Day 39: The end of the road

Last night was a cold one, not surprising given there were snow piles nearby our tent. Because of this we both slept lightly and woke around 4:30 when the birds started chattering. Soon after that, Ben decided it was time to get up to watch sunrise and disappeared out into the predawn. It was about an hour before he returned, and when he did his hands were like ice. Turns out he had climbed the nearby mountain (about another 250m higher) and had given his parents a ring, as it was far too cloudy for a good sunrise.

I, on the other hand, stayed snuggled in my sleeping bag and did a bit of writing whilst waiting for Ben’s return. When he returned we promptly fell back to sleep for a couple more hours, until the morning sun had slooooowly warmed and brightened around us.

We then got up and set about packing down the tent for the last time in Armenia. As we were doing this we could hear a car driving up and down the slopes nearby - looking down it seemed to be a white Lada. Every now and then the driver would get out and forage for what we assumed to be mushrooms.

Then, the car came and pulled up nearby us. The man got out and walked over carrying a bucket of mushrooms - huge ones. He smiled and greeted us in Armenian, then proceeded to gesture to his shrooms and to us. We got the gist, and hurriedly using Google translate said that we had enough food, but thank you. However, in typical Armenian fashion, his hospitality would not be denied. He wandered over to what was our rubbish bag 😅 Shaking his head, he gestured for Ben to find a suitable bag. So with an inward sigh and and an outward smile (we unfortunately hate mushrooms), Ben produced a large ziplock bag into which the man put a HUGE pile of his massive shrooms before bidding us farewell and driving away to continue his morning foraging mission. Ben and I turned to each other, laughing at the slightly absurd encounter. Neither of us enjoy mushrooms and we now had a massive pile of them to carry down with us 😅

As we readied up and began our last hike day, we felt excited, but also a bit preemptively sad. What do you mean we won’t be setting up our tent this evening and boiling water for noodles? What do you mean we won’t be climbing up to high ridges and seeing epic views like this after today? We’d become quite attached to our tent and hiking ways of life!

Our track to Sevanavanq started with us following along the slope of the mountain heading east (technically towards the lake, but it remained hidden behind mountains). After a short while we came to a very tall and very wide patch of snow that was completely blocking our path forward. It stretched both to the left and right about a hundred meters - the side of it across from us ended in a fairly steep 3m drop onto the edge of our track below. The English guy had warned us about this yesterday, and we could now see how this would pose a significant obstacle for someone coming up from Sevan.

For us, though, gravity would do all the work in helping us to get down - stopping and not continuing down the grassy slope below would be our only challenge! Excitedly, Ben sat down and shuffled to the edge using his poles like probing sticks to ensure the ice was hard, then WOOSH! He slid down and reached the dirt track with a big slap (the sound was comical!) and then continued sliding over the grass (leaving a big muddy wake behind him) before eventually coming to a stop, standing, and giggling.

My turn! I decided to send my bag down first which Ben caught and moved to the side. Then... WOOSH! I slid down and over the track at speed - I would’ve continued down the grass a lot further had Ben not been there to stop me 😅 What fun! I did hurt my shoulder a little, as my poles hit the ground upon arrival which jerked my arm back, but other than that our backsides were now just covered in mud and grit 🤣

We then turned our focus back to the track, which was about to start inclining up and up and UP to over 2400m (we hadn’t been this high since our original alpine day!). Maybe it was that it was our last day, maybe it was the double helping of porridge we’d had for breakfast, or maybe it was that we had a partial icy tailwind blowing us up the mountain, but we quite literally flew up that path! We’d done over 3/4 of the climb in less than 15mins. It felt so good! Even when we crested the steepest part, only to find another behind it (instead of a view of the epic lake we’d had in mind) it didn't dampen out spirits or slow our stride, we just kept boosting it up and up and UP! 🏃🏻🏃🏽‍♀️

Then, finally, we caught sight of Sevan Lake. How can a lake so massive remain so hidden from sight? Is what I’d been wondering the entire time. Though the weather was cloudy and visibility wasn’t great, we could see how massive it truly is - much bigger than Lake Taupō! Armenians call it an inland sea, and we could now see why - even from our vantage point, 500+m above the surface of the lake, we couldn't see the end of it it stretched on for so long! Mountain ranges disappeared into the distance on either side, and down below to our south we could make out Sevan town, as well as a peninsula jutting into the lake - on this peninsula stood Sevanavanq, the Sevan Monestary, which marked the end of our epic hike.

