Will joined us on the first day which was great, and it was through fantastic scenery. We were at the thickly wooded foothills of the Caucasus mountains, which are very cool compared to the plains. It was a good cycling day, and I was very pleased to make it past the 2000km mark on my odometer! We camped that night in the woods, we ate quite late though as Humphrey's stove had mysteriously fallen apart in his bag and is a struggle to put back together. A good meal of noodles, sausage and tuna; protein and carbs, yummy!!
We were up early the next morning and soon after Humphrey and I said good bye to the mountains as we turned inland to the plains again on advice from people who said there is almost no road on the supposed 'main' road into Baku. The morning was maybe my favourite few hours of cycling. I felt strong and the sun wasn't bothering me and before we got into the falt desert we were treated to a set of beautiful rolling hills covered in water buffalo. Then we saw a huge flock of white herons just before the desert really started. I felt like I was flying and I loved cycling then. Even after a long stop to repair Humph's tyre again I still felt good and on the flat road on our first desert stretch I felt like someone was pushing me I was going so fast. Someone stopped to give me an ice cold bottle of water, and all the beeps on the horn from passing lorries added to the buoyant feeling. Then the dreaded wind picked up and I slowed down. Coupled with Humphrey's decision to do 135km today and then 150km tomorrow to get to Baku, the afternoon took a turn for the worse as there was still 30km to go. The rest of the day was a fight against the wind and counting down the kilometres until I could stop. A brief respite was when someone stepped in front of me and handed me a huge slice of watermelon!
As there was nothing but desert we asked at a petrol station if we could sleep at the back of the building. The young chap showed us to a pagoda by a pond, and we slept under that with out a tent that night. We had watermelon for supper and a few stale cakes, but spotted a watersnake carrying away a writhing fish for his supper and then saw a turtle basking!
We woke early and started packing up, and the chap from the petrol station came over. He demanded us to pay 15 Manat for the pleasure of sleeping rough in the pagoda, he blocked our way out of the pagoda. We went through the motions of not understanding and then when that became too painful we laughed at his request and kept saying no, whilst trying to push past him. To our relief a van came in wanting fuel and we pedalled off with the sound of distant shouts of 'police' from the boy...
The morning was OK, the wind was up but not too bad and we plodded on, although psychologically the thought of 150km stretching ahead didn't help the motivation. We had a long stop at a petrol station whilst Humphrey fixed another puncture, and then we saw the Caspian Sea where we turned towards Baku. This is where we felt the full force of the wind...at first I was going at 11-13kph, but soon after I was down to 6-7 as the wind battered me. It was so powerful, and every lorry that went past created a vacuum which sucked me forward and then the wind almost pushed me off the road, I felt like I had no control over my bike. It was the only time I thought that it was to dangerous to cycle, but we pushed on. After 20km of this I was nearing the end of my patience with the damned wind and was willing to shelter anywhere until the morning. The dust was almost unbearable and every lorry that would pass us threw a whole load of grit in our faces. I saw ahead that Humphrey had stopped to talk to someone in a car and when I approached I was so relieved to hear that the man had offered for us to come and stay at his house!! We had only done 104km of the 150 but I was not complaining. We had just 4km to go until the turning for his house. When I turned off and with the wind behind us, I was going at 15kph without pedalling!
I am always so amazed at people's kindness. He took us in, we spoke no common language, and he let us shower in his home, he fed us and let us stay the night. The shower was much needed, I was covered in dust it had ingrained itself into my eyebrows and hair. Once we were clean we realxed and they brought cay and food for us. In the evening his wife and two young daughters cam home and we chatted into the evening. It is quite a feat to talk about politics, religion and other worldly topics when we share no common language, but we managed it that evening. I shared a room with all of his daughters that night and it felt like a sleep over. The youngest was laughing at my transformation to wearing glasses, and with her sister they were giggling until late when their mother told them to go to sleep!
