Day 26: Walking in fields of dandelions🌼

A very big Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely mama’s out there! Did you know, if you calculate how much unpaid (and often invisible) labour the average mother does to support their family/household, they’d earn WELL over $150,000 a year? 🤗 And while we shouldn’t have to put a salary to it to understand and respect just how much WORK they do, it is often an eye-opening figure!! 🫪 So hopefully all the mama’s are feeling super appreciated and seen and loved and doted on today by their families - and every day following 🤗🩵

This morning both Ben and I started our day by messaging and calling our mother’s to wish them a very happy mother’s day! 💐 It was lovely to catch up with our family and see their faces/hear their voices again 🤗 Whilst we were on the phone with my mum (and her two dogs, Vera and Stumpy 🥰), we undertook the first section of our hike - a beautiful and lush, albeit merciless, 4.5km climb up through the forest until we reached the more exposed mountainside (yes I was often gasping for oxygen trying to talk and climb at the same time 🤣). From the top we could see the remnants of lingering snow drifts on the mounts across the valley - incredible to think that not too long ago, what we were standing on would’ve been coated in snow! ⛄️

On our way up through the forest we came across the skull of a long-dead cow 😳 This cow’s horns are now being carried in Ben’s pack, alongside his ever-growing collection of epic Armenian rocks. Ben first asked this cow if he could take their horns, and the answer seemed to be yes as he then felt comfortable taking them. In the past when he’s asked for permission to take something and received a no, something has happened like a rock falling nearby, thunder clapping, or he just gets a feeling it isn’t okay. For example, at the monastery ruins in Horadis, he picked up a piece of rock, asked the monastery if he could take it, and a second later a piece of the ceiling fell beside him. This was a very clear no, so he put the rock back.🗿

After our forest climb, we descended across farmland. About halfway we came across a flock of sheep and their shepherd - who actually came over (on his horse) to say hello! We think he asked if we wanted to use a horse to get to where we were going, which was awfully kind of him! He seemed to be halfway through organising this (as he was on the phone with someone who we assumed was another shepherd on the farm) when he realised we wanted to walk. Most Armenians think we’re crazy for wanting to walk, they’re like “but why?” 🤣🤣🤣 Nobody has yet been like “oh that’s cool!” 🤣

As we said goodbye and headed further down the hill, we heard some thunder clap (this now seems normal to us - it happens rather a lot!). Following us was an ominous looking cloud! As we said yesterday, this afternoon was forecast for rain, so we took heed and put on our rain jackets and pants, sat down and had an early lunch before the rain arrived. On the menu today was a whopping salami, cheese, fresh tomato, and fresh thyme sandwich, all on the delicious Armenian bread we’d got at the convenience store! We felt so spoiled - we don’t usually have fresh tomato or herbs while hiking! 🤭

Turns out the rain didn’t fall, and we continued our descent - this time with breathtaking views of a number of small towns, wide grassy plains and forest, surrounding mountains, and just like a few days ago there were many localised downpours moving across the landscape. In the distance (in the direction we were headed) we could see what looked like a m a s s i v e canyon! 🫣

What pulled us out of our awe was the deep and loud barking of a sheepdog. Our heads snapped in that direction, and we watched as a big dog chased off an even bigger cow! No shepherd in sight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cow move so fast! 😳 When the dog decided the cow was far enough (and scared enough) away, it stopped, turned, and stared at me and Ben. That was enough for us - we promptly stepped over the edge to our right, choosing to take the very steep descent down the uneven hillside as opposed to continuing along the 4WD track that faced towards the dog. Even though the dog was over on the next hill, we weren’t about to take any chances. We wanted to be out of sight and out of that dog’s mind as quickly as possible!!! 🫪

Reaching the foot of the hill the fields were blanketed in dandelions, the effect of which looked like a giant golden sheet across the landscape. We walked between them in awe towards the town of Kurtan, passing a steep rocky hill with a simple, but beautiful monastery perched at the peak. At the outskirts of town our path took us off the road and along a thin dirt track formed by thousands of cow hoof prints that went along the back of some houses. Walking along the top of the valley was beautiful. And of course we got some friendly waves from locals.

