On the shores of the Caspian Sea from Ken Roberts on Vimeo.
Ken describes reaching the shores of the Caspian Sea, the first stage of Asia now complete.
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On the shores of the Caspian Sea
May 16th, 2010Frustrations on the shores of the Caspian
May 16th, 2010Waiting for a ship to Kazakhstan from Ken Roberts on Vimeo.
Ken describes the frustrations of waiting for a ship across the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan.
Emma
May 15th, 2010Emma from Ken Roberts on Vimeo.
Emma, Ken’s normally camera shy trusty steed, puts in an appearance.
Greater Caucasus Range
May 15th, 2010Greater Caucasus Range from Ken Roberts on Vimeo.
Ken describes the Greater Caucasus Range, forming much of the northern Azerbaijan border
Closing on the Caspian
May 14th, 2010Across the Caucasus, from semi-Tropical western Georgia, the more temperate central region, and now swiftly moving into semi-arid desert. Mid-May, and soon the little greenery left would be gone, just parched, stony earth.
Frequent water stops now. Tempting water melons stacked high on stalls at the roadside. A few Iranian lorries, sweeping past me. Definitely Asia. Eighty kilometres – about fifty miles – to Baku (or ’Baki’) and the Caspian Sea coast. End of the Caucasus was close.
[Author’s note: Inadvertently reaffirming his lack of knowledge of football, seems the English coach at Gabala mentioned in a recent post is in fact Tony Adams, not Adamson. Still didn’t find him. With thanks to Dom, Danny and Mark]
Small world
May 13th, 2010Had to be them. I’d stopped for water at the top of a long climb into an unrelenting headwind. Two heavily laden motorbikes, Canadian flag stickers on the rear, had gone past. Stopped suddenly a few hundred metres down the road. Mike and Ruby, the serious tourers I’d met back in the Georgian town of Sighnakhi.
Quickly back in the saddle, I sprinted down to catch up with them. Yes. We chatted for a while. Agreed the traffic markedly better than in Georgia. But then back on the road, seventy or so kilometres to the Capital Baku. Wondered if we might bump into each other again at the port, searching for our respective ships across the Caspian. Small world.
Looking for Tony
May 12th, 2010True. Football’s not my first love, although I’m warming to it, if only because it’s a great ice breaker. And very popular in the northern Azerbaijan town of Gabala. Seems they’ve an English coach, Tony Adamson. What did I think of him? Pretty good I thought. Well, I’d actually heard of him. Thought it might be fun to try and track him down, but the closest I got was…
Mountains on the left
May 11th, 2010Think I’m usually fairly liberal, but I’d been feeling a bit conservative over the last few days. I’d been labouring under the misunderstanding that shorts were considered rude in Azerbaijan, a secular state but with Islam the dominant religion. But no, I was told in Sheki, perfectly acceptable for cycling. With temperatures easily in the mid-twenties, welcome news.
East of Sheki a decent road, good progress towards the town of Gabala. Sturdy bridges across wide river beds, the torrents of icy melt water now passed. Snows remaining now just on the upper slopes and faces of the Greater Caucasus Range, peaks of over twelve thousand feet. Stark contrast with the ever increasing temperatures in the valleys below.
Not exactly the beaten track, but you sensed tourists did come this way. I’d stopped to try some warm, freshly baked bread, cooked in brick pits at the roadside. “Photo?” I was asked. But I felt certain that the bread making wasn’t staged just for visitors, for much of the traffic on the road seemed to be local. And what did bring people here – sight of the Greater Caucasus Range, or the local flora?
But then back to the road, heading for the Capital Baku on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Just needed to keep the mountains on the left.
Silk Road lodgings
May 10th, 2010Along the Silk Roads – Night in the Caravanserai from Ken Roberts on Vimeo.
Ken describes a night in a converted Caravanaserai – roughly the Silk Roads equivalent of British Drovers Inns – in the Azerbaijan town of Sheki.
European question
May 9th, 2010Not just a potential stumbling block for Nick Clegg and David Cameron, but my own curiosity. Was Azerbaijan Europe or Asia? Back in neighbouring Georgia the responses had been mixed. Early days, but here people seem to have less polarised views, suggesting instead that they have much in common with Europe, but with a strong Asian influence. What the question does is expose historically shifting borders, migrating ethnic groups, a never ending state of flux. Georgia had the breakaway region of South Ossetia to contend with, Azerbaijan has Nagorno-Karabach.
Back in the saddle, the linguistic implications of all this is very much a mixed bag. Azeri shares the same origins as Turkish, remaining sufficiently close for them to be mutually intelligible. Or so I’m told. I’ve tried Turkish here. Just get blank looks. But to be fair, it was often the same in Turkey. Russian is widely spoken, to the extent that I find myself widening my albeit limited vocabulary by blending it with Azeri in the same conversation. Seems to work.
My mastery of languages remains a definite case of enthusiasm over ability. And I’ve a long, long way to go to even equal that of Silvana and Johan and their children. I’d met them in the Azerbaijan town of Sheki, enjoying a short break from their home in the country’s Capital Baku. Between them, fluent Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, Russian and, I’m sure, a pretty good grasp of Azeri.
I take some comfort from the fact that whilst English is not a numerically superior first language, geographically it is widely spread across the world. And the fact that I can readily explain where I come from by mentioning the words ’Manchester United’. Usually elicits an enthusiastic response. I’m guessing this Ronaldo chap is some sort of footballer? My turn to look blank.
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