In the morning we were shown round their garden, which is full of all kinds of fruit; quince, plums, apricots, figs, apples, damson, grapes. We were given a huge breakfast of fried eggs dripping in oil fresh from their chickens and home made jam and bread. We hit the road and thankfully the wind was not quite as strong and we made our way into Baku and to our hostel. We met Will who had been watching Wimbledon and also bumped into Elmar, a Dutchy we had met in Tblisi. A good cycling gang for supper. Baku is a bottle neck for cyclist all waiting for visas and the ferry across to Kazakhstan. So we were to meet quite a few while we were here.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Balakan to Seki - 109km
It was downhill for a long time out of Balakan, the first town in Azerbaijan, which was great...we descended into the falt plains that stretch between the Higher and Lower Caucasus. It was easy cycling so we could really admire everything around us, and it was great to be in the shadows of the awesome Higher Caucasus and to think that the top of the mountains mark the border with Russia.
In this area it is difficult to define in what continent we are, it isn't Europe, but also not quite the Middle East or Asia, the Caucasus are a bit lost in their identity and because there are so many disputed borders all around they isolate themselves even more. The border between Armenia and Turkey is closed, as is the Armenia - Azeri border. Georgia welcomes everyone and anyone and I saw more EU flags there than in Europe, in the vague hope that they might be accepted one day, but the visa process for Azerbaijan is so difficult that they hinder any chance of promoting tourism for anyone but the most dedicated travellers and cyclists!! It is a bit of a maze of bureacracy around here, and very much off the beaten track of travelling routes.
We slowly simmered away in the plains, stopping often to get some shade from the relentless sun. So when we saw a very inviting river we jumped in...I of course went in fully clothed, but knew that it would actually be a relief to cycle in wet clothes. It was an idyllic spot, with a few horses lapping at the water further along and only us and a couple of Azeris for company. Although I was quite conscious of the 'wet t-shirt' competition look after I emerged and beat a quick retreat from the gawping stares. Having cycled a little further in this area, I have noticed that women don't swim at all, even fully clothed.
Soon after we faced a decision, carry on along the long but paved road or take a left on a shorter but less well paved road. After a long discussion with the locals, in which we used a mixture of Russian, from Humphrey, and Turkish, from me, to communicate and we decided to go against all advice and take the shorter road. During this conversation I was able to admire the local fashion trend of pulling out, or letting your teeth fall out, and replacing them with a full set of Golden Wonders!!
The road started off manageable, and we had to fend off a few more drivers who stopped us and said don't go this way...but blindly we carried on. It progressively got worse, and we were reduced to travelling at 10kph over the terrain. Low and behold, Humphrey's poor tyre gave up again and exploded in the heat. It took a long time to get to good roads again but it wasn't so bad as we were looking up at a picture perfect mountain range. To add insult to injury as soon as we hit a good road, we started to climb on a very long straight road up to Seki. We climbed for, perhaps, 6km...so we plodded into town hoping to stay at a Karavanserai, us being silk road travellers! It is a place where people of the silk road could rest, replenish and trade their goods, and as this one was, they are normally wonderful buildings filled with arches and domes with big courtyards. Unfortunately this was full for the night, so we contacted Ilgar from the guide book, who organised a homestay for us with a family. We decided to stay one more night so we could rest and stay in the Karavanserai.
The next day we rose early to have breakfast with Ilgar and his family, and I tried the most amazing jam, it was made of rose petals and was heavenly. Humphrey and I gorged on this sweet nectar! I must make it at home because it tastes so good. After breaka we marched up the hill to the Palace complex. As we entered and looking a bit lost, we were swarmed with young azeris all wanting to have their photo taken with us!! They hardly said hello, we were stunned especially as we didn't even have our bikes with us which normally draw the crowds! We saw the Palace which looked very Persian in style and we felt like we had finally made it to the East. Inside it was covered in intricate and detailed paintings.
