Last view of the Caucasus

ay 18 June

We left at 8 for the 360km drive to Baku. The scenery was varied. At first we had the Caucasus on our left, as we drove through the valley, then we began to climb and wind our way through a densely wooded hilly area, before we descended again to the plain where oats and wheat were ready for harvest. The last landscape before Baku was desert.

About 2/3 of the way we stopped in a town to look at a mosque. The original one ha£. Even destroyed centuries ago and the current one was built in 2013. It had some decoration inside but was mainly quite plain.

Just round the corner we stopped to call on a family to see how the locally made yogurt (qatiq) ) was produced. Basically just the way I used to make it - a bit of live yogurt culture and milk then left 24 hours in a warm place. The difference was she used a lot of salt. Other yogurt products were also tasted. She added some dill and chopped cucumber to make a soup. She demonstrated us how she churned butter in an large flagon by rocking it for a few minutes, though to get the butter it would take an hour. It was very white. Another product was another soup, with rice, herbs and an egg cooked together (with a lot of salt.) that reminded me of the Avgolemono soup I used to make in Cyprus. Last up was some Lavage, the flatbread, also with dill in it and some soft cheese.

We arrived in Baku at 2.30 pm. It is of course hot, but apparently our location is good so we hope to walk to the Caspian Sea if we can get a map. The one the hotel supplied is smudgy with no detail and our guide book had to be abandoned as it had the unmentionable country owning territories Azerbaijan claims.

Our local guide Samia talks a lot but it’s all very basic stuff. We’ve been spoiled as Alix is so knowledgeable and has brilliant English. She gets the train home tomorrow and the others leave tomorrow night but we are staying an extra day, as the museums are closed today and tomorrow the tour doesn’t include any.

Oh, diesel is 30p a litre here.

We walked through the thronged pedestrian area for a meal and afterwards strolled down to the sea to view the Flame Towers by night.