Caspian Sea Crossing

We wanted to travel over-land wherever possible and to do so, we had to take the unpredictable cargo ferry from the Azerbaijan port of Alat (1 hour from Baku) to Aktau, Kazakstan.

We had telephoned from Georgia and were told that the ferry could depart last night or today. We were extremely lucky that when we arrived on the overnight train from Tbilisi to Baku at 9a.m. we called the ferry office and were informed that the ferry was likely to leave that day.

At first, I was apprehensive about travelling by cargo ferry and I questioned why we were not just taking a flight. However, it was a super experience that I would not change.

Below is our experience in a chronological order.

10 a.m.

10:20 a.m.

12:30 p.m.

4:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

9:00 p.m.

11:00 p.m.

11:30 p.m.

5:30 a.m.

The next 22 hours were spent exploring

3:00 a.m.

Tips – based on our experience

• Tickets – try calling the office everyday to see when the ferry is expected to land at the port
• Room – we would highly recommend spending the extra $10 to have a room with a window for fresh air.
• Food – the cafeteria timings are short and even during the slim operating hours, you will find the main door locked. However, you can enter via the kitchen, so just be a bit nosey!
• We found this site very useful: Caravanistan website