hoboworld.to

Trabzon to Sochi Ferry - Black Sea

After 25 days in Turkey it was time to leave… The ferry tickets had been purchased and the journey was about to begin.. We arrived at Trabzon at 9:30am sat in the park and had breakfast. Shortly after breakfast Heather went to check the exchange rates and do some odd tasks. James remained to look after the bikes. It wasn’t to bad as we had company from two Irish backpackers Aaron and Craig. Who had the same idea as us by getting there early, so day went by quickly as we chatted about our travels. We organised some more Currency (US Dollars) Unfortunately we couldn’t get any Russian Roubles. After that we had lunch and used the internet to make our last photo-less post which we have now added some photos for you guys to look at… at 2pm our epic saga began……

Bikes on board - Black Sea

We first had to check our bikes into customs so that we could get them cleared to leave Turkey. That took us around 45minutes. That meant we had to wait around until passport control at 5pm. Thankfully the Turks have a heart and let us back out of the port to sit in the park and relax for a few hours… At 5 we went back into the Port to do passport control. That took about 15minutes and it was time to board the boat.. This is where the Turkish efficiency ended and the Russian bureaucracy started. We got told by our ticket sales man that the ferry departure time was 8pm and boarding was at 5pm. Really what he meant was you had to pass through customs by 8pm for an 11pm departure. This was not such a big problem because Heather and our Irish friends scored a nice private area with a “balcony view” that we could leave all our stuff in we were all quiet chuffed with ourselves… After 8pm the boat turned into somewhat of a party. All the Georgians and Russians pulled out all the alcohol they brought on board (Alcohol Is relatively expensive in Turkey) and started doing what they seem to do well…. get very drunk… Heather and I bought a few beers from the kitchen and had a quiet one… not able to keep up with the locals we kept to ourselves somewhat thinking we would need the sleep for the next day in Russia….. When Heather went out to check on the bikes she witnessed the arm wrestling by the drinking crew. The boat eventually set sail at 1:30am around 2.5 hours later than the scheduled time.. not to worry I was fast asleep trying to make the most of the journey’s calm seas……. at least until we got woken by the rough seas as we passed a small tornado.. (We were asleep though Craig one of the Irish guys took some photos of it! Then we decided to believe him).

At around 3pm we finally docked in Sochi.. We had made it to Russia.. now all they needed to do was find someone that could do passport control…. an hour and a half later we finally got off the boat and did passport control. This was a huge relief and was very easy. The whole process from filling out the form to getting the stamp in the passport took about 20minutes. Now we had the fun bit of trying to get our bikes off the boat.. One of the Russian guys on board spoke some English and was able to translate all the paper work for us and the two Canadian guys completing the Mongol Rally Race that we have seen so many of in Turkey.. Thankfully otherwise we would have been seriously screwed. Once all the forms had been filled out we had to buy insurance. We bought 90 days insurance for $50US the Canadians bought Insurance for 14 days which cost them $30US… Now we had to get our bikes.. well not really.. The boat that had our bikes had sailed off to another port area just down the road so that they could offload the heavy cargo and trucks on board… Now this is where the fun began..to keep it simple ill put it in point form..

1. There was a shift change at 7pm which we missed.

2. The people on the shift didn’t know about our bikes so we had to wait until 11pm when someone who knew about our bikes returned after their meal break.

3. At 11pm we finally got to get access to our bikes. We got the bikes off the boat only to get to another customs check.

4. They then checked that all our paper work matched properly VIN/Engine etc…

5. A guy then took us back to the other port (where we had come from Passport control) to fill out the customs declaration forms and give us another document which meant we could take our bikes out of customs.. It was now 3.00am..

Thankfully with our new Canadian friends who also spoke no Russian.. All four of us had been completely demoralised by the epic 12 hour customs battle to get our vehicles off the boat.. In total from when we went through customs in Turkey it was over 36 hours later…for what should have been an 11 hour journey. (Not to forget heather had another bout of food poisoning which was making her waiting time especially tough). Now that we had finally made it out of the port with our bikes it was time to get a place to stay.. We had booked to stay in a Hostel but the address for the hostel was not on any of our maps so we had to go.. there was no chance it was worth going to a hotel for a few hours sleep.. we ended up riding with the Canadians sticking together safety in numbers! We pulled up at a Truck rest stop area on the main road.. pulling out our therma rest and sleeping on the side of the road for a few hours… ahhh ohhhh what a feeeling.. welcome to Russia..At least we had a friendly flea infested dog to look after us for the night.. It kept a vigil barking at any other dogs that came close to us which were loads.. Unfortunately we felt guilty because we didn’t have any food for it 🙁

It was now 6am and we had managed to get around 2 hours sleep… It was time to get on the road again. We left the Canadians and bid our farewells.. Heather was feeling really sick now and we needed to find a hotel which had easy access to a toilet.. About an hour and a half later we found a hotel and found we didn’t have enough cash.. now we had to find a bankomat..(atm in russia).. another 30 minutes later we got back to the hotel.. Money in hand and checked in.. ahhhhhh a bed.. ahhhhhh a shower.. ahhhhhh sleep.. It was now 2pm.. We had slept for about 5 hours.. feeling somewhat refreshed we had to now get some food… It wasn’t an easy task to get food in a resort town.. it appeared to be restaurants or off-license/7-11 style stores.. not really aimed at the healthy living motorcycle touring types!! haha..

11 things you need to know about the Trabzon to Sochi Ferry.

1. Everything on the boat is in US dollars.

2. The exchange rate on board is Terrible.

3. When you have dollars you buy tokens which can be used in the Kitchen. Tokens can also be exchanged for Hard currency at the end of the Journey.

4. No need for a Cabin.. Bring pillows, food and a blanket/sleeping bag and sleep in the food area (nice long flat seats).

5. Fast ferries on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to Sochi. Alternative days from Sochi. (4.5 hours)

6. Bring a good book. There is no alternative entertainment on board and no power sockets that we could find.

7. If on a motorcycle bring something to protect your seat from their straps that hold the bike down. They don’t have any and it damages your seat.. especially if you have an airhawk

8. Nobody tells anyone anything. You have to ASK what’s going on.. they expect everyone on board to just “know”…

9. The crew get very drunk and just have arm wrestles before, during and after the journey.. not so confidence inspiring.

10. Enjoy the journey.. and get some good sleep.. Customs on the Russian side is long, slow and painful (At least for people bringing in their own transport). Foot passengers have no issues.

11. Bring your own toilet paper, soap for the loo.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 8:38 am and is filed under accidents, Adventure Motorcycling, Black Sea, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, Russia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.