Car door bridges and Caucasian Sheep Dogs!

During a week of unusually warm weather. Mike, Carol and I decided to meander along the Ganja river- which sadly is these days, severly lacking in water but not garbage in its bed. Here are some interesting shots that Mike took on the way. We passed some really interesting and innovative construction. I love the way people make bridges and fences/gates around here. It is kind of artistic. We walked towards the mountains past a tree nursery sponspored by ADRA- which is an NGO run by the 7th day adventists. We walked through unploughed fields and grazing sheep and goats, careful not to disturb the enourmous Caucasion sheep dogs!! We had hopes of climbing up a small but steep mound to capture the views of the surrounding country side but it was getting late. At one point we stopped for a break and watched several old men dig out rocks from the riverbed. We were slightly confused as to what these guys were doing and then we heard the rumbling and grumbling of a big engined vehicle and what should appear but a giant dump
truck driving straight up the river bed. Then the guys began heaving the large rocks into the back of the truck. Dont really know what they were for! On our way back we thought we'd try a different route that took us past some farms. As we approached the house we heard some dogs barking but thought little of it. Suddenly two immense sheep dogs (they are the size of St. Bernards but NOT as cute!!!) were charging at us with teeth barred. Carol screamed at us to throw rocks as she booked it across a small stream dividing the property. She had already narrowly escaped three dog attacks during her stay in Azerbaijan. I picked up two baseball sized ones but couldn't bring myself to chuck them at the dogs. I looked back and saw that Mike had lost his footing and the dogs were still advancing. I threw the rock- it went wide- (there is a reason i played first base- the position with the least amount of throwing necessary!) Mike somehow made it up and we lept across the stream just as the dogs reached us. Hearts pounding we kept running to distance us as much as possible from the dogs. We looked back and they hadn't crossed the stream but we didn't want to take any chances. We then decided to take the safer route home- the one we had come.