Day 24: Back to the track 🥾

We’re back bayybeeeeee!!! 🐝 Nothing has made us happier than finding a (temporary) home for Shya, and finally getting back into our hike! Can confirm we are both feeling giddy, lighthearted, and easy-grinning this evening! We’ve just made a brilliant fire, which Ben is continuing to tend while I start writing up our day.

We started our morning at Arpi Lake, where we saw a beautiful sunrise. We watched as the gulls, pelicans, cranes, and other birds flew around the morning sun. There’s an island in the middle of the lake where no predators can get to the birds, so they have made it their home and nesting place. How wonderful it is to witness nature in action!

After a relatively sad breakfast of plain rice with a few added spices 😅 (just finishing off dinner leftovers), we ordered a taxi and headed around the snowy mountains. From the lake to the other side it was about 50km as the crow flies. However, as the taxi drives it was over 100km - an estimated 3 hour drive, considering the road conditions 🫩

The taxi-man turned out to be better suited as a rally car driver - we flew along the damaged and potholed road away from the lake at a speed that had me clenching my jaw big time (Ben, on the other hand, was somehow having fun👀). It would’ve only taken one little misstep and that would’ve been us wiped from this life 🫡 This driver’s trick to avoid the innumerable potholes was to avoid the road itself and to drive mostly on the exposed areas of dirt. It was like this that we saw lake Arpi disappear into the distance behind us. I started wondering how much life-luck we’re using up on this trip (if there is such thing) 🫣🤣

In Gyumri we switched taxi’s, and this time got a more cautious (by Armenian standards) driver - THANK GODS. My jaw couldn’t take much more tension 🤣

Our arrival into Katnaghbyur did not go unnoticed by the locals. As soon as we stepped out of the car and put our packs on, various people were speaking to us and inviting us in for coffee. We withstood the first onslaught (as lovely as it was, we REALLY wanted to get hiking again!!!), but we met our match with an older man named Arshun. Arshun was extremely persistent and literally would not take no for an answer. He welcomed us into his home, sat us down, and busied himself not just making coffee but preparing a full-on Armenian lunch for us (it was 12:30pm at this point).

At one point, while Arshun was in the kitchen, a chicken walked into his lounge and checked up on what was happening - and then walked out again. 🐣 Just when we thought everything was ready to eat and drink, Arshun looked down and around as though he’d forgotten something. He then promptly got up, went to a cupboard, and shuffled back again with a bottle of vodka in his hand. Again he would not take no for an answer and poured us all a drink. Who is this man?! 😅 Over the next hour we drank multiple shots 😐 and toasted to brother and sisterhood, to God, and to world peace. It was an interesting (and not wholly comfortable, at least for me) time, and when we finally managed to say goodbye and leave, it felt like more like an escape 😅

It was after 2pm by the time we got to hiking! Ah, it felt absolutely joyous to be back in the wild again, with nothing before us but grassy hills and forests, and of course with multiple thunderstorms on the prowl! The terrain here is a wide open steppe surrounded by (more) snowy mountains. From where we were walking we could see far in all directions, and at any point in time at least four, heavy, localised downpours were rolling over the plains - yet in between them there was bright blue sky and sunshine. It was breathtaking! Yep, it’s good to be back 😎

It’s hard to describe how we’re experiencing this hike. It’s totally different from the hiking we’ve done previously. Honestly, I think I prefer thru-hiking! I mean, a big part of me can’t wait to leave Armenia and get back to more familiarity and comfort, but another big part of me is frothing the life we’re living right now! I’ve never experienced such prolonged freedom and ever changing beauty before! 😱

Right now we are in our own little world and time bubble. We wake up, cook breakfast, hike through incredible landscapes, meet epic people, find a place to camp/stay, cook dinner, make a fire, do some writing, sleep, wake up… and do it all again! If it wasn’t for the near constant fear of sheepdogs and worry about overnight temperatures, we’d never want this hike to end! We’re thinking if we ever do another thru-hike (which, hopefully we do!), we’ll find somewhere a little less hair-raising! Like maybe Te Araroa back home. My sister, Alex, is planning to do this thru-hike next year, and we will for sure will be joining her for parts of it!!!! 😈

Aight! Where were we? As we were walking through the plains, we were intermittently rained and hailed on with bouts of sunshine in between just long enough to dry us off before the next torrent hit!

About 7km into our day, we came to the lily pad lake that Arshun had told us about. We knew when we were approaching this lake as we could hear the deafening chorus of a thousand frogs croaking and ribbetting - even from hundreds of metres away! It was truly awesome!

Soon after that we saw a flock of sheep in the distance, and yep, our path was going that way 🫣 (yeah…we were never going to get across an open plain without crossing paths with at least one flock…). We could see the dog following the shepherd around. As we walked nearer, we prayed the shepherd would keep his dog with him and not set him loose on us 🙏 Thankfully, relievingly, we were able to pass safely and without drama 😮‍💨 We didn’t stop holding our breath until we were well past them, however! Our experience with the 4 sheepdogs chasing us has really left its mark. It’s probably (hopefully) not the norm to have them chasing us like that, but it can take multiple positive experiences to lessen the impact of just one negative one, so we’re still feeling a bit of leftover stress! Hopefully with time, and with more safe experiences like today, we’ll be able to calm down more and more 🙏

We then turned into the forest and wound our way gently down to the river. We love the forest! You can’t beat it - especially when it has a river flowing through it! So picturesque. We walked past some cows that were mooching about the trees and eating grass, and eventually came to our camping spot. Turns out there’s a shelter here with a dinner table and place for a fire. Good thing, too, as it’s rained pretty heavily since we arrived! Now, however, all we can see is a dark, starry, clear sky. Far out, how lucky are we? 🤗

Another epic day done and dusted! Tomorrow we walk through Step’Anavan and camp on the other side. It’s looking to be a sunny day with some cloud ⛅️, which will be lovely!

Oh, and we received a video of Shya today from Gayane. It has made Ben and I smile SO BIG! We’ve watched the video multiple times! Shya is with a puppy and he is being so affectionate and loving, and this puppy is enjoying Shya’s adoration! Ben and I couldn’t be more in love - we’ve found a lovely, lovely soul, and we can’t wait to introduce him to everyone in Sweden and then back home! We are so so happy that he seems to be enjoying life more and more! He’s even on good terms with Gríg now, which is incredible news! 👏👏👏

Peace out! 🩵Read more