On a break at Ilgar's tea house we saw a passing cyclist who we hailed down. He had panniers but only on the back and they were open with stuff spilling out of them, so I thought he was jsut going to pick some shopping up...but when he came over I realised that he had come from Croatia like that, he was travelling light, but not quite light enough to pack everything into his panniers and keep everything waterproof, which his Ortlieb bags are prized for! Will came over and he was the first other Brit we had met on the road, we convinced him to spend the night in Seki with us and we trooped off to the next village to do some more sightseeing. After a long wait for the local bus, which is really a very small van with seats, we hailed one down. I went first and told the driver there were three of us, he waved me to the back and opening the door I was not sure how we were possibly going to be squeezed in but he and everyone in there seemed convinced that there was space. We all crammed in and crouched down, grinning through gritted teeth at everyone whilst whispering to each other how much pain we were in! One women took a fancy to me and flashed her golden smile at me alot, which I returned with my pearly whites. At first she jsut pinched my cheeks and stroked my hair talking loudly at me in Russian, then as my discomfort started to show she insisted that I sit on her lap!!! I refused again and again until she had had enough and hauled me onto her lap by my tshirt, to which there was no relief as I spent the rest of the journey hovering on her lap so as not to actually 'sit' on it, from one stress position to another! We fell out of the bus and trudged up to the Albanian Church that we came to see, but hungry and tired we got a taxi back to Seki pretty soon afterwards not wanting to risk another bus.
We had supper together that evening, and after we went to the rather touristy cay house. The man serving us had taught himself English, but in spoke in such a way that everything came out as if he was barking an order, 'sit down, please' 'be at home' 'eat well', there was no choice but to do as he said! Cay is served here with a selection of jam, just eaten with a spoon no bread or butter jsut syrupy jam in a little saucer to eat with your cay, it mafe me understand a little why they all have gold gnashers.
In this area it is difficult to define in what continent we are, it isn't Europe, but also not quite the Middle East or Asia, the Caucasus are a bit lost in their identity and because there are so many disputed borders all around they isolate themselves even more. The border between Armenia and Turkey is closed, as is the Armenia - Azeri border. Georgia welcomes everyone and anyone and I saw more EU flags there than in Europe, in the vague hope that they might be accepted one day, but the visa process for Azerbaijan is so difficult that they hinder any chance of promoting tourism for anyone but the most dedicated travellers and cyclists!! It is a bit of a maze of bureacracy around here, and very much off the beaten track of travelling routes.
We slowly simmered away in the plains, stopping often to get some shade from the relentless sun. So when we saw a very inviting river we jumped in...I of course went in fully clothed, but knew that it would actually be a relief to cycle in wet clothes. It was an idyllic spot, with a few horses lapping at the water further along and only us and a couple of Azeris for company. Although I was quite conscious of the 'wet t-shirt' competition look after I emerged and beat a quick retreat from the gawping stares. Having cycled a little further in this area, I have noticed that women don't swim at all, even fully clothed.
Soon after we faced a decision, carry on along the long but paved road or take a left on a shorter but less well paved road. After a long discussion with the locals, in which we used a mixture of Russian, from Humphrey, and Turkish, from me, to communicate and we decided to go against all advice and take the shorter road. During this conversation I was able to admire the local fashion trend of pulling out, or letting your teeth fall out, and replacing them with a full set of Golden Wonders!!
The road started off manageable, and we had to fend off a few more drivers who stopped us and said don't go this way...but blindly we carried on. It progressively got worse, and we were reduced to travelling at 10kph over the terrain. Low and behold, Humphrey's poor tyre gave up again and exploded in the heat. It took a long time to get to good roads again but it wasn't so bad as we were looking up at a picture perfect mountain range. To add insult to injury as soon as we hit a good road, we started to climb on a very long straight road up to Seki. We climbed for, perhaps, 6km...so we plodded into town hoping to stay at a Karavanserai, us being silk road travellers! It is a place where people of the silk road could rest, replenish and trade their goods, and as this one was, they are normally wonderful buildings filled with arches and domes with big courtyards. Unfortunately this was full for the night, so we contacted Ilgar from the guide book, who organised a homestay for us with a family. We decided to stay one more night so we could rest and stay in the Karavanserai.
