Day 12: On the road again!

FREEEEDDOOOOOOM! 🕊️ I have escaped the harsh clutches of the gastro 😈

From Jermuk, we are 6 days away from reaching Tatev, 8 days away from finishing part one of this hike. HOWEVER, a sizeable change of plans has occurred 👀 Ben and I have decided we’re going to go further south of Tatev down to Tandzaver, where the magic forest loop and open air art gallery is! With our new knowledge of Armenia travel, we know we could easily get a taxi back to Tatev from Tandzaver, etc. So this is the new plan! This has created a bit of a squeeze for time, however, so we looked more into what the hike from Jermuk to Sisian would be like. It’s largely just farmland, which probably means more dogs to contend with. So, it’s been 🥁 CUT OFF!🎤 (iykyk).

Because of this, we jumped into a taxi this morning and got an epic ride to Shaqi; a small town near Sisian. Before long we were leaving the snow behind and driving down into warmer, lower regions. From there we turned and zoomed down the road following Arpa river (we think). Weirdly, the water seemed to be flowing towards us - weren’t we heading downhill for the next little while? Turns out nope! There’s a big mountain in the way, and it has two rivers, one flowing north, and the other south. So before long we were approaching crazy amounts of snow again and moving ever closer to the rounded snowy mountains - I’d never seen so much snow in my life! Good thing the scenery was so mesmerising because the taxi man’s driving was certainly erratic 😅 (taking phone calls, at one point watching what seemed like a video a friend had sent him, all the while avoiding the giant potholes and overtaking other slower drivers 😳 I don’t think there was ever a better time to cross our hearts 😂😮‍💨).

The car soon crested the saddle of the mountain and low and behold, the view of southern Armenia was breathtaking; where central Armenia is a jagged landscape with deep valleys, sharp hills and cliffs, in front of us stretched a massive high plateau, surrounded on all sides by snowy mountains and with several large lakes in the middle, all joined by a long river that cuts a channel down the landscape. As we descended into this, the vast vista was hidden behind closer, greener hills, making the world seem small and immediate.

Upon being dropped off in the small town of Shaqi, it quickly became apparent that Shaqi is very much a farming village. This heightened our anxiety to high levels straight off the bat! Were there going to be aggressive sheep dogs? Would we again be chased across fields? Needless to say, our experience of being chased by 4 aggressive sheep dogs the other day has left a pretty raw fear in us, and we have been on high alert since. Luckily, there weren’t any farm dogs in town today. Just some horses with their foals!

There are two routes to take from Shaqi to Sisian: the direct route, about 7km, mostly along the highway with some dirt roads, or, a hiking trail that first runs past Zorats Karer (Armenian Stonehenge). Both of these routes begin from the waterfall. Today we chose the direct route. This is mostly because it avoided farmland and thus lowered the risk of coming across aggressive dogs, but also because I still have a touch of fatigue from the gastro and didn’t really feel up to a 10+km hike with my pack. Besides, we could walk to Zorats Karer later from our hotel (a longer, but hopefully safer route).

Hilariously, as we approached the far side of Shaqi, we basically walked through a couples lovely riverside date 🤪 We had to cross the tiny bridge they were sitting beside to reach the steeper terrain above the waterfall! We did have a giggle 🤭 Climbing down beside the waterfall, however, was sooooo… underwhelming. For the amount to snow melting nearby, the waterfall was basically a tall trickle over a wide bank of rocks 🤨 Anyway, never mind! We continued down the path to the car park where locals were selling dried fruits, and other goods. We excitedly purchased some dried apricots - YUM! Just the kind of snack we need to keep handy. Then, a man approached us and asked if we had seen the waterfall. We assured him we had, to which he then said “but the waterfall is off”. Huh? How can a waterfall be “off”??? 🧐 At our confused looks he explained that the hydro plant was currently using the water in the river, and if we waited 10 minutes there would be much much more water flowing through. While we waited, Ben cuddled some stray dogs, and I mooched about. Then we headed back over to what was now multiple, massive torrents of water pouring over the cliff and smashing the rocks below! It was sooooo… OVERwhelming!! 😋 Well worth the wait 🫡

From there we set off for Sisian, and the two stray dogs Ben had made friends with earlier decided they were now part of our pack. They followed us all 6km into town! At first this was nice, but once we hit the main road it became stressful. The dogs liked walking down the middle of the road, so each passing car or truck had to swerve, or blast its horn, sending the dogs sprinting off the road until the car passed - then they were straight back onto it 🙄

Approaching the outskirts of town the TCT track told us to take a side path across a bridge and off the main road. I looked at this and wanted to stay on the main road. Ben, however, wanted to get our companions away from the traffic. So, we took this route. It wound around the back of an assortment of buildings. At one point we could see a back yard of chickens, turkeys, and sheep. Greeeeeat! We gave this a wide berth, and later circled back down. Then, however, came the unmistakable sound of a dog bark. Are. you. freaking. serious? Turns out (thankfully) this dog was a lot more concerned with our companions than with us. Our companions then sensibly decided that this was the end of their journey with us and we went our separate ways.

After a pitstop (aka a nap for me) at our new hotel, we headed north out of town towards Zorats Karer. It was just up the road - for 4km.

This stone henge was epic! It’s a formation of over 60 large stones on top of a hill that overlooks Sisian - many of these stones have holes carved through them (does anyone know why?). They were placed there sometime around 7500 years ago. Wondrous to see and muse over what it all meant!

From this vantage point we could see the hiking path back to town. We could also see the several flocks of sheep it ran past. So, again, with loaded sighs, we decided to stick to the main road back into town. This time we walked past the town cemetery as well as a WWII memorial. By this time it was nearing 5:30pm and the feeling of dusk was descending, bringing with it a higher intensity of barking dogs - so we hurried back down into town! 👀

Overall, it’s great to be feeling better and to be back out hiking and exploring, but we really wish there weren’t so many unfriendly dogs around. It’s SERIOUSLY impacting the quality of our hike at the moment! Fingers crossed our days ahead are dog-free (at least the aggressive kind), and we can just go back to enjoying ourselves in and amongst nature! 🍃

Tomorrow we head for a town called Vorotnavan, where we are camping next to a monastery (with permission, of course!).

Big love and hugs - as per usual 🤗🩵

PS. Wish us luck with sleeping - there is a very loud stray dog barking on and off nearby!Read more