Azerbaijan. Gabala - Sheki. In September.
Azerbaijan. Gabala - Sheki. In September.
In early September, it became necessary to travel to the northwest of Azerbaijan to Zagatala. Decided to visit interesting places along the way. To do this, I chose, though the shortest route Baku-Shemakha-Gabala-Oguz-Sheki-Zakatala, but passing through mountain passes. The road is in excellent condition in most sections, with the exception of a small section at the entrance to Shamakhi, where repair work is underway. True, there are many places with a speed limit of 50-60 km/h. Lots of radar and police patrol cars. But if you don't violate it, they practically don't care about you.
The weather is also quite hot +30- +32. But the evenings are already cool.
The plans included the Seven Beauties waterfall.
Seven Beauties Waterfall
Yeddi Gö z? l ?? lal? si, which translated into Russian means "Seven Beauties" waterfall. located in the Vandam settlement of the Gabala region (210 km west of Baku, 13 km from Gabala, 30 km from Ismayilli). It is located 4 km from the village in the mountains among a dense chestnut forest. The road to the waterfall is unpaved, strewn with large gravel, dusty in summer and it is advisable not to go by sedan, although they can quite reach.
They say that in late autumn, winter and early spring, the area around the waterfall is covered with ice, and it is impossible to get here. You can drive to the foot of the waterfall by car, there is a dead end and a small parking area.
Unofficially, but for parking, local "guards" charge a parking fee of 1 man. The waterfall consists of seven cascades, which can be reached by a long narrow staircase made of sawn cube stone. To be honest, we counted only 3 cascades, one is covered by the restaurant area, the rest are more clearly visible. Perhaps there is a continuation even higher, but there is no way to climb there.
Not all stairs are in good condition, some sections of the path are quite dangerous, especially in wet weather. There are wooden handrails along the stairs, but I don't think they provide adequate security. On the way up there are several restaurants where you can drink tea or have lunch. But we were early around 9-30 so we abstained. A kettle of tea, a few slices of lemon and jam costs 10 manats, which is more expensive than in cafes in Gabala along the road (there are 6 manas as a rule).
At the beginning of the journey there is something like a mini bazaar, they sell honey, jam, some spices and souvenirs.
The children also offered to buy wreaths of flowers. There were not many people, somewhere 5-6 groups of 2-6 people. Only 2 groups are citizens of Azerbaijan, the rest, tourists from Iran, Afghanistan, Arab countries. There was one lone European tourist. The rest are either couples or families.
It was not possible to linger for a long time because the stairs are narrow and steep, only one can go up.
In general, a beautiful place, I think it's worth a visit, of course it's not Niagara Falls, but a waterfall among rocks and forests is always beautiful. In terms of time, if you do not drink tea and do not have lunch, it will take about 1-1.5 hours.
We decided to have lunch in Sheki, which is a 2-hour drive from Vandam (100 km) in a fairly well-known restaurant Gagarin.
Yes, that's the name of the restaurant. Far from glamorous, but tasty and moderately priced.
3 drinks,
two servings of lula kebab, a plate of tomato-cucumbers, 1l peach compote + a small kettle of tea with thyme + walnut jam. Total 39 man. Piti is a rather fatty food, eaten mainly in cool weather. If you eat piti correctly, then first eat the broth, crumbling bread into it and sprinkling with sumac. Sumac is a spice made from ground berries of a type of sumac, reddish-burgundy in color with a sour taste. Then the rest of the pot is poured out, mashed to a puree state, mixing chickpeas, fat tail fat and meat, and again sip sumac. After a good portion of drink, you will not want to eat until the evening, a rather sugary meal.
After lunch we bought the famous Sheki halva (6 mang kg)
and roasted hazelnuts in sugar (3 mana a small package, probably 200 grams)
Now the region is collecting hazelnuts and tobacco. Collectors on old Zhiguli and gazelles are visible everywhere. Hazelnuts are cleaned at factories, sorted and sold abroad. Tobacco with large leaves is dried, then it is also processed and sold. Quite unusual plants, I have not seen them in other regions of Azerbaijan. But I didn’t manage to take a picture.
