Baku Monday 28th July

Well, we've made it, and only one day behind schedule. 3,337 miles.  We arrived Sunday night in the oligarch's playground that is Baku, after leaving London the previous Sunday.  The last two days in particular were epic in every sense....I'll hand over to Rodger to describe the journey from Tiblisi....

Left Tiblisi at 9.30am,
The night before an Azerbaijani call Serge who was staying at the hotel told us the main border crossing between Georgia and Azerbaijan would take us 5 hours to clear customs but that there was la smaller border crossing to the north ......
A summit conference was held and like the true intrepid explorers and members of The League we went for it.
The roads were okish and soon the giant proscenium style gateway of the border crossing hove into view,
A sullen young Azerbaijani solder ordered Peter and I to walk through the crossing via wired off channels whilst Steve, who owns the Nostromo, had to drive into the jaws of passport control and customs alone...,
Would we ever see him again? Would he survive?
Had he remembered to leave any his 28mm figure collection to us?
It was a breeze; our passport control bloke was a cheery soul and Steve whipped the kilts out again and sailed through.
So, on to Baku!
The beautiful lush green and wooded countryside of Azerbaijan quickly changed into even more beautiful arid plains and hills as we headed south east.
Now, remember Serge? He told us we should take a road that was marked like a B road but drove like an A.
We ignored that and headed for the main drag into Baku, the mighty M1. They were rebuilding it. 
We drove 150 odd miles over pot holes the size of trenches, a small river, a mountain pass and through villages that had literally been dug up,
I'd done the early shift so was stuck in the back of the Nostromo and now have a deep insight into what it's like to be a kangaroo. Only whacked my head the three times on the roof but squashed hat off to The Dali and Steve who did the all-terrain stretches; none of us will ever complain about the state of the roads In blighty again. And hats off to The Nostromo who only muttered 'dozy t***s' the once on the the whole epic ride.
We then hit the newly laid M1 over the hills on the approaches into Baku.
I had relieved Steve at the wheel and it was the most frightening drive I have ever done .
A 2 lane road with lots of traffic all driving like total nutters on both sides with some big drops off the sides. We think there was a smash behind us as the road cleared to our rear and we saw ambulances hurtling the other way. 
In the countryside, in the main, the Azerbaijanis drive in a fairly civilised manner; indicating and only overtaking when it's safe. 
That went straight out the window on Death's Highway; they drive big powerful cars at breakneck speed swinging in and out forcing oncoming traffic to swerve to miss them.
I strongly recommend that anyone driving that stretch of road sticks to the speed limit, forgets overtaking and keeps their wits about them every single second they are driving.

Baku itself is a huge city with some impressive buildings...

As I said, epic...

The Nostromo under a canopy of grapes in our B&B in Tiblisi

lush Azeri countryside, way before the drive of death...

Strict rationing means we still have nearly four packets of fruit gums left

Baku is like the set from Bladerunner, if only Ridley had had a proper budget.