We now had a decision to make: From this point, the TCT track turned south along the ridge and then steeply dropped into the town of Sevan. Sevan town is a fair few km from the peninsula (the TCT doesn’t actually go to Sevanavanq, we’d marked the monastery as our own personal end point). If we followed the TCT we would have an easy track but we would have a few extra miles of walking through town and along the motorway to the peninsula. Alternatively, we could take the more rugged but more direct “make it up as you go” route down to the peninsula.

We decided to finish with a bang, and opted to stay up in the highlands away from the motorway. As Hayk had inspiringly said to us back in Gomk, “In Armenia, if you can see it in a straight line, you can go there!” (In other words, no land is out of bounds). So we eyed up the route we thought would be best and stepped off the track.

As we hiked along the ridge, the sky overhead started clearing. Yay!!! The weather forecast for the last month had been a bit hit and miss, but we had been hoping today's would be spot on - we’d been promised a beautiful day with little showers in the afternoon. So far it had been totally wrong, but we’d settle for a better late than never blue sky!

We took this sunny opportunity to sit down and have a snack while it was warmer. Ben and I each took out something we had been saving (for today) since day 1. For me this was a Twix bar in almost perfect condition, and for Ben this was a tiny and now very squashed and melted biscoff chocolate. We sat and happily chowed down our chocolate, and chatted about some of our highlights from the hike (day 2 with the epic canyon, Noravanq, Gnishik, Gomk, meeting the trail workers, basalt arches and cliffs, the cave church, Horadis monastery, the totally different landscape, rocks, and insects, Tatev, Shya, the forest around Old Bardzravan, the route to Old Khot, Old Khot itself, the Debed Canyon and the monasteries along the way, more forest, the people we’ve met, the bonfire at DiliVita guesthouse, both Anahit Guesthouses, Armenian food, buffet breakfasts, the tea, the spa day, camping with epic views, the intense localised thunderstorms, and most of all, doing all of this together and enjoying it thoroughly! It’s all been SO incredible! This hike had been such an incredible experience, and although it wasn’t quite over yet, we were already feeling nostalgic.

After that, we heaved our packs back on and continued picking our way amongst the boulders, around the hills, and down the steep slopes, only to then go around and up another hill! Eventually, and surprisingly, we came to a signpost. It declared that the peninsula was 3km away - down a valley, through some trees, and across that motorway we’d largely avoided. Wooohoooo! We’d almost made it!

But first - a final summit! The signpost also pointed to the neighbouring hill and called it “Armenian dream peak”. That was good enough for us! We dropped our packs and made for the high point. When we got there, because the sun was now coming out more and more, the views of the lake were awesome. We even found a stone chair to sit on that looked out over the water. Not yet ready for the day to finish, we stayed there for quite some time, watching the shadows of the clouds move over the lake.

Sevanavanq was waiting for us, however, so we eventually moved off the summit and back to our packs. Once more, we started down the path. The path here was a muddy jeep track, so progress slowed a bit. After a time we saw two people on the hill to our left who also appeared to be shrooming. This gave us an idea - we could repay some of the Armenian hospitality AND dispose of our mushrooms in one go! So we again dropped our bags, took out the bag of mushrooms, prepared a Google translate message, and began making our way up the hill. Just then the eco-police drove past. Though we were sure mushroom picking was fine and legal, there’s just something about seeing the police that makes you think you are doing something wrong - what if it actually wasn’t allowed and we got busted with these mountain shrooms?! 🤪 It almost looked to us as though the people we’d seen were hiding from the car, too...

Assuring ourselves it was fine we continued up to the man, greeted him, showed him our message, and held out the bag. He read it, looked at the bag, did the thumbs up, and then clearly gestured that we should keep them. This was not going to plan... I typed up another message on Google translate, saying “we don’t like mushrooms”. He read this, paused, and then looked at us pityingly, as if to say “really?!” 😅😅😅 After that, he took the bag, shook our hands, and insisted to come and have coffee 🤣 I could hear Ben internally groaning 🤣🤣

We followed the man back towards an old soviet van parked nearby. As he went he pointed at other mushrooms on the ground, saying “Zunk!”. We think this meant “junk” in Armenian. This seemed to make sense as some of the shrooms he pointed at were growing out of a cow pat!

Reaching the van he pointed at a sticker logo on the door that read “Sevan National Park”. He then pointed to himself and said “Director” 🫪 Whaaaaat!!!! No way had we just bumped into the director of the whole national park! Whilst he was out picking mushrooms! And what's more, we thought he was hiding from the eco police when he is actually the big boss of the eco police (at least in this area)... 🤣🤣🤣 What a moment!! 🤪

Inside the van, a woman (obviously this man's wife) was there. They exchanged a few words before she invited us in and got out coffee cups and some cake. We all had a great conversation without being able to say much. At one point the man called someone who was able to speak English and could act as a bit of a translator. We explained about our thru-hike, talked about how wonderful the national parks are here, and thanked them for their work. While we were in the van it started pouring down with rain. Uh-oh! We hoped our bags were okay - we’d left them out in the open.

