6th January 2000

Dear All

Carpenters:  We are feeling tired, listless and lacking energy....even grumpy!

Doctor:        I would reccommend a holiday, get away from things.

So we are now returned from four days ....full of stories, memories, and ready to face the final four months of our stay here.  So for a light read we decided to recap our holiday for you...............

We had a camp committee meeting on Friday morning and decided what everyone would bring........Dea, Tam and Pat are American women who have all been here at least 5 years so had  language and local knowledge. We offered to oversee the food..........cooking for 8 is not many more.

Saturday morning was a usual hot, humid Baku Summer day so we packed the car and headed off at 10am. Pat has a 2 door Lada Neva 4X4 just smaller than our 4 door, both white, both laden to the hilt!  First stop was an hour north of Baku at Five Finger mountain to get a cold drink and use the last flushing  (squatty) toilet.

Then on to Guba another hour North and into the forest for lunch.  The roads were walled with people selling their apples, pears, tomatoes, cucumbers and even some green walnuts and hazelnuts.  Gradually as we got nearer the mountains the temperatures lowered and as we climbed the hill behind Guba we all noticed the more pleasant climate.  The road was challenging, as we remembered it, following Pat was a challenge, her 2 door has much higher road clearance than ours, especially fully laden.  Untold clunks, scrapeing, and dodging pot holes and large rocks.....after an hour we came to a village and turned down this narrow road through the village and down to the river......Pat has wanted to cross the river but has never had anyone there to help if she didn't make it......so cross we did! ....it was down stream but still quite challenging ..... made it and decided to camp.  Ian and I decided on the bank, with sandy floor and the camp kitchen.....

the others decided on a grassy slope upstairs.  5pm......all set up and Pat finds a track behind us.......where does it go? ....... 4X4's race tuned and up, up we go!

Scrape, clunk, ........." Dad I think we have a flat tyre"...... "well put your head out the window and see, we can't stop now"........."Dad, it is".........." !"...........stop we did, flat it was, very..........Ian quickly changed, put on the spare and decided to abandon the road ..........Pat and Ian then decided they needed to get the tyre repaired that night so as not to interfere with the next days programme.  Off into Guba they go...........after many villages, long conversations, and help they found someone to fix the tube and 3 hours later returned to camp.......the beauty of a Lada. Next time we'll take a spare tube as well. Lit a camp fire and talked till dark.

Sunday morning we ate and left with picnic lunches for an adventure.  Firstly we 4X4ed up the Cloud Catcher Canyon road.....more clunks, bangs and scrapeings. At the top we looked out at the Canyon, all we could see was where the rocks headed together......... and down we went to see where they went.......between these huge rock faces.........into the water and rocks .........the first river was cold, within a few metres we had to jump from a large rock to deeper water........up to our chests .......then onwards towards a keyhole of light........soon we came to the bend where the COLD river met us.......left turn and up the COLD one....did I say the first one was cold? .........rock hopping, out of the water when we could ...... edging as near to the rock face as we could for balance as the current was very swift............picking our way up stream, crossing when necessary.  An hour or so later we stopped for lunch ......no sunlight as the canyon is very tall........cannot remember when any of us felt this cold.............Tam was too cold......so Ian and I decided to walk her out after lunch............intrepid Pat took the others on.....it got harder, swifter......they linked arms to cross, Thomas was the anchor man and Murdoch picked the route............they even jumped down a waterfall and managed to survive the undertow!!.............we got out and soon warmed up in the sun....the others followed us two hours later! We all had hassles climbing/clawing/being pulled up the big rock, like beached whales! No injuries but lots of bruised and stories of slips and scares!

A bit of a tramp, 4X4 drive and home to camp.  Weary but triumphant.......some excellent photos and memories..........I think we all beat the sun to bed!

Monday morning Ian & I went for a tramp before breakfast in the cool.  Others decided to go 4X4 and tramping during the heat....mad!......we had a quiet day at camp, exploring the river round here. Poor Ian was river floating and forgot his bum was lower than his feet over a large rock.....ooch!.....he is sitting delicately! Thomas had gone with Pat and Dea tramping and returned exhausted. Rain started early evening so cards in the tent after dinner and an early night again.

This morning the rain stopped but tents were all packed wet and drying now on our balcony. The rain and logging trucks had deepened our crossing, upstream return was always the harder...............a prayer and in we went.......over the bonnet!.......a slight cough in the middle........out the other bank.........phew! Lunch in the forest, kebab the traditional Azeri fare.........all of us sad at the end of an adventure.......new friends made but all aware of the shortness of our time together.

We called in on our Ausy friends at a tourist camp on the way home.....arrived home, washed everything.........and amazingly had some hot water for washing our bodies too!

By the time we had unloaded the car to our 3rd floor apartment we remembered how hot it is in Baku.  Klaus our cat was pleased to see us, thankfully a friend was feeding and cleaning him each day.  We are still all abit tired.......but mentally refreshed.  Ian is still sitting carefully ...... our bruises are coming out nicely.......we are starting to plan our week ahead and do feel more positive.  We enjoyed the break, allowed ourselves a little homesickness and now will hopefully face the work ahead with confidence. We think of you all in Winter lots.........we hope September will be starting to cool down........work ahead is busy so next newsletter will be more to the point about why we are here. 

Thankyou to all those who email or write to us.......we appreciate your support one and all.............our health and safety on the roads are real answers to your prayers. 

Suzanne, Ian, Hamish, Thomas, Murdoch and Morag

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