Korea, Russia, Stans To East Europe (page 74)

Baku To Ismailli

Ismailli was my destination at only 175 km so an easy day, only 30 km from the guest house the road was closed, civil unrest being a feature in Azerbaijan with people very unhappy with the president and guess who was on my road, none other than the President so there was Police on every bend in the road and they closed-off sections of the road as the wished, they said 1 hour…please wait!!!!

I took a side road and thought shit I might camp, reaching half way up the hill a BIG sign showing a bear and in English all the do’s and don’ts followed up by “No Camping”, ok.

Back to the road, the blockade was cleared and I was on my way to the guest house, with a warm welcome I had the gates opened for me and taken in.

Hot tea, hot shower flash as Michael Jackson, then 3 German cyclists arrived so we all had dinner together at the guest house which was nice.

Apart from these rowdy buggas it was very quiet and relaxing.

Ismailli To Zaqatala

An easy day at 194km to Zaqatala, no presidents stuffing up my roads today.

My detour was to Sheki, arriving there it was a Queenstown in a small valley, beautiful, stunning stonework, lots of fancy shops and well above the travellers budget.

There was small lunch shop with Kababs etc which was treble the price of Baku which was a ripoff, luckily the great people from Ismailli Guesthouse gave me an apple and another Azerbaijan fruit so I scoffed those down which was enough and save me $12 for a kabab.

Making my way on an easy road it gave me time to look out the window, there was a lot of road that was in a tunnel of trees which was stunning amoungst the autumn colours.

I stopped to appreciate my surroundings when a local came along on his horse, he could speak a little English and between that and my very basic Russian we chatted about our two different horses, a fist bump and we were on our ways smiling.

A nice relaxing day, I have to admit to feeling tired, the big days exiting out of Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan and the shithouse sleeps with the boat have knocked me back a bit, tomorrow is a border to Georgia and up to Omalo so 200km to do and stunning place to boot hopefully.