Lahij to Sheki (Thursday 1st May)

My notes for this day start with "slept shit again - saw 2am pass". What they didn't say was that this was the third night running. Perhaps my body hadn't sync'd to being 3 hours ahead of the UK? Or, more realistically, maybe I just wasn't tired enough? My walking mileage had drastically reduced in the past 48 hours. Oh well, at least when I did eventually get into the lad of nod I slept reasonably well.


Breakfast was consumed, and we bade farewell to our wonderful host. A lovely old man who spoke great English, and just had an awe of gravitas and knowledge. Apparently he was a formerly a lecturer at Baku University.

 

We then headed back along the precarious single track road through the mountains to re-join the main road that headed north-west towards Sheki and Georgia. The previous evening I ended my notes with two criticisms of things so far. 1) the blessed cramped minibus, and 2) the fact we had not stopped to take in the views of the gorge we'd driven through to get to Lahij. Well, the power of my scribbled notes clearly had a subliminal impact, as after about 15 minutes of driving we did exactly what I'd been critical of. Maybe tonight I should criticise the lack of Walker's Crisps and Pork Scratching's in central Azerbaijan!!



  

  


After being back on the main road for about an hour we veered off to visit the village of Nij. This is a curious place inhabited almost entirely by Udi people who are descendants of Caucasian Albanians. We visited the church; they're Orthodox Christians, and an old Udi House that's been preserved as a museum. Here's more about them and their place....

https://caspianpost.com/culture/the-udi-people-of-nij-azerbaijan


 

 

 


It didn't take too long after Nij to reach our destination for the day, Sheki. This was to be our base for 2 nights. Nothing of great significance happened for the rest of the day except for a visit to a rather splendid old Caravanserai, which is now a hotel.

 

 



It's only two days until we get to Georgia, and I'm genuinely excited about that. Even before getting there, I'm regretting not having booked an extra day in Tbilisi.

That evening I got chatting with our Georgian guide, Giorgi; and it turns out that in September he's going off to Italy to do a Masters. But "where in Italy?", I ask. "A small city near Rome  - you won't have heard of it". "Really? Where?". "Viterbo" he replies. Oh yes I know it - what a lovely place. It was our first stop on the Via Francigena last year. Lucky devil.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caucasus again

Image
Twelve months on from my first visit to the Caucasus region I’m heading that way again. Last time it was Azerbaijan and Georgia. This time it’s Georgia, and the perceived bad boy of the region, Armenia.     The one on the left is particularly popular with some of our thickest flags flyers! Why? You may ask. Well, the main reason is that I’m continuing my quest to have visited as many countries as I am years old. Current score on that front is 65, albeit by the dubious counting method of including countries that no longer exist. There are 3 of those; West Germany, Yugoslavia and Hong Kong. A more dubious methodology would include 2 more – Guernsey (could it count as a country?), and Kazakhstan, which I have skirted into on a vehicle, but have never actually set foot there. Anyway, for the sake of argument I’ll include the 3 “ex-countries”. So, the score sits at 65 which means I’m bang on target. Nevertheless, with another Birthday later in the year, I’ve got the chance to...
Read more

7th and 8th May – Getting to Georgia and a walk around Tbilisi

Image
Let’s start with a positive. The joy of a late afternoon flight leaving Heathrow meant that it was a breeze checking in and getting through security. The good people at Lufthansa weren’t striking this week (unlike 2 weeks ago when they nearly wrecked a boy’s football weekend in Bavaria) so, excuse the pun, I was off to a flyer! Ever since my truncated trip to Turkmenistan, I’ve become very wary about lack of sleep. As my onward flight to Tbilisi was effectively overnight, I took the opportunity of a very reasonably priced upgrade to Business Class for the flight from Munich. After about 17 free bottles of Franzischaner Weissbier, and several plates of free food in the Business Lounge I staggered onto the plane and slept like a baby until our 4am touchdown in Tbilisi. Alright, alright just 2 beers and a bowl of soup! And I didn’t sleep like a baby either. However, I did manage a couple of hours kip which undoubtedly helped. Obviously, in my less than deep slumber I dreamt longingly of...
Read more

Monday 11 May – Return to Tbilisi via Stalin’s birthplace

Image
I was awoken at 5.30 by the sound of heavy rain outside. By the time I eventually got out of bed an hour later it was still hammering down. Hardly ideal conditions for the challenging drive through the mountains and back down to Tbilisi. Also a timely reminder as to how lucky we had been with the excellent weather yesterday.   I was genuinely concerned about the journey back to Gudauri. Will there have been more snow and avalanches? Will there be hordes of HGV’s stuck on the perilous roads? Could the police have simply closed the roads? Well, I’ve no idea how they manage the traffic on this essential route but our journey up to, and over Jvari Pass (c7,000feet) was trouble free. Yes, it was a bit slow due to snow and ice, but we barely saw any vehicles coming in the opposite direction. We did pass a few queues of lorry's parked on the side of the road each stretching over a mile.     A few hundred metres past the peak of the pass we stopped at the Georgia/Russia Frien...
Read more