No mans land!
Trip Start
Mar 28, 2011
1
65
97
Trip End
May 27, 2012
Ağdam, Ağdam, Azerbaijan
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
We stayed our first night in this wacky hotel near Stepkanart (the capital of the country that doesnt exist) just down from a beautiful hilltop monestry. The roads there were a bit of a challenge for the volvo, who managed to spring a leak on the gravel roads after a few hours in. nothing a bit of epoxy didnt fix though.
The next morning was the big day. the most exciting day in the whole rally. even bigger than the finish line. we were set to drive through Agdam, a city that was bombed to smithereens in the 90s by Armenia, and is still currently a no go zone, a bomb practicing ground and a war zone complete with live bombs and millitary presence. We first got our visas, and loaded up the car with food as there are no restaurants in a war zone, before driving out to Agdam.
Our first sight of what was left of the city was just piles of bricks, lots and lots of rubble surrounding pot holed streets. An old woman sat on the side of what used to be the main road, she must be one of the very few who still choose to live amongst it. as far as we could see, not a single structure stood, some were in total collapse, others left with a partial wall standing. very few had more than a few walls and resembled much more than a broken box. A shattered statue stood amongst it all, just its feet at the base left visable. this was a city of over 100,000 people, a bustling center, left to crumble, its past inhabitants left to flee or die.
The only structure in the entire city to stand to this day is a mosque.We drove until we found it, only to notice an english tourist and 2 locals already there. We had a chat to the guy, who seemed confused we hadnt had any trouble with the millitary yet and excited to have met some other tourist. there really are very few of them around these parts. just minutes after they left in their taxi, the arabian nights pulled up, and so did the millitary. The guy took down the car plate details and told us to leave. which we did, promptly. We would later find out, that not long after this team Portugal seen a missile launched not too far from the mosque, crashing into the earth. I think thats a good enough reason to leave. We had no idea it was still actively being used as a launch site.
We knew we were safely in the front of the other cars, which proved to be a good thing when we ripped open the oil pan good and proper just after leaving the last town before no mans land, in a stoke of luck, if you can call it that, we broke down right in front of a mechanics! soon after the Arabian Knights along with Mick and Mike, Annie and Simon pulled up to make sure we were ok. our oil had been pretty much drained in that short time so mick and mike graciously “lent” us a few liters. after almost and hour and a cup of tea made by Annie, we were all off, heading for no mans land, a barren road surrounded by unexploded bombs, in which we had all planned to meet at a tree for lunch. There seemed to be a bit of a ‘town’ near it, well, a water well, and one store, maybe 3 or 4 shacks, and a few army trucks and cars driving through.
After Lunch we were to drive along some pretty dodgy roads that straddled Iran and No Mans Land and crossed through ghost towns bombed a decade ago. It was a bit of a sight, some people had clearly moved back into the bombed houses, why im not sure, but they lived with tarpolins on the roof and a few clapped out cars strewn around.
The roads were on par with Albania, and due to the dodgy oil pan we were lucky Annie and Simon and Mick n Mike stayed near us in case we got into trouble. we followed them the whole way back to Kapan, even driving down a disused road to drive on railway tracks along the border fence, which was a harrowing experiance, and one i wouldnt want to repeat. I swear i had visions of us getting caught and pleading for our lives on tv holding up newspapers.We were not meant to be in that area at all, if we had been caught, we would have been arrested for sure, so it was a bit nerve wracking.
