You might remember from the very first post that the journey out to Yerevan at the start of the tour was not a barrel of laughs: I got three hours sleep in the first 24 hours. Well, the journey home was pretty similar – the main difference was that i knew what to expect!!

When we went to bed on Friday night we expected to see our Canadian friends Rob and Mar the next morning at 1:45. Not to be. We were told when we got up their flight home had been cancelled because of Hurricane Fiona, i still don’t know if they have yet made it home….

The gory details: our Lufthansa flight from Baku to Frankfurt was scheduled to depart at 4:30 Saturday morning! So, got to bed about 11:00pm after our ‘Farewell Dinner’ I was up at 1:15 to be ready and waiting in the hotel lobby at 1:45…. Actually it all worked pretty well. I am very grateful to our Azerbaijani Tour Guide for accompanying us to the airport. It all went smoothly, but there was an agitated conversation between our guide and the security bloke about my checked bag at the check in – i never did find out what that was all about! German efficiency: the flight left the ground exactly on time – i don’t remember that ever, ever happening before. Then, somehow, i had not understood that the flight to Frankfurt was as long as five and a half hours, but not to worry, i managed all of 90 minutes sleep…. Frankfurt airport i have never visited before, i think, but if i ever do again i will leave lots of time for the transfer – miles to walk, train, poor signage but helpful staff when you simply cannot figure out where to go next! Eight hour layover. Somehow managed to stay awake, spent most of the time working on this blog, which had been my intention. Managed to find some Sushi, so gorged myself on that for lunch.

Then a short 90 minute hop to LHR, perhaps 20 minutes late leaving Frankfurt.

At LHR I got out through immigration and baggage quickly, to a warm welcome from lovely wife Margie…..

Another adventure safely negotiated!!!

Epilogue

So, did i get what i expected???

This is the third tour of this type i have done, plus a couple of cycle trips with Exodus and my eldest daughter Liz, so i had a good idea what to expect….

I had forgotten that after i did the long Silk Road gig five years ago with Wild Frontiers, i had promised myself ‘no more cultural trips’ because my deafness makes it impossible to me to hear properly what the guides are saying, especially the local Tour Guides. Somehow i had forgotten all that when i booked this trip and of course my hearing has gone backwards since the Silk Road. That said it would be churlish to say booking this one was a mistake….

Mainly due to the kindness of strangers, i was able to get through the tour and get plenty out of it, despite hearing maybe one word in five of the localguides!!! Still there is no doubt that no matter how much reading i do ahead of the trip, i miss an immense amount by not being able to pick up what the local guides are telling me. It’s why Wild Frontiers uses local tour guides – they add a huge degree of granularity to the commentary. Yes, of course, you have to screen out a certain amount of political and cultural bias, especially in a place like the South Caucasus but the degree of authenticity they bring is unmatched by any other technique.

…and Tour Leader Dario figured out pretty quickly there was no point attempting to ensure i heard everything: just make sure i heard the essentials!!!

It is difficult to imagine any other part of the world to visit where there is so much to take in, learn, enjoy and experience in a two week trip. Throughout history the South Caucasus has always been a maelstrom of political upheaval: not a century has passed without some Great Power or other making a move on one or more of the three countries and it continues to this day. What that means in practice is endless variety in architecture, food, religion, language.

What is constant is the breath-taking scenery!

So much to take in!!!

Aside from the inherent interest in the three countries which sold me the tour in the first place, we then had some exciting ‘extras’ which Dario had to cope with:

1. Being shelled by the Azerbaijanis in Goris
2. The knock on effect of missing out on the cable car visit to the Tatev Monastery
3. The closure of the land border checkpoint into Azerbaijan at Lakodekhi meaning we spent a whole day travelling on Plan B, with consequent knock ons in terms of venues missed. But then we did get to see the Juma Mosque in Shamakhi as a result of the re-routing.
4. One of our number testing positive for Covid in Sheki: unfortunately she had to isolate in Baku until testing negative – I still don’t know if she has made it home….. and for a time it introduced a degree of uncertainty for the rest of us.

Yes, i know these are all an intrinsic part of Adventure Travel but there is no doubt that Dario’s experience of leading 120 or more tours equipped him brilliantly to guide us through it all.

Good game, Dario!

And of course none of us were travel virgins! So, no whingeing, just do what the Tour Leader has decided and get on with it…… That’s exactly how it was!

Well played, team, and thanks for your patience with my inability to hear what you were all saying to me!!!

Would i recommend the tour to others? That’s an enthusiatic ‘Yes’!!!

I do have to think very seriously again about whether i take on any more cultural tours. My first love is mountain hiking which i usually do solo, so as the years roll by i will probably start to switch my mountain walking to group tours.

And of course the long suffering wife is no kind of Adventure Traveller at all – but she is a good sport! Accordingly, Margie and i have two more trips booked:

1. We are off to Casablanca for ten days in October. Main purpose being to have dinner at Rick’s Cafe and an excuse for me to wear my white dinner jacket…. I am committed to Shawn to posting a pic of that occasion on Photo Circle and i will probably put a couple of posts on here!
   
2. For New Year we are booked to stay with younger son’s partner’s parents in San Francisco, followed by driving the Pacific Highway down to San Diego in a convertible Mustang and then head east on the way back visiting the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and Death Valley…..

Still working on stuff to keep me busy for the rest of 2023.

As we used to say at conferences: if you have been, thanks for listening!

Keep on truckin’……

All the best,

Tony