The next day we rose early to have breakfast with Ilgar and his family, and I tried the most amazing jam, it was made of rose petals and was heavenly. Humphrey and I gorged on this sweet nectar! I must make it at home because it tastes so good. After breaka we marched up the hill to the Palace complex. As we entered and looking a bit lost, we were swarmed with young azeris all wanting to have their photo taken with us!! They hardly said hello, we were stunned especially as we didn't even have our bikes with us which normally draw the crowds! We saw the Palace which looked very Persian in style and we felt like we had finally made it to the East. Inside it was covered in intricate and detailed paintings.
On a break at Ilgar's tea house we saw a passing cyclist who we hailed down. He had panniers but only on the back and they were open with stuff spilling out of them, so I thought he was jsut going to pick some shopping up...but when he came over I realised that he had come from Croatia like that, he was travelling light, but not quite light enough to pack everything into his panniers and keep everything waterproof, which his Ortlieb bags are prized for! Will came over and he was the first other Brit we had met on the road, we convinced him to spend the night in Seki with us and we trooped off to the next village to do some more sightseeing. After a long wait for the local bus, which is really a very small van with seats, we hailed one down. I went first and told the driver there were three of us, he waved me to the back and opening the door I was not sure how we were possibly going to be squeezed in but he and everyone in there seemed convinced that there was space. We all crammed in and crouched down, grinning through gritted teeth at everyone whilst whispering to each other how much pain we were in! One women took a fancy to me and flashed her golden smile at me alot, which I returned with my pearly whites. At first she jsut pinched my cheeks and stroked my hair talking loudly at me in Russian, then as my discomfort started to show she insisted that I sit on her lap!!! I refused again and again until she had had enough and hauled me onto her lap by my tshirt, to which there was no relief as I spent the rest of the journey hovering on her lap so as not to actually 'sit' on it, from one stress position to another! We fell out of the bus and trudged up to the Albanian Church that we came to see, but hungry and tired we got a taxi back to Seki pretty soon afterwards not wanting to risk another bus.
We had supper together that evening, and after we went to the rather touristy cay house. The man serving us had taught himself English, but in spoke in such a way that everything came out as if he was barking an order, 'sit down, please' 'be at home' 'eat well', there was no choice but to do as he said! Cay is served here with a selection of jam, just eaten with a spoon no bread or butter jsut syrupy jam in a little saucer to eat with your cay, it mafe me understand a little why they all have gold gnashers.
Tblisi to Azerbaijan 181km
I continue...
We left Tblisi with heavy hearts, we had a great time there with David and the fellow cyclists, but it was good to be getting back on the road after such a long break. We left late, as usual, and wound our way out of the city, weaving in between the traffic. My cycling 'skills' or ballsiness learnt in Amsterdam, dodging tourists, came in handy here dodging the cars...Humphrey got a puncture pretty soon so we stopped and sorted that out, this was the first day we had really noticed the heat and it made cycling very different! Once we got a little way out of the city we got into wine making territory and it was more like cycling in rural France, wonderful rolling hills covered in vines with the odd sunflower field to birghten the horizon. It was a real treat to cycle through and we decided to camp that night by a river tucked away from the road. Ominously we found a bleached sheep's skull where we wanted to pitch the tent but we decided to risk it. Pasta and sausage for supper as we watched the shepherd herd his sheep past us and their dead friend.
That night I got up to go to the loo and as I poked my head out I was stunned by the crowd of stars in the sky! It was beautiful, the Milky Way was so bright, I sat out there for a long time watching them and as if to cancel out the bad omen of the sheep's skull I saw a couple of shooting stars...
We started early the next day to try and escape some of the heat. Another wonderful cycling day through great scenery so it wasn't so bad when Humphrey got another puncture, I just lolled around in the shade while he toiled away at his broken bike, so a nice rest for me. We took a left turn as a little shortcut and found ourselves climbing up quite high; climbing, climbing, climbing, although I was complaining alot less and was actually enjoying the scenery while my legs powered me up. We got to the top and a vast stretch of flat, patchworked, plains spread out before us. At the brow of the hill there was a model town with very luxurious public loos, it had all been revamped and was looking very smart although we didn't stop for long. We enjoyed the downhill and from there it was flat to the border with Azerbaijan.
