Day 6: From Cave To Cloud

Ben and I have agreed that today has been our favourite hike day to date.

Our morning started with being dropped off in the pouring rain, at an extremely muddy “crossroads” (dirt roads are a fav for Armenians…), in the ruins of Old Martiros.

From there we hiked a few kms through the mud and rain (this made me feel rather curl-lipped and heavy-mooded, whereas Ben was enjoying himself as per usual) towards the base of a snowy cloud-shrouded mountain. Upon reaching this, an unassuming doorway into the mountain lead us to an 800 year old church (y1286) made up of two chambers with domed ceilings and portholes to the sky. These let in light… and rain! Incredibly, this church was entirely hand carved into the mountain - the whole thing! And, similar to the monastery ruins in Horadis, this cave church - called Martirosans - is still actively used with offerings and candles available. I was nervous to step inside very far, so I mostly stayed in the first chamber. Ben had a good tour around, however, which he found awe-inspiring. Amazing what people have and can achieve!

From there we left the mud behind (thank gooooooddddd) and trekked over and up towards Gomk. Just the change from mud to firm ground had my mood flipping until I was more elated and light-footed than I have been so far! We climbed up a fairly steep, rock-strewn hillside for a time. The pouring rain and misty low cloud made this utterly beautiful. Ben and I kept telling each other “I’m really enjoying this hike!” “This is so cool!”. There was one moment of stress, however, when we saw a massive dog (like, massive!) about 100m ahead of us on the path. Initially, upon seeing us, it started coming towards us. This had us reaching for the bear spray, but then it stopped and just started barking at us. We were staying still at this point - what was the dog going to do? Did they have a human? Were they going to run and attack? The dog just kept barking at us, however, and came no closer. We were just about to move out of sight when we heard the relieving sound of a human whistling to call the dog off 😮‍💨 Thankfully it was a well-trained dog and it stopped worrying about us and happily chased after its human 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨 This is probably my least favourite thing about hiking in Armenia so far - the dogs trained to be hostile. I understand and appreciate the necessity of this for farmers and the safety of their livestock, it’s just incredibly scary when you’re faced with one and their human is nowhere to be seen! 😰

Anyway. Soon after that when we hit the crest of the hill, the cloud around us briefly lifted and we looked out to the sharp mountain ridges across the valley. There’s nothing quite like putting in the work to get to the top of a hill and receiving a spectacular view! We were both speechless for a time and just soaked (pun intended 😜) up the moment. Armenian country really is beautiful! We are so lucky to be doing what we’re doing - to be out here exploring these incredible, wild, and ancient landscapes. The strongest and most lasting feeling I had today was gratitude. I am grateful to be here (and I will do my best not to complain about the mud when everything else in Armenia is giving so much to us 😜🥰).

We actually hiked up to 2200m today, and the track had us hugging that altitude for a solid 8km. This meant we had a fair amount of snowy sections to get through, which, at times, felt a little beyond what I feel comfortable doing (the slope was intense at some points, and the clouds came down again - thankfully only for a few minutes, but it was enough to make me feel anxious about the potential for a white-out). Ben’s capacity for discomfort is quite a lot higher than my own, so he felt pretty good at this level, other than the potential for the weather to pack in again.

The last couple of sections of snow before (fiiiiiiinally) getting below 2000m were rather pretty (as opposed to stressful lol). The best way I can think to describe it is it was like Christmas snow! It had me thinking of Christmas trees and pōhutukawa nettles - very positive and warming thoughts as we descended into Gomk 🤗

Gomk seems to be a cool little town! The guesthouse we are staying at is stunning, and our hosts are so lovely! When we arrived we found they’d set up a “true Armenian afternoon tea” for us to enjoy! This was made up of mint tea (way better than any mint tea I’ve ever had anywhere else - the tea over here has made me actually genuinely enjoy tea! It’s delicious!), dark chocolate, ginger cake biscuits, walnuts, and these syrup-soaked honey-sweet gooey apricots. Soooooo yummy in our tummies! Armenia is the land of walnuts and apricots, we have discovered! And lavash, of course ;)

We plan to stay here for two nights (tomorrow is meant to be really crap weather) before hiking a massive MOUNTAIN to Artivan. We’re actually planning to take a different route than the TCT so we don’t have to climb so high. The TCT route takes us above 2500m 😱, whereas this other route, while a little longer, keeps us under 2000m. With the amount of snow there is already, and with the weather forecasting more snow across the next 36 hours, we don’t think it’s safe for us to do the TCT route this time. We’re sure it’s amazing and beautiful, but…yeah. We want to stay alive :)

Today has felt so magical and aweing. Definitely our most enjoyed hike day so far here in Armenia! 🥰 We are very much looking forward to what’s to come!

Day 6 done and dusted! Onto day 7…our first rest day 🫡

Peace out homies! 🤗🩵Read more