Hitchhiking to Goy Gol Lake in Azerbaijan

What an absolute WHOPPER of a day!

Began with an amazing breakfast at my awesome couchsurfing host’s place and ended with a lift home at 10pm by local homocide police from Goy Gol village!!

Caught a bus to the surreal Goy Gol village which was founded by GERMAN winemakers in 1831 and called “Helenendorf” until Stalin bundled them all off to gulags in Kazakhstan during world war 2, it still maintains a surreal German feel with a Lutheran church and wooden cottages highly reminiscent of Bavaria!

We hitchhiked to the outstanding Goy Gol lake 60kms from the town and then passed several military checkpoints, the stunning Goy Gol lake was off limits to the public until late 2015 due to its close proximity to Armenia (just over the mountain range) and many military bases in the area.

It’s common for hikers to get lost and end up in Armenia!

Jakob with Mansur Hasanov and Sevda Mor Meherremova at Göygöl Toğana.

After being dropped off at the military checkpoint near the lake we hopped in the back of an old soviet pickup and then hiked the last few kms to the outstanding lake!

Upon returning to the checkpoint we were picked up by local police, taken into custody and the whole day turned completely upside down! More info to come in a few days.

What a surreal final full day in Azerbaijan! Tomorrow hitchhiking back to Georgia!

Share this:

Exit mobile version