The Mud Volcanoes of Qobustan plus Ballet and Memorials

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Today we decided to go back to the mud volcanoes of Qobustan. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so most of the photos seem pretty grey. That shouldn't be too much of a surprise though as the landscape really is very grey there!

This time we took a local marshrutka to Qobustan for 80 qapik (60p) each, not bad for an hour's ride. Taxis are plentiful when you get there and negotiating a price (15 Manat - £12) was easily done. The local taxi drivers actually know where they are going, unlike Baku-based drivers! The route is not easy to find and it's a bumpy trip in the back of a Lada but nobody is going to take a better car there so don't expect a Mercedes!!

The driver took us to the volcanoes and explained a little about them to Trish in Russian. It seems that they are rather inactive at this time of year but they were lively enough for Russ to get splattered several times as he tried to take the perfect photo!!

This collection of volcanoes ooze out a cold, slimy mud which is shockingly cold to touch. It's fun watching them for a while and trying to guess when a huge bubble is going to emerge and pop. Some of the larger bubbles can make rather a mess!!!!!!!!!

It was just a few hours excursion for us as we had seen the museum and petroglyphs before. If you haven't then allow half a day. Our trip back to Baku was frustrating. We caught a marshrutka and, despite asking before we got on if he was going to Bayil, we ended up going to the bus station and having to get another bus home. Now it only cost us an extra 80 qapik between us and delayed us by a mere 40 minutes, but it's just the sort of thing that is getting increasingly annoying because it happens so often!

On Saturday it was Armed Forces Day in the UK. We decided to go up to the Martyrs' Alley graves in Baku and lay some red carnations at the base of the British War Memorial. It just seemed like the right thing to do as otherwise the 47 fallen British heroes of the First World War in Azerbaijan would have been forgotten.

On Saturday evening we went back to the Opera and Ballet theatre. This time we saw the Azerbaijani fantasy ballet 1001 Nights, which is called The Arabian Nights when it is performed elsewhere. It was very colourful and the music was great. The ballet was pretty good too but at times we worried that some of the men were going to drop the women as they didn't seem to have quite enough upper body strength. If there were any mishaps, we didn't see them and had a very entertaining evening.

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Photos

1001 Nights
Dancing with teapots!