17/9/2024

31 days, 288kms and over 132hrs of swimming, the team arrives on the coast of Azerbaijan to a warm welcome. Supported by the Azeri Coastguard and Azerbaijan government, the team successfully navigated challenging conditions at sea, overcame time and distance to achieve an historic first. The first recorded swim across the Caspian, and the end of a three year focused plan to reach the west coast of the Caspian and back on the road for Europe.

1/6/2024

June 1st We moved back to Baku to work with the Azerbaijan government who agreed to support the Caspian crossing and supplied two Azeri swimmers to join the team. Our Azerbaijani national swim team champions Anastasiya Boborikna and Abdurrahman Rustamov. However, as sports athletes, they have never done anything like this kind of distance and time. The team will be supported by the Azeri Coast Guard and a 64-meter ship. The start date is now set for August 10th from the coast of Kazakhstan. 

7/04/2024

April 14th -28th The team was joined by Erik Scheeres for the last push from Shetpe to the start point of the swim. Roughly 300 km, in an approximate 10-day walk. 

31 / 08 / 2023

Unfortunately we were unable to satisfy all the safety boat requirements in the allotted time frame meaning we have had to delay the crossing until August next year. We would not have had time to reorganise without pushing back the timings by a few months. This led us to question water temperatures and how that might negatively impact our swim. We are not equipped for cold weather swimming. My sponsors take safety very seriously, especially when there are seven lives at stake at sea for 30 days. Now we have time to focus on the safety boat requirements. Targeting August 2024. Meanwhile checkout the new video we added in the video section of the 1,000 mile section through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

18/07/2023

A hard fought, yet interesting, few weeks. Arrive in Shetpe after 309kms. From here we need to renew the 30 day Kazakh visa so require another visa bounce. We also need to link up with the Baku team, now located in Kazakhstan, working on the permissions permits etc. The support boat is on the way across the Caspian to Aktau Kazakhstan.

26/06/2023

We cross into Kazakhstan and cover the next 87kms arriving in Beyneu on the 28th. A small dusty town rocked by both thunder storms and dust storms during our stay. We resupply, rest, clean and fix equipment before hitting the road on the 7/07/2023.

1/06/2023

Back to Nukus and back on the road for the Kazakh border. Between us and the border is a long and very remote stretch of desert that requires a lot of careful thought. The temperatures are reaching 45C (113F) and the pressure is on. We advance methodically and carefully. We bury and cache water along a 260km stretch getting us past the Arial Sea and to the border with Kazakhstan. 441kms

8/04/2023

After a long and trying haul we reach the first major waypoint Nukus. We got broke in, suffered heavy blistering that finally started to heal only a few days before arriving in Nukus. Incredible to be back on the road with the Beast after a long troubling delay.  543kms 

From Nukus we have to leave Uzbekistan to renew our visa. This provides the perfect opportunity to visit Baku Azerbaijan and link up with the team working on our support boat for the Caspian water crossing. Its an expensive endeavor with a lot of bureaucracy to overcome to secure the permits and permissions to cross the Caspian between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Not to mention the Boat, crew, medical coverage and film crew required to make all this work. And of cause never enough time. Its all business now, the world is getting surreal. 

12/03/2023

Everything arrives in Bukhara and we spend a few days organizing and packing for the road gathering final supplies. Hitting the road 14/03/2023. 

27/03/2023

We fly out of Mexico and arrive in Tashkent Uzbekistan. So begins a few weeks of frantic organizing and consolidation. We are relived to finally reunite with the Beast and all, (well almost all), my equipment that was left in Turkmenistan three years earlier. We buy supplies, ship swimming equipment to Aktau Kazakhstan, pack and ship the Beast and Athathen (Angela’s cart) to Bukhara, the starting point and my last major waypoint in Uzbekistan before we entered Turkmenistan. A hectic time that saw Karl have to deal with his first bout of shingles covering the left side of his face and eye. Not the best timing. We take a train and head for Bukhara.

23/02/22

With Russias invasion of Ukraine and the heightened tension with the west, specifically the UK, Russia is officially off the table. Not only, tension with Iran is on the negative down slide with no promising future. The prospects of obtaining an Iranian visa for a four month walk across the country looks less likely each day. As the geopolitical trap shuts tight, it’s definitely time to look closely at PLAN-C the “escape route” the Caspian Sea.

This would require a 259km swim from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, not really something i signed on for at the beginning of this endeavour, but hey, whatever it takes right? The other big question is logistics. A support boat plays a significant role in this concept, and at this point it’s far from clear how credible or realistic this plan might be.

09/04/21

Where I am at

We got lucky with a 30 day visa, that would require an escort through Turkmenistan. It can be tricky to get a visa at all for Turkmenistan. You can have a visa and still be turned away at the border. By the end of 2019 I arrived on the border of Iran. With my visa up I was hurried by my escorts to Ashgabat and put on a plane. I returned to LA and link up with sponsors, we had a lot to catch up on and plans to make going forward.

Iran was going to be a hard nut to crack. There was increased tension with Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US. This included talk of war. Plus I have a British passport one of three passport not allowed free access to Iran, along with US and Canadian. Any other passport and I would have been fine. But now I had a real problem.

Also with US sanctions on Iran my sponsors could not play any part of my journey while in Iran. They could not help with planning or funding. I would have to go this alone from this point on. But first we needed a contact in Iran who could help us get this visa and permission to travel extensively throughout Iran on foot. After a number of dead ends we finally got lucky with a lead out of Kazakhstan. Long story short I found the right Iranian contact that could help. Then things got worse on the geopolitical front. We decided I would wait in Mexico while I worked this problem.

Then the US took out General Soleimani before Christmas 2019. And suddenly all our plans and contacts evaporated. It was not looking good for Iran, it was very bad. It had been months already of complex negotiation and now everything was for nought. We decided to once again let things cool down and see if we could possible recover any lost ground. I really wanted to experience Iran. Things began to improve and I remade contact with our man in Iran who was willing to give it another go. However things had changed, the cost was increasing, the bureaucracy was getting thicker. We began talking plans and began finding the funds, by now its spring 2020. And then the end of the world. The first country to get knocked sideways outside China was Iran.

A year later things have changed little. Turkmenistan closed its borders to foreigners and they remain closed. All my equipment is stashed in an escorts garden in Turkmenistan. Communications are almost none existent with this individual. There are layers of complexity here. Once these countries are willing to allow foreign travel, we still have the sketchy geopolitical situation with Iran.

Plan B

This would involve backtracking to Uzbekistan losing almost 700 miles of progress. Then switching north up into Kazakstan and into Russia. However, currently I am not allowed to enter Russia from Kazakstan because of Covid. Even beyond covid we are still not sure I would be allowed back into Russia, remember Kyrgyzstan?

A Red Wall

I find myself on the wrong side of a wall. A wall of eastern nations rubbing up against the west creating a lot of friction. Directly south is the Taliban, west the Iranian regime seemingly always on the brink of war. North of the Caspian Sea is Russia. I’m not on the best of terms with Russia and geopolitically things are at an all time low with the west. In fact, as I type, Russian troops are building on the East Ukraine border and NATO is on high alert. A war just rapped up in the Caucasus’s and the southern Caucasus within Russia is a hot spot of islamic extremism. Even without a global pandemic things would be difficult.

At this time it’s hard to say how long before we have a green light to even begin looking at options. To start the process over with Iran contacts or try investigate the possibility of a route north back into Russia. If both Iran and Russia say no, what’s plan C? situation and plans or special projects, …so looking forward i.e the geopolitical trap and Caspian project.