He's Doing What?

Friday night the Baku Bicycle Club (BBC) hosted a presentation by fellow cyclist Rob Thomas. Rob, a 26-yr old New Zealander, is cycling solo from Japan to London on a recumbent bike. . . during the winter. He's already crossed Japan, South Korea, China, the Stans, and the Caspian Sea (he took a ferry for that one). Rob is spending a few days in Baku before continuing his journey. On Monday he sets off across Azerbaijan towards Tblisi, Georgia.

Check out Rob's blog 14 Degrees.

Rory and I did the "Candy Cane" mountain ride with the BBC on Sunday. One of Rob's comments is about how aggressive the dogs are. My fastest speeds on Sunday were when the dogs were chasing me. A snarling, snapping dog is quite the motivator.

If you look closely at the picture of Spike the dog in Rob's Day 140 entry (Dec. 9), you'll see that Spike has no ears. The villagers cut the ears off the dogs so that wolves can't grab them by the ears. That's also the reason for the thick collar Spike wears: so the wolf can't grab the dog by the neck. Aggressive dogs are prized possessions because they're more likely to survive a wolf attack. True or not, it's hard for an animal lover to see these beautiful dogs all with chopped off ears.