After having had a car for the past two weeks I wasn’t ready to give up on that freedom and so I rented one in Baku for four days. Given what I wanted to do with the car and where I wanted to go I was hoping for an old, dark car I can easily hide in the nature and where a few more scratches don’t stick out too much. What I got was a brand new, shiny white Hyundai Accent Automatic.
I wanted to spend at least one day at the Caspian Sea and went to the furthest point north, very close to the Russian border. I stayed at a lovely point where I could even use my hammock I bought back in Georgia and relaxed there for the day, until two extended families surrounded me with their loud music and smoke of their barbecue. In general, the Caspian Sea is nothing I would recommend for a beach holiday, but if you are there already you can as well enjoy the moment. I also met a couple of friendly Azerbaijanis who brought me juice to my hammock and showed me a close by waterfall. Life can be worse for sure.
Having spent two nights in a train and the passenger seat of my car, I decided I need some real rest and booked a beautiful hotel for the night to charge my batteries (and that of my laptop, phone, power bank…).
After that, I wanted to go and see the mountains of the caucasus one last time. The village of my choice was Qriz but getting there was more difficult than expected and the road was too steep and rocky for my taste; if the car wouldn’t have made it it had rolled back into a narrow mountain road with no crash barrier before a steep downfall. In addition I forgot to fill up the car and was driving with an almost empty tank. Evaluating the situation I decided to go back to the closest village to refuel and then chose another road which I hoped would be a bit less touristy with better spots to park the car for the night. I found a nice spot a little off a side-road on a meadow with a gorgeous view of the valley and could park the car behind a tree. I was sure to get my tent out that night as it would have been the perfect camping spot, but then I walked around the forest where I suddenly saw a wolf standing ten meters in front of me. He checked me out briefly and didn’t seem to care too much. Instead, he jumped right into the forest without making any noise and I was wondering if I had seriously just seen a wolf. I walked a bit further but then I was thinking that wolves usually come in packs, I was on my own, and my car was definitely too far away to reach it fast if they were hungry. I ran back to the car a little faster and prepared my passenger seat for another night in the car.
The next morning I woke up to see that the meadow was already taken over by sheeps and cows. The shepherd asked me for some water which I happily provided and since he spoke a little English we chatted for a while. I found out that Azerbaijan is a really multicultural country as he didn’t consider himself as Azerbaijani, but Lazgi; a nation with their own language, culture, tradition, and dances. He also told me that each region in Azerbaijan has its own culture and diversity. It was the first time I could get a bit of knowledge about Azerbaijani culture and I was happy to chat with him and his friend for a while before it was time to move on. I wanted to give that mountain road from the day before another try, this time going to the very last village shown in the map.
I couldn’t have made a better choice. The road was one of the prettiest I’ve seen so far. It started with a beautiful alley, got high up the mountain with splendid views around the valley before it dove deep down into the canyon, drove up again to endless meadows and finally ended in the Caucasian massives. The village lived out of tourism but the villagers were nice and I hiked around the area a bit, almost accidentally passing the border to Russia, thinking the hut was the entrance to a national park and not the Russian border. The border guards with their kalashnikovs and the big warning sign marking the “border line” taught me different though and so I turned around and decided it was time to look for a good place to sleep.
I found a nice spot (so I thought), hidden from the main road and on a road which didn’t seem to lead to any village. I hadn’t eaten for almost the entire day and wanted to prep some pasta, but then my gas decided to run out one day too soon. I changed my plan to bread and salad and was about to start eating when I looked up and saw a big, not too good looking dog in front of me. I was surrounded by food and he clearly wouldn’t mind a bite. We checked who chickened out first and of course it was me who slowly got up and got in the car, forgetting to take the food with me. Once he realised who was the stronger one he started to eat my food with pleasure, first the yoghurt and once he was finished with that, he checked out the rest of my bags. All I could do was trying to make some noise from the inside of my car which he professionally ignored and so I needed to watch him eating all of the chocolate croissants, leaving me with nothing for my breakfast the following morning. After he finally finished his dinner I tried to think what to do. It was too late to go back to the city and get food and I was too tired to drive, so I opted for the only reasonable choice and got my cognac and some walnuts out of my bag, the only things he didn’t touch, and called it a day. Given that I wouldn’t have anything to eat for the next hours and my chocolate might have just killed a dog I think it was the best I could do.
It wasn’t the most comfortable night and I woke up with an empty stomach and no coffee to prepare, so I just got up and prepared my bags for the hostel I booked in Baku. The drive was pretty long and exhausting but I finally managed to a) check in at the hostel and b) return the car with no additional cost for me. The latter surprised me a bit, given that I lived the “don’t be gentle, it’s a rental” philosophy at its best; but I didn’t argued on that one.
