We have made it to Azerbaijan and it’s just the simple matter of a strop down to Baku, just a rear tyre puncture to fix first on Nadia. Do you all know Nadia – no?
Well, back when we met Timur and his friends we asked what would be some cool names for our bikes. Timur responded without hesitation with Vera, Nadejda and Lyubov’, translated from Russian to Faith, Hope and Love. We immediately liked the concept; Sam had been looking for a name for his bike for a long time and finally felt settled with Vera; Amand and Steve flipped over the other two and the Black Pearl was renamed Lyubov’ (no more curse of the Black Pearl!). Amand liked Nadejda, but the pronunciation is pretty hard for a rubbish NZ accent, something like “Nah-dezh-da”, hence Nadia was born.
So back to it with Nadia, a rear tyre puncture on a bike is not the easiest thing in the world to fix, especially with no tools but amongst the broken old umbrellas in the hotel garage we found what we needed and got the job done.
Amand had also woken up feeling pretty average, sore belly and devoid of energy, most likely something he ate, maybe exacerbated by the heat.
Our goal today of Baku wasn’t looking good, so we ambled eastward at a rate Amand could handle, reaching Gebele on dusk to a stunning sunset and the mountains glowing nearby.
Along the way we lunched in Qakh where Amand and Steve got a haircut. We met Vusal and his Dad who gave us a swish cut each and then refused payment and tried to give Steve an old guitar. Amazing generosity! We are loving the warm-hearted Azerbaijan people and their countryside ?
Day 24 arrived, HIGH FIVE!! We reached Baku and the Caspian Sea, the goal for the most eastern point of our trip. This gave us a fantastic sense of joy and achievement. It’s no mean feat to have ridden almost 6,000km through Eastern Europe and Western Asia to get to here. We should be proud of ourselves, and we are.
The landscape changed dramatically as we rode from the tree-covered mountains to the barren flatlands today, we certainly felt like we were in a desert by the time we got to the Caspian Sea. And Baku is stunning – a pulsating city with crazy traffic. Not easy to navigate without our GPS either as we don’t have any Asian maps loaded, pen and paper is doing its best for us though!
First stop in Baku was Suzuki Avtomobil for our mid-trip service and to fix Steve’s back brake which hasn’t worked for four days ?. Sahib and the team were so friendly and accommodating. He even walked us to the local restaurant for some lunch and to the shop for some snacks. Amand still wasn’t feeling great but had an electrolyte replacement drink while at Suzuki and perked up dramatrically, that’s a relief! We smashed out the service and other little odd jobs on the bikes; the bike hoists made our life so much easier.
We headed off to the hotel via the ummmm “scenic” route and eventually found our way to within the old city walls. Very randomly, while we were stopped looking at our maps on the Baku waterfront a car pulls over and a guy pokes his head out with a beaming smile. “Do you remember me?” he asks. Steve and Sam look blank, Amand vaguely remembers the face. He’d introduced himself briefly the day before while we lunched in Qakh. It was hard to believe that in a city of 4 million people that one guy we’d bumped into 400km away would drive past us and recognise us. Wow!
We had decided that a full rest day was essential at this point so now we’d got the service done day 25 was a day of full rest. Amand had a massive sleep-in, needed after the struggles of the last couple of days, but he was certainly on the improve now. We then headed to the beach for a swim in the Caspian, one of the key goals in reaching this most easterly point. What we found was resorts lining the shore and the need to pay to access the water. We used our NZ swagger and charm to negotiate a cheap deal!! We cracked out the TRONOs for some full relaxation, we also tried to make some money off hiring out a sit on the TRONO…. to no avail! We then hit the city waterfront and had a cup of tea while watching the city change from day to night. We guessed that given the heat in the day the hum at night is logical, what we didn’t expect is the stunning lighting in various parts of the city at night. Baku is a beautiful and stunning melting pot. It was so cool to be here, and to have ridden here!
Now we head west and the sun will be on our backs in the morning rather than in our faces, our left leg getting hot from the sun rather than our right and riding towards the sunsets. It feels so so good to have made it here! Every step from here is a step closer to home!