Side tracked to Armenia

---

Hi guys,
As you can see we got carried away heading East!.........
I also have a correction to make - on the last blog I was spelling Bizaar wrong so I stand corrected - I realised as I looged out.

Since my last update we carried on in Turkey. We did a section of the black sea coast and it was amazing (The western half, the eastern half was shit). Mountains, private bays, little villages and forests. The sea looked lovely (although we didnt swim). We stopped at a little town and stayed in a hotel as the campsites are few and far between. We went out for a lovely fish supper and tried the Raki (I love the stuff!). From there we headed along to a place called Boyabat and found a great castle with steps cut into the rock heading down into the moutain (more stuff for Scott to run around). Turkey is a great place for Kebabs (yes that is spelt right) and a yogurt type drink that is lovely. We have also had some really colourful sunsets which has helped against the cold nights.

Ducky finally got a shower!. We filled up with fuel and the guys insisted on giving him a wash while feeding us teas. It was embarrasing to see the dirt coming off him - so much dirt that it clean the stuff that had been blocking the holes?!?!? he is now not water proof or dust proof!.

We also saw our first snow again. High up in the mountains in the east of Turkey it started as a duting on the tops and as we went over one pass it was over 30cm of snow all over.

A few interesting points happened on the journey east. Firstly we were in the middle of nowhere on a high hill and woke to find a man with a shotgun just sat on a rock looking at us. Seeing shepherds with guns is common but this guy had no animals and was just sat there!?! He smiled and waved back when we carefully opened the curtain and as we drove off he continued to just continued to sit there. It was just his morning rock and we happened to be there.
The second was on a dirt road with shear drops on one side and hairpin bends. Trucking along nicely and a car flys around the corner. Both he and Scott lock on the breaks and the guy sails passed missing Duckys nose by millimeters. As he passes he gives a big grin and a wave!!!!!. Impressive black marks left on the road.

As we got to Kars in the far East we read about Georgia and on a whim we decided to give it a go (And got farked overby the lonely planetinformation!!! There is nowhere to DRINK in Borjomi!!!!). The first crossing we tried - after about not seeing a car for 1hr on the road - turned out not to be open and it was actually just a army camp. The nice men with big guns asked us nicely to get out of ducky and then pointed on a map where we needed to be!. The second attempt was more successful (once the Guys noticed we were there and let us through the gate). We drove into a compound had to see one guy, another guy and back to the first guy and that was us out of Turkey - Getting into Georgia was different. About 15 guards - one ore two spoke some English and they were the funniest lot ever!!!. Every single one looked at our passports, had a look round Ducky (not that it was there job they were just nosey) and eventually let us on our way. We crossed into Georgia and realised we had no map, no guild book, no money, no idea!!!!!!. There was also a lack of road signs and tarmac!. Eventually we headed off and the scenary blew me away. It was just beautiful. Lush grean mountains with trees (very different from east Turyeky). We made it to a town and everyone was helpful, we got a hotel room that was nice and also cheap. Had a lovely meal out and to bed. In the morning I got talking to some Americans. They were nice enough to lean us their lonely planet book for Georgia and Armenia. We arranged to meet up in the capital on Friday and give it back to them. That gave us 5 days and as we were that close we thought Armenia would be good. At least we had a guide book this time.

As we headed toward the border we stopped at a cave monestry complex. It was 13 levels and also had a stone church built into a cave! amazing to see the detail in some of them and they were from the 12th Centry. We slept next to a river just down the road from there. Free camping in Georgia - who would have thought it!. One bonus fuel is about 52p a ltr!! and vodka about 2 pounds!

It cost us 50 Euros to cross the border and about 3 hours (couldnt find the guy to change the money and then computer issues). I had to sign 25 things and they stamped different bits of paper about 74 times I kid you not!!!! comical to be honest. However once across Armenia is very difficult country. It is very poor, very bad roads and no sign posts!!. We tried to find accomodation in the first town and gave up and headed to another, finally found a hotel room at about 9:30pm knackered.

The next day (yesterday) we saw some churches along a gourge and also a museum of local people which was strange but very interesting. Today we are going to head out into the capital and have a look around. We stayed at a hostel last night and it is strange to be around so many travellers again after so many weeks not seeing anyone.

Right I've prob bored you all enough by now so I will hand over to Scott and let him correct me and add the funny bits - hense anything funny he has added.

I might try and add some more pics to this thing tonight.

Miss you all heaps

xxx

---