Kurdıstan

Yes - I am back ın Turkey agaın - ın the Northeastern corner of the country ın a place called Kars. Lıke the last tıme I really feel very much at home here. People are frıendly and ınterested and ıt ıs really good to be back - I only wısh I could speak more Turkısh.

The landscape here ıs very wıld and rough. I am ın the Anatolıan hıghlands - ıt ıs lıke on a hıgh plateau always between 1800 and 2200m altıtude. The weather here ıs lıke the scenery - rough, wındy, cold and raıny. But I have some warm clothes and raın gear so I am not worrıed and I do hope ıt ıs gettıng better tomorrow.

Well, for me ıt ıs easy - but I thank God that I was not born ın thıs part of the world. Lıfe here must be really dıffıcult. I can see the small, poor vıllages, only sheep can survıve thıs harsh clımate - no wonder so many young Kurds want to leave theır country and go eıther to the bıg cıtıes or to Europe.

I wıll contınue tomorrow to Igdır and then towards Van, I wıll see Mount Ararat from the Turkısh sıde, yes I wıll be very close to Armenıa agaın, funny! In Van I wıll meet Luca, a young Turkısh Chrıstıan whom I met ın Trabzon - I am lookıng forward to meetıng hım on the shores of Lake Van.

Now some ımpressıons from the last days.

Wie versprochen - as promised

Only pictures from the last week in Armenia and Karabakh. Tomorrow I leave Armenia and once again I have to go to Georgia - but just a day and then to Turkey!

Remote, beautiful and unfortunately a dead end

The last few days I cycled up and down the Armenian mountains to reach the republic of Mountainous Karabakh (official name of a place that is not recognised as a state by anyone but Armenia). The road to Karabakh is quiet and beautiful and of course full of mountains - the Lesser Caucasus. Yesterday I was in the capital Stepanakert and applied for a visa. It was granted but not for the route I was planing to take - no discussion - there was nothing I could do, so yesterday and today I had to go all the way back. So today I am in Yeghegnadzor and from here I can finaaly go to Lake Sevan through another road leading over the 2400 m Salim Pass. After the pass I will be on a high plateau at around 2000 m altitude so I hope cycling there will be a bit less mountainous then the last days. From lake Sevan it might be 2 days to the Georgian border and another two days to Turkey so by the weekend I should be in Turkey again.
While the weather was cool and rainy in Karabakh here in Armenia it is warm and sunny again it still feels like summer and I hope it stays like this for at least another month until I reach the Mediterranean Sea.
But before that I will be back with more news from my trip and of course some pictures, I promise!

To all Iranian friends

I am back in Yerevan, arriving today by plane from Imam Khomeni Airport in Tehran. It was the best week of the trip although I hardly ever cycled this past week. Tomorrow I will be on the bike again - Armenia and Karabakh is waiting...



Special regards to all Iranian friends - I hugely enjoyed visiting Iran and ... I will be back.

Armenia

I have reached the last country in the Caucasus I am visiting and although it is "only" the so called Lesser Caucasus here in Armenia I am very impressed. The country was friendly and welcoming from the beginning. A lot of people here speak English or even some French and German: well, Armenia has about 3 million inhabitants but 10 million Armenians live outside the country, most in the US but also in France and Turkey.

Apart from the friedliness of the people it is the landscape that impressed me most. The mountains are really accessible you can cycle here over high passes on well paved roads - fantastic. Finally I have found what I was looking for.




So it doesn't really matter that Yerevan itself is not a really interesting city.





It is a good place for me to stop for a little spontaneous side trip to Iran. More about this - I cannot tell. Once I am back (23/09) I will contiue cycling through Armenia, then head back to Georgia and finally Turkey.... but slowly.

From top to bottom you see Armenian landscape, some impressions about Sovjet (1920s) architecture in Yerevan and, of course, some of the Armenian monestaries...

Marathon through Central Azerbaidjan

Central Azerbaidjan is not the most interesting place to cycle through - no natural or cultural highlights just agriculture and semi desert, hot and dry.

Sunrise over Central Azerbaidjan


So I decided to cycle fast and long - I did the approx 580 KM in three days breaking my old Greek record of 197 KM on two days in a row with 205 KM (Baku to Kürdəmir) and 206 KM (Kürdəmir to Dəlilər). The last day to Tbilisi is actually more pleasant: in the Northeast you can see the Armenian mountains of the Lesser Caucasus...the next place I am going to visit.

Heydar Aliyev


Today I changed my tires and relaxed a bit so tomorrow with new energy I will take the road to Yerevan.

Marc at the tea house (cay evi)

Reifenwechsel

Fuer die Statistik: hier in Tbilisi habe ich heute die Reifen gewechselt, nach etwa 9.500 KM davon 8.000 KM auf der Kaukasus-Tour.

