Day 30: Up

This morning we woke to the most brilliant blue sky we’ve had since arriving in Armenia. Not a cloud in sight! It was going to be a stunner (and a sweater) of a day!!!

We first climbed up through the streets of Sanahin. Along the way, we thought the tourist couple behind us might be following us, so on the pretext of having a drink (it was quite a steep road to climb already!) we stopped and Ben asked them where they’re off to. They said they’re going to the monastery, so we pointed them in the right direction, which was actually back where they’d started - unless they were climbing up to the old monastery way up on the hill! They were definitely not about to do that, so they turned and headed back 😅 We wondered what had made them think we were going to the monastery at 8:30am with big packs on our backs! 🤪

When we reached the old monastery way up on the hill, a shepherd came over and we told him we’re walking to Dilijan! He was surprised, and pointed to the Sanahin monastery, and then another monastery close by. He then arched his arms through the air over his head going “woooooaahhhhhhh” and when they reached the other side he said Dilijan - as if to say it’s very very far away! Ayo (yes in Armenian), it’s very far away!!! He looked at us in disbelief and tutted, shaking his head, as he said goodbye 😅 We loved the vote of confidence 🤣

Even at 9am the sun was b e a t i n g down! ☀️ Ben and I had worked up a solid sweat just walking up to the old monastery, and we had about 800m over 16km to go (although most of the climb was concentrated in the first half of the hike). It was a b i g hike getting up into those mountains! We zig zagged up and up and up. It was killer (and you can imagine the sweat!!!), but we really enjoyed seeing the towns disappear behind us! Goodbye civilisation! See you in 5 days! 🫡

We also really enjoyed the views becoming bigger and more expansive across the land. The higher we climbed, the more epic the views became, until we had a 360degree view of the surrounding forest, mountains, valleys, the Debed Canyon, and various towns dotted about the place. We could even see Odzun! It’s a big town, but from way up there it looked so small! We felt like we’d climbed up so high already, but even at that point we weren’t even halfway 🤪😅 bloody hell!

Alongside gasping for oxygen as we climbed all day, we also took note of the different prints in the dirt and the types of poop we saw. We saw a lot of horse and cow poo and prints, but no sign of dogs. This was strange to us - surely the dogs would go up with the cows? Unless the cows were still coming back down for the night…but surely they wouldn’t come up this high just to go back down later the same day? 🤔 When we did eventually find some massive dog prints 🫣 they were going in the opposite direction - phew! 😮‍💨 To us this meant we possibly didn’t need to worry too much about dogs - at least not for today, and perhaps not tomorrow either.

Just before we stopped for lunch, a fox darted away across a field - it was a ginger fox, too! Before being here in Armenia I’d never seen a fox before, and the only foxes I’d read stories about as a child tended to be ginger! Like Basil Brush, for example 🥹 So I found it quite exciting seeing a real ginger fox! 🦊🤓

As we made our way, at one point we came to a shelter. Inside we found - of course - some shot glasses! Often at water fountains, shelters, or campsites Armenians often leave behind things to make use of - string, fire lighters, cups. Here, they obviously felt shot glasses were the appropriate thing to leave! 😂

We eventually came to some horses - there were 5 of them. 2 females, 2 foals, and 1 male. The male stayed close to the track, eyeing us as we approached. We think he was standing guard to ensure we didn’t do anything silly towards them! The females with their foals were really cute! The foals were swishy and proud. It was lovely to see such healthy animals. Oftentimes, the animals which are “owned” by humans here look in need of a bit of TLC. These wild horses in comparison were gorgeous!!

After a TIME the track levelled out a bit and the uphill was less steep. This is also when we left the big views for farmland with scattered patches of oak forest. From there it was undulating terrain, but nowhere near as steep as the first 8-9km. Thank gods 😮‍💨 It was along one of the farm 4WD tracks that a jeep came along with a dog running behind. We actually got the bear spray ready - we’re not risking being bitten by a dog! Just a reminder, as it does seem extreme to be ready with bear spray - the dogs here are NOT friendly 99% of the time (if they’re owned by humans). They’re extremely aggressive. We weren’t taking our chances with an unleashed dog 😬 This particular dog turned out to be a beautiful and well-cared for collie who didn’t care about us at all. This was a big surprise to us! We’d expected a giant dog that would bark and snarl at us, and we expected for it to have to be called off by the people in the jeep so it didn’t attack. So that was nice. Great to have a neutral encounter with a dog every now and then 😂🙏

Soon after that we heard this engine revving sound. It sounded like a truck having a very bad time. We presumed it was probably trying to get up the very muddy and steep 4WD track beside us that went down into the forested valley. This track had grooves in it that were about a metre deep! Can’t imagine what it was like further down 🫪 The truck sounded awful! Loud and struggling and revving. We also presumed it was one of those old Soviet trucks we see so often here! And whattaya know - all of our presumptions were spot on! We actually waited for it to come into view, such was our curiosity! It was reeeeeeeeeally struggling in the mud 🫣 but at the speed of a very fast snail, and with the sound of a small volcanic eruption, it finally got to the top 🫡

After yet another climb, during which an icy wind picked up and clouds came over 🥶, we finally rounded a corner and the farmer’s camp that marked our finish for the day finally came into view. THANK. HEAVENS. 🙏 At this point, there was thunder happening and the weather seemed to be packing in significantly. There was a building at this farmer’s camp that had been marked as a public shelter on the map - but upon entering the very warm, not muddy, homely room, it became clear that this was a private shelter for farmers - not for the public or tourists like us. So we put our sad tails between our legs and headed back out into the wind and cold - such a dramatic temperature change from how our day had begun!

We had a pretty challenging time just trying to find a flat, rockless, shitless, at least semi-sheltered, and snake-free place to pitch our tent (we saw a couple of little snakes 🐍 whilst looking!). Eventually we found a spot that ticked all the boxes - it was off the “main” track, too (although it was on a ledge that rolled steeply down into the valley below)! Finding this spot turned out to be a blessing, as later that night a car quite literally ZOOMED over the original spot we’d almost pitched our tent on! 🫣 Our assumption that nobody would be mental enough to drive around here at night was clearly wrong 😂 Someone up above was looking out for us 🙏

After we’d pitched our tent, the sun actually came out for its final hoorah, and this made all the difference in the world to the temperature - it made it so it was enjoyable to sit outside on the grass! ☀️ Then it was time to organise dinner. After such a big day, we decided to use 2 of our still-existing dehydrated meals. Armenia doesn’t sell these, and we never figured out how to organise a food drop to pick up during our hike, so we’ve had to be quite strategic in how we’ve used them. Our strategy has looked like saving them for the harder days, either when we really haven’t felt like doing much else after a day of hiking, or when the weather is just crap and we need an easy meal. Today fell into the “I cbf doing dishes and just want to rest” category! I actually ate my all-time favourite “roast lamb & mashed potato” meal that I’ve been saving up for the right moment! It was sooooooo goooooood! 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤 The thought of it definitely got me through that last climb!!!

One thing we noticed today is there were barely any places where we could fill up on water. A lot of the water fountains up here aren’t yet turned on, and the little streams just felt a bit too dodgy - even with our UV cleaner thing. So that might suggest we need to be careful with water throughout this traverse! It’s about 9km to the first water fountain tomorrow, so hopefully it’s running! (We did manage to collect water today at a running fountain, and we’ve carried a LOT up with us since then! So we’re fine for now).

According to the weather info we looked at back in Sanahin, we’re in for a pretty good bout of sunny days! So that’s cool 😎 There’s no reception here to check for changes, however, so we’ll see what we wake up to!

Day 1 of this mountain hike done! 4 to go!

🫡🩵🙏Read more