Puddle deep, Mountain High

11th May 2019

It rained most of the night in Sheki. You could tell it was an original Karavanserai of a certain age because it didn't have gutters or down pipes, the rain just poured off the edge of the roof.

 

It was raining very heavily indeed when we woke up and continued to do so throughout breakfast. Mental note to oneself: All that looks like cheese isn't necessarily cheese and Paul's Grandad used to spread dripping on his Shredded Wheat...

It was still raining heavily after breakfast and there was no choice any longer. Mental note to oneself: Pack an umbrella next time as it will help keep the stuff dry when you are loading the bike.

 

We set off, slowly, in heavy rain. We reached and had tea at the petrol station 50km out of Sheki where we had abandoned in 2017. We continued in heavy rain high into the mountains and it was miserable and were very cold indeed. Reckoned this was the worst we had done since Bordeaux-Paris before we were married.

We stopped and had soup of boiled ruminant - with added fat and what might have been large nuts and also olives. Might have been. And a kebab. And what we definitely think was lamb chops. And we were warm again. Then we had some sun and we tackled the road works with vigour and sailed into Baku straight to the hotel, where we had lodged two years previously. All was good with the world once again.