Möödunud nädalavahetusel tegin oma hinge rõõmsaks ja osalesin kahe-päevasel "Extreme trekking" matkal.  Idee sain Gani'lt, kes oli ühe mu kursavenna toakaaslane Tartus (Kas pole maailm päris väike koht, või mis?) ja kes teeb Bakus Free tour'e. Free tour on kontseptsioon, kus inimesed ei maksa tuuril osalemise eest, kuid juhul kui neile tuur meeldis jätavad nad tippi. See on üle maailma päris populaarne nähtus. Nii mitmeski Euroopa suurlinnas teevad free'sid mitu erinevat organisatsiooni. Bakus teeb neid ainult üks organisatsioon. Ja nad ei ole veel ka nii populaarsed.. Too päev kui ma tuuril kaasas käisin olin seal ühe teise tüdrukuga kahekesti. Kuid iseenesest väga tore ja kihvt tuur, kes satub kunagi Bakuusse otsige Baku Free Tour'i ( https://bakufreetour.com ). 

Last weekend I brought happiness to my soul by participating a 2-day “Extreme trekking” hike. I got the idea from Gani, who was a flatmate of one of my coursemates in Tartu ( Isn’t it a small world? ) and he is doing free tours in Baku. It is a conception where people don ’t pay for participating the tour, but if they like it they will give the guide a tip in the end of the tour. It is a rather popular concept around the world. In some of the big cities in Europe there are quite a few companies organising these torus. In Baku there is only one. And they are not that popular yet.. The day when I participated the tour, there was only 2 people alltogether. But it still was a very fun and intresting tour. When in Baku look for from here: https://bakufreetour.com .


Anyway, Gani mentioned to me that there is a company called Camping Azerbaijan organising these hikes. The guides are doing it besides their main jobs, so the hikes only take place on the weekends (all year round, though). They organize 1-day and 2-day hikes. I would have gone one a one-day hike actually, but the friend I invited to come whit me said: All in, or nothing! So a two-day hike it was and I am really grateful for that. The second day we spent mostly above clouds. Who wouldn’t like that?


We left Baku with a minibus on saturday morning. There was 14 of us alltogether - a few locals, a german couple, a few german volunteers and 4 hiking buddies from ADA university. In Quba we had to leave the minibus behind and get in to 4x4 Ladas. The roads got to bad for the minibus. But for the Lada the curvy uphill roads were not a problem! In Galakhuda we had lunch in someone’s home in the village. We were all sitting on the floor with pillows and ate from the ground. We had some proper Azerbaijani tea and we were eating dolma’s. After that the hike actually got started. On the first day we hiked for 11 km which took us 4,5 hours. We started from 2200 m passed by 2560 m and ended the hike at 2000 m altitude. It was actually harder with a bigger group, cause we had to wait for each other. So if you were rushing ahead with your skin nicely warmed up than u had to wait every once in a while. And then u cooled down again. The views were amazing throughout the hike!


We finished the hike in a village called Giriz. We had dinner in the village and after that we said goodbye to the majority of the group. They all headed back towards Baku, only me and Moritz and the guide stayed for the second day. We slept in one of the houses in the village. We chatted in the evening but we went to sleep quite early cause at one point they switched of the power. We woke up at 6 am in the morning. I had the honour to brush my teeth with a cow :D. After a light breakfast we headed off. The morning was foggy, but as we got higher, we left the fog behind us. On the hike we mainly saw sheep and cows and lonely sheperds with their dogs. Must be a strange thing to do. Hang out in the mountains all day just the sheep keeping u company. There isn’t any trees growing that high up as well. That reminded me of Iceland a little bit. I asked our guide where to the hide their dragons and unicorns. He didn ’t answer but he sure laughed a lot when i told him that the highest peak in Estonia is 317 m. This was followed by allkind of different jokes about the dangers in the mountains of Estonia - how you can get lost and how the weather my turn quickly etc.


The first two hours we went straight up. the highest peak was 2700 m. I dare to say that I have never been that high in my life. The view was amazing! The pictures will speak for themselves. Then we went down a little and most of the time we were walking horisontally. In the end we went down for like an hour and a half until we made it to Laza. The last 20 minutes of coming down were the hardest. I did the hike with my running shoes what isn’t really a good option, cause they dont support your feet on uneven surfaces. But I survived. On the second day we did 20 km. Alltogether 31 km with 2 days.


This experience was amazing and really beautiful! I wanted to sing from joy but i felt sorry for my fellow hikers so i didn ’t do it.