The plan was, and yes it changed, to drive into Baku
then north up the coast of the Caspian sea. There is no other main
route. But on the way I noticed a thin white road that cut the corner
off by 100km.
This area is so green with lots of produce being sold on the side of the road. Preserves and fruit leathers.
We
came to an electronic sign above the free way which said no trucks so
pulled off into the cop station to ask what it meant. It was OK we
are not a truck. The picture they use is of a delivery van, pretty
much what EC looks like.
I
asked the friendly coppers if we could drive this white road and they
thought it OK. Great.
Filling
up with fuel at the little town before we went bush we asked the fuel
attendants about the road. One was adamant that it was rain damaged
and not passable, his subordinate show disagreement but did not say
anything.
We
headed off into the unknown. At first the road was sealed and fast until
the last village then it was just dirt that obviously gets very muddy
when wet. We jolted along on a track that got progressively worse. We
drove up rivers and around trenches, sometimes following one set of
wheel tracks. Not often on the white road on our map but at least
close by and heading in a similar direction.
We
still were not sure if this track would go through. We were averaging about 15km/hour and would not make Quba today.
After
2 hours of bumping around we made it to a grassy plan with cattle and
low and behold two vehicles. A Prado coming towards us and a Lada
beside a drovers camp.
The
Prado stopped and we were face to face with Ingo who was very excited and surprised to see us here on a road that doesn’t exist.
He was also told not to travel it. Ingo is a German working on a road project here and out for a Sunday drive with his camera and
driver. 
After
inviting us to Dinner at Paul’s Steak House in Baku we parted ways.
It had taken them 4 hours to get to our meeting point. The good news was NOW we
knew that the road is passable to Quba. So a relief there.
The
horseman was posing and showing his skills off for the camera when a
motorbike with a Russian rider stopped going our way. Seems now like
a major high way. The Russian said this was the best ride he’d ever
had.
The
high pass (1600m) reached with great views. This is another road that
we would not like to traverse in the rain, the friable soil just
turns to grease then mud. OK on the flats but not on this sloped
ground with trenches.
Where
3 tracks from little villages joined, the road improved somewhat. So
now 30km/hr.
As
we were closing the last village (and had in fact passed the graveyard)
we pulled off onto a grassy area and camped across an EC sized
depression - the only place to get level. Thunder storms are forecast
for 1pm tomorrow but we will be out by then and anyway the road will
be passable.
155km
