Day 11, Baku new port, Azerbaijan

We arrived at the port and saw the ambulance driven by the spanish team leaving the main parking area reserved to the passengers. Not a good sign...

We parked outside, walked in and it was like walking into a refugee camp. A big group of fellow mongol ralliers seated on the ground (despite the name, the new port is nothing more than a tiny office with no benches, no room for passengers, no toilets, no shade, nothing) waiting to board the ferry. Some of them have been here for 4 days and every single day they were told that the ferry was leaving in the evening.

Eager to join the party, we approached the ferry manager but he firmly told us: "no more space, wait for the next one in 4/5 days". Panic. What should we do? Do we wait, do we just start driving all the way back to Ukraine and then Russia? Eventually the people with tickets boarded the ferry but despite the heat we decided to camp there with other 11 mongol ralliers. One of the few take away from my travel experiences is to never take a "no" as a definitive answer and there is always a solution.

Despite the heat and the high risk of spending few more days stranded in baku we had a very good time. Food, beers and tales from the trip were exchanged and after few hours we all forgot what were we waiting for but no one wanted to leave.

Then suddenly Fortuna span her wheel and in an incredible turn of the events we were back in the game. 12 people on the ferry were asked to leave because they only had the letter of invitation but not the visa. All of them along with the ferry manager jumped on a cab to the embassy but after 1 hour they came back and the manager came to me and looking at the sky said "God helped you". So with God on our side we paid what was due (not cheap, 590 dollar for the car and three people...) and boarded the ferry with a big smile on our faces.