Telavi to Sheki, eh?? On the face of it, a straightforward enough day – 50 miles or so to the border post between Georgia and Azerbaijan at Lagodekhi then another 70 further east to Sheki [Seki]?

As you already know, it was not to be. The Azerbaijanis closed all their land border crossings when Covid hit and Lagodekhi remains closed. So, the ever resourceful Wild Frontiers created a Plan B which involved us driving back to Tbilisi Airport from Telavi [50 miles the other way….] pick up a local flight with Batu Airlines [who?] and fly to Baku. Then drive west from Baku to Sheki [200 miles!]

Actually Plan B worked very well. Yes, we spent the whole day travelling, Yes, we missed out on a visit to the 4th century Nekresi Monastery and the fortified church complex at Gremi. But, Batu airlines turns out to be a subsidiary of Azerbaijan Airlines and runs modern Airbus jets. Our Great Leader Dario takes it all in his stride and none of his charges are exactly travel virgins, so between us we managed a whinge-free change of plan!

But of course, not a lot of pics for you…..here are a couple of Telavi as we were making our early start to Tbilisi to catch our flight to Baku:

This first stage was not a long drive, but we stopped for a natural break up in the mountains: here is a vid of the magnificent view we were rewarded with:

…and a couple of stills for you:

Tbilisi airport was pretty civilized and the whole flight went off without drama: here are Lydia, Patti and Dario getting off the plane at Baku and a shot of some Batu Airlines’ smart Airbus jets in case you want to be able to recognise them if you ever get to the Caucasus!!!

The Azerbaijanis have splurged lots of their oil money on impressive building projects around Baku which you will see more of in a couple of days when we return to the City. I thought much of the architecture was actually pretty stylish – a welcome contrast to the excesses of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan if you have ever visited that country. Here are some shots of the Baku airport and one of a Baku Olympic Stadium….

We had been briefed in advance about the ‘semi-desert’ countryside surrounding Baku: gotta say on what i saw there didn’t seem to be much ‘semi’ about it….. See what you think!

As we drove west towards Sheki the countryside did eventually become greener as you will see a little later…

In the meantime we came across this Mosque:

Azerbaijan is overwhelmingly a Moslem country but our tour guide told us that Baku is very much a modern secular city, very few ladies wearing veils or headscarves for example, and anybody wearing a hijab would almost certainly be a tourist visiting from Saudi Arabia or some other more devout country. However, as we were to find out in Lahij, further away from Baku and up in the mountains the faithful are more devout.

Of course the secular nature of society in Baku does not prevent their political leaders using ‘we have to defend the Moslems in Armenian areas’ to justify their attacks on that country. And Armenians say the opposite: ‘we have to defend the Christains in Azerbaijan areas’ to justify their activities…..

I came to admire Islamic architecture while on the Silk Road trip a few years ago and enjoyed our visit to the Juma Mosque in Shamakhi on the way to Sheki. This was an unexpected pleasure made possible by Plan B!!

There has been a mosque on this site since the 8th century, but various earthquakes and battles mean it has been rebuilt several times. The current construction is relatively modern dating from the beginning of the 20th century and was substantially restored in 2009. Here are some pics for you:

Not a great shot of the Mosque itself i’m afraid, i’ve misjudged the effect of the strong sunlight: but the building has the classic clean lines of a relatively modern mosque and the gardens are just lovely!

Here are a few pics of the inside of the Mosque:

I thought the whole thing was beautiful: it is a shame i have not been able to capture the scale of the interior – it’s enormous with very high ceilings and wonderful natural lighting. Depending on the device you are using and its Operating System you may be able to get a full screen version of these with a single click on your chosen pic. Well worth the effort!

Here is a vid of the outside of the Juma Mosque complex:

You can see from these next pics the countryside becoming greener as we drove further west. Just like the other two countries we visited the Azerbaijanis have grown vines and produced wine for centuries, but are only now beginning to exploit the commercial potential of their climate and expertise. We certainly enjoyed sampling the results of their efforts!!

We have two nights in Sheki: always a blessing on these whistle-stop tours to get two nights in one bed, time to unpack properly and maybe get some laundry done!!!

Tomorrow, pics of our exploration of Sheki…..