought about visiting china but the Xinjiang region is only accessible with a guide for about 100$ per day. Often people group up to split the costs and drive south where a guide is no longer mandatory, but a chinese driver license, insurance, permissions and a bunch of other stuff adds up a lot for a 90 day china visit.

So, there is just Iran.

 

[mogleygull]

Glad so many of you here were to visit Russia one day! I'm currently getting ready for the next visit to St. Petersburg and Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood - 2019 Guide - PetersburgExpert is supposed to be my first destination point.

 

[Numenor]

Armenia's also worth visiting, it's located near Russia (it's an ex-Soviet country). It's pretty hot here in summer, not sure about winter. I used services of One way tour, pretty much liked it. As for the hotels and prices, here's a good article Top-10 The best hotels in the center of Yerevan.