We encountered some kids in town who were keen to practice their English. Two of them followed us for quite some time, wanting to chat some more (though their English vocabulary, and our Armenian vocabulary, were both limited). After they went back home we got some dinner supplies from a store, topped up on water at a drinking fountain, and headed out of town past yet another beautiful church (another Mother Of God church 🤓).

This end of town extended into a wide flat plane at the top of the huge canyon we had seen before. Standing atop this canyon the view ahead was stunning with densely forested sides, sheep stone cliffs like castle walls, and a pretty monastery near a big river. The view behind us was looming dark clouds that continued to threaten rain - hopefully it would keep holding off! Our path took us right to the edge of the canyon, and then straight down. Taking a deep breath, we zigzagged down on large, rough, scoria steps, hugging the side of the cliffs.

Along the way we walked by caves and around large bushes of flowers growing up between the rocks. Looking down there were lots of different foot prints in the dirt. This told us that this must be a popular spot for locals to come and spend time - probably with their homemade vodka 😝 After a long and cautious decent the land shallowed out and our dandelion fields were now replaced with equally yellow seas of buttercups.

Nearing the shelter where we had planned to camp tonight, we found it was already in heavy use by locals. So we continued on to a shelter that Ben’s map showed, but mine didn’t. Given mine is the most updated one, there was probably a reason it was no longer showing - this reason, upon arrival, is that this shelter is now private and gated with a padlock to boot! Hmmm 🤔 we consulted the map again and saw there was another campground a bit further up. Again, this turned out to be unusable due to it being flooded. So on we marched in search for a place to pitch our tent 🫡

My map showed a wild camping area up near the damn, so we headed for that. Thankfully, mercifully, this one turned out to be the go! It’s more or less a large meadow beside the river, and it seems to be a very popular spot for people to come and have picnics - being a Sunday afternoon, there were many groups of Armenians here enjoying the sun with each other! One group of young people even have tents set up - were they staying, too? On a Sunday? This campsite has a lovely vibe with beautiful views of the surrounding valley and hillsides. There are various ponds full of ribbitting frogs, and a herd of cows milling around - perfect!

We set up camp. After a while one of the young men came over and, in broken English, asked if we have ‘skodge’. We repeated this back to him and said we didn’t know what that was. He tried again changing the inflections, but we couldn’t get it. Trying to be helpful we used some sign language to ask if me meant matches, a lighter, water… then I asked if he meant ‘scotch’. His face lit up - yes! I then clarified “like alcohol?” and mimed drinking. He laughed, said no no no, hurriedly shook his head, and went back to his group defeated. After this we heard a lot of laughter as he told his mates about the exchange. About 10 minutes later another from the group came over and clarified (in much better English) that they were looking for scotch tape! And he assured us his friend was not an alcoholic. Ooooooohhhhhh!!!!! 🤣 We offered up our sellotape, which they used, and when they returned it they brought us some chocolate in thanks 🤗

After this we cooked our dinner. As we were eating we watched the families nearby play dodgeball as the light slowly changed and dusk fell. It was very peaceful.

At 7:30pm on the dot the frogs in the pond all started croaking much louder, and at the same time what we can only imagine as a large group of jackals nearby started their long high pitched howling. A little later again more claps of thunder started up, and this time it seemed like the rain really was finally going to hit! We hoped it wouldn’t as we could see the guys nearby had just started up their fire, but when we felt the first drops of rain on our heads we crawled into our tent.

And so here we are - another big day behind us! Tomorrow will be another big day, most of which will be spent making our way along the side of a steep cliffside… there’s a road following the top of the cliff that we could alternatively follow, if we feel the proper trail is too tricky.

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