Azerbaijan to Georgia in the Northwest

After just two days in Azerbaijan (way too short!), we're crossing the border to Georgia. Our camp was just 10kms away and we reach it bright and early at 10am. There are a few cars in front of us but nothing too bad.
Once we are at the control area (customs and passport control happens in one building), an officer takes our passports, another one quickly looks around Hans and we're motioned to get some luggage x-raid. What to take? Surely, we're not going to take everything... In the end, Tom takes our dirty laundry, a bag full of groceries and his backpack, but probably no one would have noticed if we hadn't taken anything (though the lady at the X-ray did ask "is that all?", upon which Tom answered we travel in a camper van, that it was a bit difficult and left.) Luckily, no one bothers about the car nor our belongings anymore. Instead we queue to have our paperwork checked. Tom and the car are first and there seems to be a problem. At first, we can't really figure out what happened but then they tell us that we haven't paid the road tax yet. You're supposed to pay it on arrival in Azerbaijan. We had assumed road and bridge tax (40$!) are the same, but no. A friendly and very well English speaking officer helps us out. We can pay it at the counter now, and everything is sorted. Those were costly two days in Azerbaijan... Happy that it's done, we continue to the Georgian side. I need to walk through the pedestrian/passenger passport control and am through in no time. Tom, however, is stuck due to our Australian registration. The officer just doesn't want to accept that this is the only official piece of paper we have! Realising the trouble we're in, I ask Tom to check whether we can look up the registration on the Queensland department of transportation website. Luckily, our internet connection is still working and Tom is able to find it after some time. Last problem: the registration we have with us has an expiration date on it. And while we had paid for it to be prolonged, neither of us has received or saved the new document. Jeez... Something we need to rectify asap! In the meantime the border officer grew tired of waiting and finally tells Tom it's ok and waves him through. Sigh. Deep breaths. And on we go. The compulsory insurance can be bought at a booth just 3kms away and soon thereafter we also find a shop to buy a simcard and an ATM. Everything sorted for now.
Later, we meet a Dutch couple (labopstop.nl). I had seen their car at the border going the other direction and was wondering what happened. Well, as they didn't have paperwork for their small trailer (in the Netherlands you don't need it), they were refused entry to Azerbaijan. And that's when we really realised just how precarious our situation had been. With all those digitalised border crossings ahead of us, we better get our paperwork in better shape!Read more