It was about 6 in the evening when we reached the border town, but we decided to get the crossing out of the way. Approaching the border we took our border photos early as we had heard the Azeris are pretty strict and do not like photos! The last sign we saw on the Georgian sign, was a huge blue board which said 'GOOD LUCK' , it was definitely worth the risk for a photo of that! The Georgian side was pretty painless, but to add to our concern of the sign, the policeman also bid us farewell with a parting, 'Good Luck' and a mischevious smile. We tentatively crossed the river that marked the border and were very sad to be leaving Georgia...
The border police were very polite, but they did ask us twice whether we had been to Armenia who they are currently still at 'war' with, we quickly said no, as if we had never even heard of the place! We had been told the Americans NGO workers who live in Azerbaijan say they are going to Kansas when they visit Armenia. In preparation we had covered over 'Armenia' in the title of our guide book, as a token gesture at least.
We were stamped in and cycled off with a dog chasing us and on a non existence road, it seemed that we really did need luck in these parts! We tried to find somewhere to camp but made it to the next town instead and found a motel to stay in. This is my third country of the trip!
We left Tblisi with heavy hearts, we had a great time there with David and the fellow cyclists, but it was good to be getting back on the road after such a long break. We left late, as usual, and wound our way out of the city, weaving in between the traffic. My cycling 'skills' or ballsiness learnt in Amsterdam, dodging tourists, came in handy here dodging the cars...Humphrey got a puncture pretty soon so we stopped and sorted that out, this was the first day we had really noticed the heat and it made cycling very different! Once we got a little way out of the city we got into wine making territory and it was more like cycling in rural France, wonderful rolling hills covered in vines with the odd sunflower field to birghten the horizon. It was a real treat to cycle through and we decided to camp that night by a river tucked away from the road. Ominously we found a bleached sheep's skull where we wanted to pitch the tent but we decided to risk it. Pasta and sausage for supper as we watched the shepherd herd his sheep past us and their dead friend.
That night I got up to go to the loo and as I poked my head out I was stunned by the crowd of stars in the sky! It was beautiful, the Milky Way was so bright, I sat out there for a long time watching them and as if to cancel out the bad omen of the sheep's skull I saw a couple of shooting stars...
We started early the next day to try and escape some of the heat. Another wonderful cycling day through great scenery so it wasn't so bad when Humphrey got another puncture, I just lolled around in the shade while he toiled away at his broken bike, so a nice rest for me. We took a left turn as a little shortcut and found ourselves climbing up quite high; climbing, climbing, climbing, although I was complaining alot less and was actually enjoying the scenery while my legs powered me up. We got to the top and a vast stretch of flat, patchworked, plains spread out before us. At the brow of the hill there was a model town with very luxurious public loos, it had all been revamped and was looking very smart although we didn't stop for long. We enjoyed the downhill and from there it was flat to the border with Azerbaijan.
It was about 6 in the evening when we reached the border town, but we decided to get the crossing out of the way. Approaching the border we took our border photos early as we had heard the Azeris are pretty strict and do not like photos! The last sign we saw on the Georgian sign, was a huge blue board which said 'GOOD LUCK' , it was definitely worth the risk for a photo of that! The Georgian side was pretty painless, but to add to our concern of the sign, the policeman also bid us farewell with a parting, 'Good Luck' and a mischevious smile. We tentatively crossed the river that marked the border and were very sad to be leaving Georgia...
The border police were very polite, but they did ask us twice whether we had been to Armenia who they are currently still at 'war' with, we quickly said no, as if we had never even heard of the place! We had been told the Americans NGO workers who live in Azerbaijan say they are going to Kansas when they visit Armenia. In preparation we had covered over 'Armenia' in the title of our guide book, as a token gesture at least.
We were stamped in and cycled off with a dog chasing us and on a non existence road, it seemed that we really did need luck in these parts! We tried to find somewhere to camp but made it to the next town instead and found a motel to stay in. This is my third country of the trip!
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