We arrived in Azerbaijan and were greeted by the usual afternoon apocalypse I already got used to in Georgia. We waited it out in a café watching soccer, before we went to search for a good place to sleep the night.
After a bit of driving we parked the car in a secluded spot close to the mountains, with the only problem being that the ground was pretty muddy thanks to the gallons of water coming down an hour before. Nevertheless, it was good enough for Günther so it was good enough for us, too. Since it was already late we started to get ready for bed and were brushing our teeth when we suddenly heard a loud, long howl not too far away from us. My brain was still processing what I just heard when the response came from another wolf much closer to us with an even louder and higher pitch, before the whole pack started to howl through the woods. That was too much for my little city-used self and I jumped in the car, almost forgetting to put off my flip-flops and bringing all the mud inside (fortunately, it was Fabian’s side). Fabian didn’t seem to care that much although we both decided not go too far away from the car that night.
After a short stay in Baku we went further south where we first went to a desert-like area with some stone carvings (which are highly marketed to tourists now; I was a bit shocked to see all the big busses unloading hundreds of tourists) and a lake where we met a few local fishermen who took us on a boat ride and were as happy to take pictures of us as we were to take pictures of them. Since we still had a bit of time left we decided to go back to the desert and explore the area a bit and it was my to get into the driver’s seat.
Fabian was impressively relaxed with his car, given that he still needed it for at least four months of travelling. I had never driven off-road before and was a bit nervous at first, but it actually went pretty smooth and after a while I didn’t want to leave the driver seat anymore. Fabian was the best teacher I could have hoped for and was equally happy in the passenger seat, given me the opportunity to drive uphill, downhill, and right into a ditch where Günther got stuck for a bit before we managed to dig him out again.
The whole area is full of mud volcanos, one of Azerbaijan’s other tourist destinations, but instead of going to the one accessible from the main road we found one just for ourselves in the middle of the park.
After three days in the Azerbaijani “outback” it was time to visit Lankaran, a city closer to the Iran border where our ways separated again and I went back to Baku to get a car for another four days.
Here is a video with a Sammelsurium of clips taken during my off-road adventure:
