Day 27: Up and down the Debed Canyon

Today was a wonderful day! Ben and I woke up quite a bit earlier than normal, so we had a bit more time to play with before heading off. We had the whole campsite to ourselves (minus the frogs), which was cool. There’s a broken and seemingly abandoned bulldozer in the middle of the field, so Ben went to check that out and sat in the driver’s seat for a while. It seems fashionable in Armenia to just leave machinery (or pieces of) in random places. We come across the most random stuff whilst hiking! Like today there were old and rusted heat sinks just sitting on a rock…on the side of a canyon…in the middle of nowhere…huh?! 🤨

Anyway. Last night it rained a lot, and, for the first time whilst camping on this hike, we overheated in the tent! 🥵 Maybe our times of freezing overnight are in the past? 🤔 In a few days we are camping up at 1900m (last night we were at 1100m), however, so we’ll see how much we overheat then 😝

Today was set to be a pretty big day in terms of terrain, so we were mentally prepared to climb up to the top of the Debed canyon, descend to the bottom, and then climb back up again. This did not stop me from wishing there was a gondola, however, right at the beginning of our first climb 🤣 My body was just getting into it for the day, so things felt extra hard 🤪 Coinciding with this was the fact that we kept going the wrong way. We just weren’t paying enough attention - we’d get caught up in a conversation and eventually realise we hadn’t seen a marker in a while…so we’d have to double back! I soon adjusted, however - my focus sharpened and my protest turned to marvel at the beauty of the lush fields we were passing through. The landscape around us was dense with verdant green bushes and tall trees with their new spring shoots. This was punctuated by rough stone spires jutting up from between the greenery. 😍

One thing Ben and I are enjoying as a result of traversing big country is the increase in our leg strength and fitness. We now have QUADS!🦵🤣 As we were climbing steeply up to the top of the canyon this morning, we commented on how much easier it feels compared to when we first started the hike. For example, I pretty much boosted up the canyon side this morning, whereas in the beginning I would’ve needed to take a few breathers. It’s awesome to feel fitter and stronger!

Upon reaching the top, our hard work was rewarded with some epic views! The grassy paddock before us rolled away and dropped out of sight. The far side of the canyon was covered in forest of pale yellows and mustard greens of new oak leaves. Poking out of the landscape here and there were small towns, and far in the distance we could see the snow-capped mountains still holding on to what snow they have left! At that point I wondered how they had any snow left at all the sun was so hot! ☀️ We looked to be in for a sweater of a day!

Before we’d started climbing the canyon side, we’d spied some sheep milling around one of the electricity pylons at the top. We made note of which pylon this was so we could give it a wide berth when at the top, if needed. Now that we were at the top, we could see that we would indeed need to give this flock a wide berth! They didn’t have a shepherd with them, but they were guarded by 4 big dogs. Thankfully, the range these dogs had for perceived threat was smaller than other farmdogs we’ve come across - they didn’t even really bat an eye at our presence, actually. One of them barked a little at first, but then it lay back down again. This is by faaaarrrrrr the most chill experience we’ve had with unaccompanied farmdogs! Phew!!! 😮‍💨

As we ambled over the saddle, making our way towards the town of Tsater, we had to pause a little. Here in front of us was the whole canyon - it was huge and expansive! It stretched away into the distance, with one side a steep forest-covered slope, and the other (our side) a tall rocky cliff with grass and scrub rolling below - and waaaay waaay waaaayyyy down at the bottom, a river rushing along the valley floor. Breathtaking!

We soon found the winding stone staircase that would take us down to our canyon path. However, just a little way down our path was blocked by a bunch of cut branches. They seemed to be intentionally placed there 🤔 We stood for a while, debating as to whether they were some kind of “don’t come this way it is not safe” warning or just a forgotten pile of branches someone had left as they cleared the path (guess who was arguing which lol). Eventually, we decided to move them to the side and keep going - if we needed to turn back, we could turn back.

A bit further down, we turned a corner and almost bumped into some cliff straddling cows and their surprised farmer! We used our usual sign language to explain where we were walking. The farmer was surprised we were walking all the way to Odzun - it’s a long way! He signed. We agreed - yes it is a long way! Once we’d said goodbye, Ben said “maybe the branches blocking the path were so cows don’t go further up…”. This seems a very logical explanation for the branches - and herein lies the difficulty with tourists passing through farmland…they don’t know to close the gates 🤦🏼‍♀️ Woops!

The first section of our canyon walk was exposed, meaning the sun beat down on us hard! There was virtually no wind or breeze to offset this, either, so we worked up some big sweat in no time! And we drank a HEAP of water! However, the views remained epic, and we enjoyed watching the various birds and bugs go about their daily lives. We enjoyed the butterflies in particular as they flew about, their colourful wings flapping in the air. Even so, we were hugely grateful when we came to a part of the track that was largely sheltered by trees! 🌲

Eventually we descended pretty steeply and came to an intersection with a 4WD track. This track took us to what seemed to be the end of the road 🤔 There was a car with a few people milling about at the end, too. Looking straight up, we could see we were at the base of a cliff, on top of which was a huge ruined church - we’d reached the Kobayr Monastery. The Kobayr Monastery is a 12th century monastic complex across from the town of Tumanyan. From what we’ve read, this monastery was once an important centre of education, culture, and writing in medieval Armenia, and “ownership” of it was often fraught. This discord is reflected in the name locals often give it: “Kober”, which comes from the various quarrelling sides asking “is this your castle?” (“Qo berd” in Armenian). Otherwise, the name of the monastery is believed to be a combination of the Georgian word “kob” and the Armenian word “ayr,” both of which mean “cave.” This name apparently comes from there being several caverns around, which were used as monastic cells.

We climbed the very steep and straight staircase (taking us 100m up in no time 😮‍💨) to the monastery. It’s a wondrous place to stand in - each breath I took felt meaningful. There was such a presence in the air, it’s hard to describe - it felt deeply sacred. This was probably made more intense by the fact that by this time, some clouds had come over and it was drizzling with rain - the effect was sombre. I imagine, before the monastery went to ruin, it must have been very grand and castle-like 🏰

About 100m further down the track, we came to some more medieval ruins, although we are unsure what this one was - was it connected to the monastery? Possibly. This time our track passed right through one of the cave-like structures! 😱 Ben commented, “well, it’s not everyday your hiking trail takes you through the gate of a medieval ruin!” It was awesome!

After that we followed the rocky, path-side stream through more lush forest. The trees in this section felt older and wiser. The only other time we’ve felt this way in a forest here was on our way up to Bardzravan. Otherwise, much of the forests here seem young and spritely! As we trekked further the forest turned more into groups of trees, until eventually we were more or less on a hillside once again.

All of a sudden, 3 dogs started barking and running up out of the trees beside the track! 😳 We stopped still for a moment - huh? Surely these can’t be farm dogs? 🥴 (we were on more open land, so the possibility was there - but there were no sheep?). Upon quick inspection, we determined they were strays (although they seemed pretty healthy looking!). This changed the situation completely. From our time in Arpi Lake we picked up a phrase from the warden there: “Kot”. He explained to us that if we go “kooooot kotkotkotkot” to strays, they seem to understand this as “we are friendly and mean no harm”, and will often calm down. So we started saying this to the dogs. Two of them calmed down and became friendly, but one of them appeared to be nursing pups, so she remained protective and followed us barking for a while. While this was semi-stressful, it ranked nothing against sheepdogs and we quickly got over it and moved on with our day.

If anything we just felt sad for these dogs. Although, in general, we’d say stray dogs seem happier than the dogs owned and housed by Armenians here. Even with the difficult and harsh living conditions and having to fight to survive, strays just seem way happier. To us, this says a LOT about how Armenians treat their dogs. Most “pet” dogs we’ve seen here are reactive, stressed, neglected, lonely, very dirty, and receive bread to eat and not much else ☹️ Oh, and they’re often either chained up to a pole 24/7, or they’re caged 24/7. This isn’t including farmdogs and sheepdogs - we don’t really know how they’re treated, but they live life working on a farm, which is a bit different. Ben and I often wonder why people even have dogs here, if they don’t care for them. Why do you need a dog that is seemingly unwanted and disliked, and just chokes and hurts itself barking and trying to lunge at whoever walks past? It’s utterly bizarre, and it’s just so heartbreaking. The vast majority of dogs in Armenia need saving. 💔

Anyway. Beyond the family of dogs lay our next challenge. We had descended a few hundred meters over the last few kms and now we had to go all the way back up. The path, though not very steep, was again very exposed, and by now the day was very hot with a weighty kind of heat and high humidity after the rain (feels a bit different to the scorching NZ sun we’re used to!). As we sweat-worked our way up and up, each time we came to a tree or a rock overhang we graciously took a little break from the heat!

Something I’ve been exploring recently is how much easier physical activity feels when you get into a rhythm (as opposed to counting steps, for example). I’ve found my body can cope for way longer with rhythm! Which I guess makes sense, as rhythm has me less intently focused on my immediate physical feeling. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The rest of the path along the canyon was thin, but easy to follow. This was good, as at this point it had started raining fairly heavily and the afternoon thunder claps had started up. Along this stretch of track, we saw many cave dwellings and more old church ruins. One of the sets of caves was overgrown with vines and grasses; it looked like old windows and doors poking out from a sheer rock face. It actually reminded us of The Wall in Game Of Thrones!! It’s so cool seeing this kind of stuff as we go - Armenia really is an ancient landscape! Just seeing and imagining how people used to live…it’s fascinating! 🧐

Eventually we came to another set of rock stairs, which lead us up to the town of Odzun. Hooraaay! We’d made it - or so we thought. Turns out our map would then take us to the wrong address not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! Omg! - key takeaway, double check on all three of Google maps, booking.com and Yandex maps before moving 😝 I was ready to pass away by the time we finally found our accommodation 😭😝

We were warmly welcomed inside, and it was a blissful relief to finally take our packs and shoes off! And to have a hot shower. Nothing beats a hot shower after multiple days of hiking and camping! Especially after a sweater of a day like today 🤪😮‍💨☀️☀️☀️ Our host cooked us a wonderful DELICIOUS dinner! The best parts for me were the roast chicken legs and roast potatoes - I ate sooooo many potatoes, they were mouth-wateringly good, and exactly what my body needed - a good ol’ carb load 😝

Another (older) couple are also staying here from Germany, and they’ve been very helpful with translations between Ben and I and our hosts. They’re also hikers! What!!! They’re the first hikers we’ve come across since entering Armenia! They’re not hiking the TCT, they’re driving from place to place and doing day hikes around and about - how cool! Yesterday they hiked 24km, and they sure were pooped afterwards! 🤪 It’s been nice chatting with people who understand the joy of hiking 🙏

Off to bed for an early night now! 👋

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