Armenia, Georgia & Azerbaijan

A short drive from Tbilisi brought us to the Bagratashen border between Georgia and Armenia.

We entered our third country of the trip and headed south on windy, bumpy and narrow roads through some interesting scenery that ranged from old Soviet factories to scenic river gorges.

The weather was also pretty changeable, from torrential rain to bright sunshine, and a beautiful double rainbow heralded our arrival at a bush camp near the town of Spitak. Unfortunately, it also heralded the arrival of more rain and us having to erect the kitchen awning again, but the crew and cook team whipped up a great carbonara dinner and the rain soon stopped.

There's a bush camp at the end of the rainbow

Armenian bushcamp

Jodie & Emma preparing dinner

Angela enjoys the breakfast fry-up

We awoke to more rain, but the skies cleared as we continued on towards Yerevan. Before getting to Armenia’s capital, we stopped at a 33m high cross made up of more than 1700 smaller crosses, representing the number of years since Armenia adopted Christianity. Just beyond this was another monument, this one celebrating the 39 letters of the Armenian alphabet.

Stopping at the Christianity monument

A cross made of crosses

The Armenian Alphabet Monument

Jonathan pays a flying visit to the alphabet monument

Jodie & Paul

Mt Ararat

As we drove down into Yerevan, Mt Ararat - just over the border in Turkey - appeared from out of the clouds ahead of us, and we found that we had great views of it from our hotel.

Our hotel in Yerevan

Yerevan itself is said to be older than Rome and three nights in the city gave us time to explore the sights, go on a walking tour, visit the sobering memorial to the 1915 genocide and have a group outing to the Turkmenistan Embassy to get our visas for there. Some of the group went to the local brandy distillery, and others checked out Yerevan’s various bars and restaurants. It was hard to find anything uniquely Armenian, but we did find a couple of Irish bars, a Cuban bar, Georgian restaurants - for those who still hadn’t had their fill of khinkali and khachpuri - and a burger bar that had no burgers and no beer!

There are lots of flash cars in Yerevan... this isn't one of them!

Mother of Armenia statue

Parliament building

Statues in Yerevan

Paul finds an Irish pub for beer and football

... and we also found a Cuban bar for mojitos!

Yerevan's main square

These 1275 fountains are only turned on occasionally... lucky us!

The opera house in Yerevan

On a city walking tour, in front of the "Cascades"

Via and another kiwi in Yerevan

Dave & Christine find love on the cascades

What to eat in Armenia? Why, Georgian food, of course!

Anyone for shooters?

Dave, Christine, Vai and Steven with their new friend

Armenian Genocide Memorial

The eternal flame

Local children lay flowers at the genocide memorial

Leaving Yerevan, we stopped off at the hilltop Sevanavank monastery, overlooking Lake Sevan, then continued back to the border to re-enter Georgia. We spent the night at a beautiful bush camp amongst rolling green hills and grassland, and honoured ‘Cinco de Mayo’ with a Mexican dinner. We also celebrated Georgia’s date of St. George’s Day with the crew’s version of the red-and-white dessert ‘Eton Mess’ with fresh cream, strawberries and meringues from the Yerevan market.

Sevanavank Monastery

View over Lake Sevan

Jodie

Jonathan gives new meaning to the term "goal hanging"

Driving through Armenia

Our scenic bush camp near the Georgia-Armenia border

Sunset at the bushcamp

Making Mexican fajitas for Cinco de Mayo

... and Eton Mess for dessert

A sunny morning at our camp

A particularly scenic bush camp

Heading off the beaten track, on pot-holed dirt roads through beautiful scenery, we arrived at the monastery complex of Davit Gareja, on Georgia’s southern border. The bumpy, dusty drive and the hike up to the ridge rewarded us with spectacular views down into Azerbaijan as we walked the ridge trail that criss-crossed in and out of the two countries, and also some fascinating cave monasteries with impressive frescos… definitely well worth the detour! At our bush camp that evening, we were visited by flocks of sheep and goats, a few curious sheep dogs (and some even more curious shepherds) and were lulled to sleep by a frog chorus from the nearby ponds.

Lavra Monastery at Davit Gareja

Steven surveys the scene at Lavra

Victoria

Steven

Vai

Lindsay & Ruth hike up to the ridge

Kathie admiring the view

Mark looking out over Azerbaijan

Juan

Jodie checks out the Udabno Monastery caves

Nuts shows us the frescoes

Bush camping near Davit Gareja

Sheep being herded past our camp

Cook team ready for action

And another great camp dinner

While shepherds watched our truck by night

Sunset at the camp

Our noisy neighbour

Morning at the bush camp

Driving back from Davit Gareja

Georgia is famous for its wine, and we had already sampled a fair bit of it before we even reached the main wine region of Kakheti. After a brief stop in Telavi and a visit to Alaverdi monastery, we drove to our bush camp. Unfortunately, a trench had recently been dug under the dirt road into the camp and Penelope ended up somewhat bogged! Everyone pitched in with digging and removing dirt and rocks from under the truck but ultimately we needed the assistance of a local tractor to haul Penelope free. In the meantime, the group walked to a nearby family winery for several tastings of the traditionally made wines and chacha.

Jodie food shopping in the Telavi market

Say Cheese!

Enjoying fresh bread in Telavi

Alaverdi Monastery

Everyone digs in to help free Penelope

Even our local friend, Zaza, grabs a shovel!

So close to the camp... and yet so far!

Our host pours wine straight from the qvevri

Emma and Vai try the Saperavi

Louise says cheers!

Everyone enjoyed the wine tasting...

And then the chacha came out with mixed feelings

Mark & Juan have omelettes for breakfast

While Jonathan prefers oranges

After 3 nights of bush camping, Kathie decides its time for a hair wash!

A half day drive took us to the picturesque hilltop town of Sighnaghi for our two night stay in local homestays. Our first night was marked with yet another Georgian feast. Local guests were also having their own feast next to us so the toasts and wine were soon in full flow – not to mention the chicken and the cake!

Penelope in Signaghi

Yet another Georgian feast

And more Georgian wine

No driving tomorrow, so the crew can enjoy the wine too!

Juan joins the locals to drink from the horn

and Steven meets his match

Juan loves the local wine

The next day our local guide, Nutsa, walked us to visit Bodbe Convent and a small church that held the tomb of St. Nino.

Nothing makes Steven happier than eggs for breakfast

Sighnaghi

Walking to Bodbe convent

The church at Bodbe that contains St Nino's tomb

A ghostly figure (aka Louise) appeared under the church

Kathie tries to find the spring

Local transport, compete with "racing slicks"

Signaghi by night

Khinkali for breakfast

Our last stop in Georgia was a camp in Lagodekhi Protected Area. Some enjoyed walking in the forest to the river in the afternoon, and then all of us joined in with more belated ‘Cinco de Mayo’ celebrations as a few of the group had constructed a piñata… and even a few locals joined in!

Setting up camp in Lagodekhi Protected Area

Emma & Amanda make new friends

...though they will be anyone's friend if they've got a ham sandwich!

Time for a stroll in nature for Chris, Dave and Amanda

Local wildlife

Louise braves the log bridge

The piñata makers show off their creation

Angela gets Jodie ready for her attempt at piñata whacking

Stand back! Jodie's got a big stick!

Dave and Paul reminisce about their recent visit to a Georgian dentist

Kathie swings for the pinata

Even the locals have a go

Juan gets some air!

Time to leave Georgia and head to Azerbaijan

Crossing into Azerbaijan went fairly smoothly, and by that afternoon, we were at our unique accommodation in the town of Sheki – a renovated caravanserai! We visited the Khan’s Palace and then we were able to try some local Azeri cuisine for dinner.

Jodie congratulates border game winner Ruth with her prize for guessing the closest time to our border crossing from Georgia to Azerbaijan... 2 hrs and 20 mins!

Angela welcomes us to Azerbaijan

Our home for the night, a Caravansarai!

Vai greets us at the door/s

Inside the Karavansaray Hotel

Amanda

We visit the Khan's Palace

Paul tries the local cuisine- piti, made with lamb fat

After a few days of rain, we were grateful for dry weather as we approached the Caspian Sea coast. We negotiated a potentially treacherous dirt road to reach the mud volcanoes between Alat and Gobustan and we set up camp just below the bubbling cones of mud. Everyone had time to explore the area that afternoon and we all were thankful for a rainless evening.

Dirt track to the mud volcanoes

Our home, sweet bush camp, home

Cheers from the mud volcanoes

Lindsay strikes a pose

Mark and Juan checking out the mud bubbles

Jonathan waiting for the bubble to rise

Victoria

Bubbling mud volcano

Back at camp, Chris and Dave don their tent-set-up gloves

Cook team in action

The next morning, we had a short drive into the city of Baku, hitting the 5000km point of the trip in the process. We drove in past the oilfields and the World’s 3^rd tallest flagpole, through some crazy traffic, and found our downtown hotel. Azerbaijan’s oil-rich capital is a cosmopolitan, bustling and ever-growing city full of expensive cars and shiny new buildings, but also has an interesting old town. For us, it is also the place where we have to park up the truck at customs in the port and try to arrange passage on a ship across the Caspian Sea, a notoriously difficult process, though signs from the ticket office were promising….