Day 3: Look at dat ass!

Kia ora ☀️

Another epic day, done and dusted! Sorry to disappoint those who love to read thrillers, but today was incredibly chill compared to yesterday! 🌸

Ben’s day started with a 6am get up (I was out to the world at this point, no way I was moving 🤣). He climbed up high to see sunrise and made it about halfway to the Noravank monastery before being turned around by the vertical cliff face that appeared in front of him! 🤪😳🫣

Our day properly started around 10:30am (we will surely get faster at packing down camp with time and practice…) with trying to 1. Find a way across the river to the road, and 2. Find a way to the nearest supermarket, about 6km down the road. It has been an interesting experiment so far, trying to figure out when and how to get food. We don’t want to carry too much because it’s heavy, but we need to carry enough for however many days between market trips.

This morning we found ourselves faced with 3 days before the next convenience store, and 6 days before the next supermarket. Not all market stores here are the same - some are like a Foursquare, some are more like a kiosk. And some supermarkets are more like a convenience store! The map doesn’t tell you which you’re getting! Today we just needed to pick up more lunch food and some backup dinners - like lavash (Armenian flat bread), noodles, cheese, and mandarins 🍊

We ended up approaching a couple who looked to be packing up their car. We said hello - they said hello back! They spoke English! 🤯 We all had a moment of celebration 🙌 Zuzanna and Szymon (pronounced Shymon) turned out to be from Poland, and they’re travelling around Eastern Europe for FIVE MONTHS!!!!!!!!! In their little red car with a camper on top 😱 How cool!

Zuzanna and Szymon are lovely (as everyone seems to be over here) - they gave us a lift to the market and back (thank you so much! 🙏), ensuring we’re all stocked up! 🍞🍜 Before parting ways we shared some juice, snapped a pic together, and made sure we’re following each other on Instagram! 🫡 It was past midday by the time we actually got to hiking… 🤣

One challenge we were faced with this morning was that we were set to be climbing up to around 2000m. This is at the snow level, and this is where we were meant to be camping. Nope! Way too cold for that, still! ☃️ So we’ve organised accommodation in the lodge up in Gnishik. After only 3 days of hiking we don’t really feel ready to not be camping, but we’re aware we have 6 weeks of hiking ahead of us and plenty of time to camp! So here we are in a very comfortable and warm lodge, with the entire place to ourselves 🤗 We have just enjoyed barbecued lamb, roast potatoes, a tomato and cucumber salad, and an entire block of cheese (?) for dinner! The person we were ordering from asked if we wanted cheese, and we assumed she meant like…on the salad…so we said yes. But nope - it’s just an entire block of goats feta!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 definitely not short on cheese now!!!! Luckily it’s cold enough during the day that food doesn’t go bad, so we should be fine carrying it!

The hike itself today was really laid back compared to yesterday. We still climbed 600m, but the whole trail was either a 4WD track, or a little goat trail. The difference following a track makes to how easy or difficult a hike is!! Crazy stuff! 🤯

And again, the weather was perfect and the views were insane! Just panoramic mountains and red canyons and rivers and valleys all day! These little purple flowers have started popping up everywhere…spring is arriving. We can’t wait to see the changes in colour about to happen! It does mean more rain and storms will be on the horizon, however… Armenia is known for its lightening storms… ⛈️🫣 No storms forecasted yet, though!

Up here in Gnishik there are so many khachkars! As well as some ruins and a cemetery. Towns here in Armenia aren’t so profound in terms of architectural design (MUCH dilapidation), but the ancient ruins and history are incredible. Tomorrow we’re set to go by quite a few churches and various signs of ancient civilisation, so that’s exciting!

In general, tomorrow looks to be another fairly chill day with yet another climb up to 2400m, and then back down to 1900m. Everything is going to feel chill compared to yesterday, omg 🤣😐

Off to sleep now in this amazing bed!!! Hugs and love to you all!! 🩵

Ps. If you can find the animal in one of the pics, you’ll understand what the title of this day refers to…. 😜😚🫏Read more