Conwy to Baku

This weeks main piece of news for the trip revolves around our detour to Kutaisi, the town twinned with Newport, Wales (see Twin Town post). Kutaisi, also the destination of Jason & The Argonauts for “The Golden Fleece“.

Neil & Tim attended a meeting in Newport Civic Centre last week with the “Newport Kutaisi Twinning Committee”. A collection of books is being put together to drive over there, and a load of Newport County FC shirts. We have accomodation at $22 a night per person including breakfast - it should have been $37. We will have 2 lunches, 1 dinner and a farewell dinner provided for us by the city mayor at no cost.

The other part of news was the organising of an 11-a-side football match against a team from the city, Wales Supporters XI v Kutaisi XI - it seems the schools of the city are having something of a tournament to find a squad of 20 of the best players to play us… us, who would have just driven into town, hot-footing it to a ground for a game with their pre-decided best squad… i don’t fancy our chances, and will put myself forward to be the Mel Pejic of the team. The photo is the football ground in Kutaisi… imagining us lining up for anthems.

The people of Kutaisi may also be interested in “buying” our cars off of us, the good news is there is no import duty to pay here - the idea is we sell off some of the cars here, and try and get the rest to Baku. The situation of driving right-hand drive cars into Azerbaijan is a hot topic, and one Neil is meeting the Azeri Embassy about later this month. Personally, i’d love to roll the Saab into Baku…

I would also like to say a big thank you for donations received over the last few days at our justgiving site, VERY much appreciated. Posting a link on Twitter and my Facebook  status on Red Nose Day I thought no chance, so thank you all very much, all proceeds going to a fantastic cause - please see http://www.golcymru.org