Tim and Fin's guide to getting the Caspian Sea Ferry

Getting the sea ferry from Baku to Aktau, Kazahstan is a really fun experience and certainly beats getting a flight over the Caspian Sea. We choose the ferry since as British cyclists we are unable to head north via Russia or South via Iran due to us being unable to get the correct visas required. (Apparently Britain and Iran are currently in talks to reopen each other's embassy so this may change in the future.)
Please note that this is all correct for he boat BARDU and we crossed on 03 September 2015.
The benefits of getting the ferry are however clear, the beautiful sunsets, the romanticism of sailing aboard a large cargo ship and the people you meet onboard. The down siýdes are that it is quite expensive, costing $110pp, there is no timetable and the port is 70km away from Baku so you will not be able to cycle and therefore hitchhike or pay $50 for a taxi. In light of all the confusion please see our short guide to purchasing a ticket and boarding the sea ferry

1. You will need to call first since there is no timetable, therefore nobody knows if the boat will sail until they get into the office in the morning. The best person to call is a lady called Vika on 00-994-552665354. Ensure you call and don't turn up at the ferry office since there are only 12 cabins for sale and if your name is not down you may miss out if it's busy.
2. You will need to then purchase the ticket and this is done 7km east of Baku. Take bus number 46 and get off when you see the large blue sign, this is the stop before Nigola cafe and the driver should know where if you ask. Once here walk down the ally for 500m until you see a door to the right the main gate, you buy your ticket in here.
3. They will then check your name of a list of confirmed buyers given to the office by Vika, you must show correct visa information. If you are travelling to Aktau as a British citizen no visa is required and they know this. You then pay for the ticket. There is nothing extra to pay for the bike and the ticket cost includes your cabin and 3 meals per day!!
4. Then get to the Alat, this is where the ferry will depart and you need to move quick since the offical check in time is 3pm (although we didn't actually leave until 7pm) we flagged down a large taxi to take us and we got both bikes in along with Fin in the front and me squashed in the back. We paid $50 for the taxi and asked the guy to hurry, he went so quickly and got us there just get 3pm and we had no problems at passport control or customs
5. Wait, the ferry didn't leave until 7pm but we were shown to our twin room and met onboard an Australian couple overlanding it back home and 2 English lads also cycling. So we got to know them all very well.

I hope this helps to give you an use of how to board the ferry and the headache that it can be to get everything organised. The meals on board were very good and the rooms excellent. There were no working showers but toilets and drinking water was supplied. It did get very hot due to the captain refusing to turn on the air conditioning to save money on board. The journey was a total of 36 hours and this was due to a 10 wait in Aktau for our 'slot.' We were in swimming distance from land but unable to land due to other boats having priority, so we played some more shithead and slept until we were allowed to depart. Once on land we had to scan our bags through the X-ray scanner and push our bikes past and were then stamped and have arrived in Kazahstan!! Woohoo

The next leg will see us travel through the kazah desert towards Uzbekistan with the two English lads we met on the boat. One called Cliff one called Richard!!

Thanks

Tim n fin