Richard And Jo Demeester's photos with the keyword: Xinaliq

After a couple of kilometres, the road winds past Çek on the other side of the valley. Our friendly farmers live in the house a little to the right of the village there, with the red roof.

o continue the story, that farmer I mentioned in the last picture, he lived in that house behind the sheep. His gestures indicated that he wanted us to join him for tea. And he did say one of those few words that we understood, çay. The family all came in, and the tea flowed, with the usual array of sweets, followed by home-made bread, home-churned butter, home-made cheese, and eggs (I assume from their own chickens). We tried to communicate about a number of things, both ways, some of it being understood, and other things ending in laughter at the realisation that the story was lost. They taught us a few words of their language, as Azeri is not what they speak in this area. We tried, but none of it stuck. Well, it wouldn't be useful anywhere else, in any case. After an hour and a bit, we continued on our way, and they came out, kissed us, and waved goodbye.

A farmer waved us over as we walked down the road, close to the village of Çek. While we talked with him (well, gestured and pointed, as we had very few words common between us), his sheep just stood behind him, waiting for his next move.

On the afternoon we arrived, we hiked up from Xinaliq to take it all in.

To leave Xinaliq, we just set out down the road to Quba. We passed through the best of the scenery, including expansive views to the mountains, and some pretty gorges with striking rock faces. When we got sick of walking, after 20km or so, we hitched a ride with a Russian couple, back to Quba.

We took transport from Quba to Xinaliq. We did not even ask the driver to stop for photos – he knew the right spot to let us have some time to take in the beauty and attempt to capture it. No hope, really. Photos never do justice for places like this.