I started the day not too late, I packed my bags and was out of the parking at a quarter past nine. The bike felt a bit top-heavy in the beginning, but this is kind of normal, with the gigantic aluminium box, it would be much worse. Anyway, with the aggressive driving style of some drivers, it’s better to keep it slow and relaxed. I carefully navigated through the dense traffic until I left the city limits of Baku behind me. The shiny glass and concrete of the city was replaced by the beige colour of the steppe west of it. The road ascended slowly and every now an then there was even a bend; the speed limits are very confusing, changing very often and are respected sometimes and sometimes not. After an hour, the arid country had changed into a grassland when I decided to drink some water, it was slowly getting hot.
I was going rather slow today, but as there are few reasons to stop, the pace was all right. In Şamaxı, I exited the highway. It hosts the oldest mosque in Azerbaijan, called the Juma Mosque, built in 743. It is not a large complex and actually rather somber. The interior is based on the design of the Great mosque of the Umayyads in Damascus, dating from the same period. The only visitors apart from me were again Chinese, it seems they are the only ones visiting AZ at the moment en masse. Since the pandemic, tourist numbers have dropped. The government has laid out a plan to boost tourism. This all reads very well, but…what about opening land borders? I learned during my trip that foreigners can exit the country by land borders, but not locals. Only by plane. This does make travel not very attractive.
When I returned to the bike, two little boys were interested and asked where I was from. But then I got a question I never got so far and this is probably a sign of the times: ‘are you on Instagram or Tiktok?’. Bam. There you go, I had to reveal I’m not a digital native: ‘No’. The boys looked disappointed.
Gradually, the landscape got greener and more twisty. The road is being upgraded and where works have finished, a huge four-lane road makes riding easy.
More and more trees lined the road and suddenly, in the district of Ismaili, kebab places were right and left to the road. With tables under the trees, this looked welcoming, but it was too early for me to make a break. There would be more to come, wouldn’t it? I descended and when I finally got peckish, the grill places were gone. It was hot now and shadow less abundant. I pondered whether I should visit the mountain village of Lahic that is famous for its coppersmiths. But a bad road, two hours of detour and the fact that I do not have space to transport artefacts made me chose against, I wanted to focus on my highlight in Sheki.
When I passed a garden restaurant out of nowhere, I stopped and turned around. English was basically absent there, but I managed to order a kebab. Each table was a pavilion on its own. When the waiters carried a whole tray with mezze, I panicked and hoped it was not all for me. No, I just had to choose; I selected a Lecho and yoghurt with dill, a good choice. Meanwhile, a festive party had arrived and the uplifting music flooded the garden. After the kebab, I ordered some tea and enjoyed the coolness in the shade. I stayed longer than planned and was surprised by the cheap bill, this is not expensive Baku.
The last 50 minutes to Sheki saw more trees and the mountains of the Caucasus got nearer.
Finally I arrived in Sheki, probably the heart of Azerbaijani tourism (behind Baku). The main road was in perfect state – expect that somebody forgot that the drain covers were too low now, creating huge potholes that formed an interesting slalom. Following the impeccable direction of my sat nav, I arrived at the complex of the palace of the Sheki Khans. It is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The walking upwards through the complex resulted in streams of sweat although I was not carrying the jacket that was tied to the bike. I purchased a ticket for the palace and the museum. It it permitted to take pictures in the garden…
…but taking pictures inside is not permitted.
From the webpage of Emiliy Lush: The Sheki Khan’s Palace was built as a private residence for the Sheki Khans, viceroys of the Zand and Qajar Persian dynasties who ruled this part of Azerbaijan from 1743 until the khanate was abolished by the Russians in 1819. The palace itself has quite a simple layout, with six rooms arranged over two levels. Despite this, it took almost a decade to finish, with most of that time dedicated to decorating the interior.
As I couldn’t take any pictures inside, I shamelessly took them from the internet (citytoursbaku.com).
Again, basically only Chinese tourists around…I visited the local heritage museum and did not expect much, but it was surprisingly well done. It touched a lot of aspects in local history and culture, highlighting the strong position of these lands in the past of the Eastern Caucasus.
On the way to the hotel, I stopped at the upper Caravanserai where the travelers of the silk road stayed comfortably during their journeys.
I had something similar in mind and had planned to indulge myself with a five star resort&spa in the mountains. For national standards, it is quite posh, although you would have to subtract one star on an international level. It’s quite nice though, especially for the price of a cheap hotel in central Europe.
For dinner, I had some Piti (lamb stew with chick peas in a clay pot), with this dinner I must have tried most of the signature dishes of Azerbaijan, I guess.
For the next days, I had to make some decisions. I had to skip the visit to the high valleys of Tusheti. The unstable weather in the mountains in the next days makes this too risky. Crossing a 3000 m gravel pass in a thunderstorm is not top of my list. As an alternative, I will stay three nights in Tiblisi in Georgia, making a day trip to the mountains and Stepantsminda, taking the Georgia Military Road. On the worse of the two days, I will discover downtown Tiblisi. Sounds like a plan. But first, let’s cross the border to Georgia tomorrow.
Hutzlmandl On Tour 
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