Adventures of South Africans in Azerbaijan

Four elderly and very brave tourists from South Africa - Elizabeth Webster, Margaret Williams, Kathryn Smith, Peter MacDonald, who visited Azerbaijan for the first time, decided to prove that despite of their ages (60 or so), they can walk through 110km tourist track, from Lahij village in Pirgulu to Agsu and ismayilli regions of Azerbaijan. And they made it. The tourists shared their impressions in an interview with "Echo".

Where did you launch your journey from, how did you come to Azerbaijan?

Margaret Williams: Our world tour began in May. We visited Himalayas in Pakistan, South America where we gained enough experience for on-foot routes. The next came Georgia where we spent two weeks in tourism routes with high mountainous areas. Then we decided to conclude our journey in Azerbaijan.

At what time of the day you began hiking and what mountainous villages of Azerbaijan you visited?

Kathryn Smith: The tour to mountainous Azerbaijan we launched at early hours then paused for rest in tents around three hours and resumed the hiking in the evenings. We visited Gusar region beginning from highland village Laza, and then decided to go to Guba, exactly to mountainous village Susay. Of course, we didn’t forget about Lahij, Pirgulu and Baskal.

What made these villages interesting for you personally?
 
Peter MacDonald: The interesting thing for us was how this oasis was formed in this mountainous place and how it evolved. This question literally snatched us opening a room for warm discussions and debates.

Did the fact that civilization covered these mountainous places since the ancient times pique interest in you?

Elizabeth Webster: We even noticed it: a computer class for youth in Lahij, parabolic antennas on the roof of houses, a library…

What amazed you especially in highland villages?

Elizabeth Webster: The ethnography of the land amazed us. The unexpected thing for us was that during nights, we heard howling of jackals. We were also amazed looking at eagles freely floating in the sky. We will not forget thermal services organized for us in Agsu region, Badu where we took all-recognized national healing baths.

As we know, you are all librarians. What did you read during the intervals?

Peter MacDonald: Margared read David Nicholls's "One Day' – a roman about a poor girl and well-to-do young man. And I preferred lyrical drama Bree Tanner's "Eclipse". Kathryn and Elizabeth read Terry Pratchett's "Unseen Academicals" from the series of satirical fantasy about football "Discworld".
 

/Echo Newspaper/