When I woke up this morning I wasn’t sure where to go exactly today, and which route to take.
At breakfast I met two Dutch tourists who told me that a couple of the places I wanted to see have changed a lot since the Lonely Planet recommended them (in 2009), and are now very touristy. So I took them off my list.
Went to the silk factory shop I’d been at only briefly yesterday, and on the way back I met Andrzej from Poland, cycling to Iran. He went to see the city, I went to pack my stuff, and then we met again to cycle on together.
The road was good and easy to ride on (mostly downhill) and we chatted the time away. After about 40km we noticed we were on the wrong road and had gone too far south. So we changed direction. On a long stretch of straight road going uphill people handed us slices of refreshing water melons from passing cars.
Originally, we wanted to go to Qəbələ but with that little diversion earlier we didn’t make it there. In Nic, about 20km east of Qəbələ, we stopped and asked about possibilities to pitch tents. People sent us to the local ‘stadium’ – a soccer field with cow shit and thistles. But it worked well for us.
The Polish word ‘nic’ translates to ‘nothing’. Kind of appropriate for the village of Nic.
Cycled: 98km