Hinterrad


Vorderrad

A story from the mountains

After some relaxing days in Baku I wanted to make a short trip to the mountains. I decided to go by bus as I wasn't sure about road conditions and I am glad I did so.

From Baku I took the earlies marshrutka (a shared mini bus and quite an experience in itself) to Qusar the "captital" of the Lezgian minority in Azerbaidjan. I was the only tourist in Qusar and waiting for another bus to Kuzun I was easily spotted by the local police who copied my passport & visa and asked all kinds of questions: basically they wanted to know what I was doing in the area, how long would I stay etc... Well, you have to remember that this northern part of Azerbaidjan is very close to the Russian federation republic of Dagestan where islamic terrorists frequently attack Russian infrastructure...

Somehow I managed to get to Laza anyway from where I wanted to walk to Xinaliq, according to my guide book a nice one day walk. That at least was the plan. But things in Laza are a bit more complex: the army has set up a camp directly at the route to Xinaliq and they don't let you pass unless you have a "special permission" which, of cource, you can only obtain from a government authority whose office is around three hours away from Laza - a bit to much for me just to do a one-day-walk. But, hey, this is Azerbaidjan.

The experience was nevertheless very nice as I stayed in Laza at a family homestay, very nice and hospitable people and their son, Ramid, showed me those parts of the valley which are accessible without special permission - look at the pictures!

So earlier than expected I am back in Baku and tomorrow I will get on my bike and cycle back to Tbilis - 560 kilometers of rather unspectacular desert-like landscape - at least that is what the guide book says. I will see and let you know.

Pictures from Baku and Azerbaidjan

So now the first blog entry in English due to growing demand. As the people I meet on my cycling tour usually speak English rather than German I decided to write some blog entries in english...although I have to admit that this is an effort for me. Some things I will only be able to express in my German mother tongue. And although I worked and studied in the UK (ages ago) I am sure I make a lot of mistakes - sorry!




Today I will have a look at the old town in Baku, Rofat, the Azeri guy who studies in Germany, in Siegen, and who I met few days ago in Sheiki, is showing me around tonight when it is getting a bit cooler.




Yesterday I repaired my bike. Without Rofat it wouldn't have been possible. As a foreigner not speaking Azeri or Russian language it is impossible here to organise anything. Well, the bike is repaired, I hope that it is ok...

And now some pictures... as promised. Looking forward to comments in any language ;-)

Baku - der oestlichste Punkt der Reise....

Puhhhh, die letzten Tage waren ereignisreich und anstrengend und ich bin froh in Baku zu sein. Meine ersten Azerbaidschan Eindruecke haben sich bestaetigt, die Stimmung hier ist freundlicher und offener als in Georgien, aber ...

Ja, aber.
Auf der anderen Seite ist es auch anstrengender hier, kaum jemand spricht Englisch.
Die Ernaehrung auf dem Lande, also da wo ich die meiste Zeit des Tages lang radle ist sehr einseitig, Kebab und Brot, wobei Kebab einfach bedeutet man bekomnmt ein Stueck Fleisch auf den Teller, Qualitaet nicht immer gegeben.
Die Landschaft aendert sich dramatisch, hier um Baku rum ist alles oede, Wueste, trocken, unglaublich heiss.

Ich hatte die letzten Tage einige Male das Gefuehl, es ist gut, dass ich Baku als oestlichsten Punkt gewaehlt habe - jetzt weiter nach Osten, in die so genannten STAN-Laender, wuerde mich einige Ueberwindung kosten, es wuerde mich reizen, aber, wie soll ich sagen, die psychische Anstrengung gegenueber dem Radfahrgenuss ist zu gross - fuer mich persoenlich. Fuer mich ist am Kaspischen Meer so was wie eine Grenze erreicht und ich bin ganz froh in ein paar Tagen zurueck nach Westen zu fahren.

Vorher muss ich noch mein Rad in Ordnung bringen, die Azerbaidschanischen Strassen haben ihren Tribut gefordert, die Halterung fuer meinen Schaltgriff ist abgebrochen, klingt dramatisch, aber ich denke ich bekomme es hin - zumal ich vor ein paar Tagen in Sheiki einen jungen Azeri, Rofat, getroffen habe, der seit 3 Jahren in Siegen studiert und jetzt gerade hier in Baku ist, Zufall. Mit seiner Hilfe sollte ich auch dieses Problem geloest bekommen - es passiert eben immer etwas womit man nicht rechnet.

In ein paar Tagen gibt es auch wieder Bilder. Ausserdem werde ich versuchen den naechsten Blog Eintrag auf Englisch zu schreiben, da die meisten Menschen, die ich unterwegs kennenlerne, eher Englisch als Deutsch verstehen ;-)