After some time the rain eased and we bade the couple farewell. As a parting gift, they handed us some apples and waved us off. Once again - and probably for the last time this hike - packs went back on. Now for the big finale! We hiked down the road, passed through a small tunnel under a railway, and came to the side of the motorway with cars flying either direction. When there was a clear patch we scurried over the lanes and climbed over the barrier. Then we waited to do the same over the other side. Then we started walking to the entrance of the peninsula.

Just as we turned down onto the peninsula, a cyclist stopped nearby. He was clearly a tourist doing a long-haul cycle trip, as his bike was loaded up with plenty of bags. We chatted with him for a time, sharing experiences and plans! He was from France and was cycling across lots of countries. Starting in Greece he’d been through Turkey, Georgia, and now Armenia. He was new to Armenia and didn't yet have a full plan, so we listed out some places for him to visit that had good roads (by Armenian standards). This dude was also headed to the Sevan monastery, so we’d probably see him there.

The path to Sevanavanq was long and straight - we could see it perched on top of a big hill at the end of the road. We could also make out a line of kiosks and stalls zigzagging up the staircase - this was to be our final climb. All around there were other tourists - very differently dressed and all very clean, and as per usual, we seemed to draw stares, giggles, and second glances as we walked by 🤪

The steep staircase up to the monastery was surprisingly easy, even with our packs! I guess we really have got fit over the last 5-6 weeks of hiking!!! 🤪 Finally, we reached the top - and there was Sevanavanq. We’d made it! We couldn’t quite believe it… it didn’t feel real 😅 It was over, we’d finished, the end had arrived! Wow! What the helly?! What now?!

We snapped a few pics, took in the view, and then headed for the beach. As with most of Armenia, there seems to be a heap of abandoned, crumbling, and rotting old buildings with new ones built right beside them here on the peninsula. It’s baffling! Perhaps it’s a “it’s cheaper to build new than to demolish and rebuild” issue? Armenia has huge potential to be an extremely beautiful country all over, but the rotting buildings left to fall over and the amount of rubbish strewn about here, really detract from it!

We had a bit of trouble finding an actual beach, as most of the lakeside is either a construction site or a bunch of jetties. We finally came to a nice stretch of beach, and Ben promptly went for his “I’ve finished the hike” swim! He found the lake to be really shallow, however, so he didn’t quite get the mermaid dive moment he was after 🤣 It was, however, most importantly - a refreshing and well-earned dip! 👏👏👏

We then headed over to our accommodation, unpacked, had showers, set a load of washing going, and headed back into town for an early, delicious Armenian dinner. We had a chicken kebab, a beef kebab, a basket of bread, roasted pork with roast potatoes, and a tomato-based chicken dish, all complimented by hot chocolate and seabuckthorn juice! Afterwards we mooched about the stalls for a while and ended up getting an ice cream for dessert - yum! We walked back to our room under the evening sun, licking our ice creams contentedly. Later, Ben went back out for a run (is anyone surprised?! 🤣).

So… what now? Tomorrow we are heading into Sevan town to check out the tea house and various sights there, before catching the train back to Yerevan. During our time in Yerevan (two nights) we are going to see Shya and attempt to clean all of our gear so it’s all ready to head back into the UK. We then plan to find somewhere else to visit for our final couple of days, until our flight to Manchester where we’re going to see my family for the weekend 🥰 and then to London to meet up with Jon, Wendy, and Richard!! 🤩 Good times ahead!

And that brings us to the end of this findpenguins trip! Ben and I are thinking we’ll continue writing in findpenguins throughout our time overseas, but not nearly as consistently 🤣 Writing every day across the span of our hike has been enjoyable, and it’s also been a massive undertaking. It’ll be awesome to read back on in the future, and it’s probably been cool for you all to read about our Armenian adventures as they’ve happened, but yeah… we’ll be chilling out on the writing front a lot from now on 🤣

Churrrrrr!

Thank you to all who have followed along and for all of your support! I’m sure you’ve all carried an amount of stress as we’ve navigated the more hairy aspects of hiking in Armenia 🤣 (most notably the dogs…) so…thanks for sticking with us through the mountains and valleys that have come with this thru-hike. We appreciate you! 🙏🩵

Next stop, Yerevan - we’ll be going straight to see our gorgeous Shya boy 👏🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏻🐕🫡🤗🤩🎯🤪🙏🥳Read more