Armenia, Georgia, Armenia, Georgia

1- 8 Aug

After our epic bike ride in Armenia, we head further north towards the Georgian boarder. Fortunately, the ride to Georgia is through a gorge that goes down from 1500 m to 500 m over 100 km, so the coming days will be easy. We enjoy the descend from Vanadzor to Alaverdi through the Debed gorge. The route is scenic, the road until Tumanyan brand-new and the weather beautiful.

In Aliverdi we stay two days in a bed and breakfast with swimming pool, that we share with drowning wasps. On our day in Aliverdi we visit Haghpat Monastery. There are actually several monasteries in the Debed Gorge, but we decide to visit the less known one, because it is situated more beautifully, whereas for the Sanahin Monastery (which is also Unesco Heritage) you need to cross the ugly part of Aliverdi, mainly consisting of huge crumbling Sovjet buildings. Actually, also our B&B is hidden behind a Sovjet building, but as happens so often in Armenia, you open a gate in an ugly urban neighborhood and a small beautiful garden or hotel is revealed.

Bell tower of Haghrat Monastery.

The Debed Gorge is not only home to monasteries but also to industrial buildings that are left alone and crumbling down and to a copper mine and industry. The white cloud coming from a pipe is visible from everywhere. Also visible is a cable car, that starts at the bottom of the gorge and goes to the ugly part of Aliverdi. Also this doesn't work anymore. The cable car cabins are still hanging there.

Abandoned industrial building. The white pipe is found everywhere in Armenia along roads. These are gas pipelines that bring gas into all the houses.

After our visit to Haghpat Monastery we cycle to the Georgian border and cross it without any problems. We have heard stories about the extremely poor state of the Georgian roads, but the road that we follow (it goes to Tbilisi) is actually good. Only when we turn to the west and head for Bolnisi, the road gets worse and worse. Bolnisi once was a German colony founded in 1818 and at that time was called Katharinenfeld. You can still see the German influence by the style of the houses and there is also a 'Deutsche Muehle', restored by a German guy who has started a hotel there (beyond our budget). We stay in another big German house with lots of dark wood and enjoy a good Georgian meal with a very good brandy as desert.

Surprise in Georgia. We visit the site of Didi Dmanisi which comprises the remains of a medieval fortified town, but more importantly is also a prehistoric site where a skull of a Homo erectus (1.7 M years old) (and a lot of other items) were found. This was quite a shock to the prehistoric specialists who initially couldn't believe that Homo erectus moved to Asia that early.

The road through Georgia is muddy (actually this is only the result of a truck that deliberately wettened the street to avoid dust formation close to a quarry)

So, bikes need to be cleaned in the river

Which is rewarded afterwards.

The next day we head back towards Armenia. The complete north-western part of Armenia we have not visited yet and the only way to do that without riding the same road up and down was to loop through Georgia, go back south and then loop through Armenia and back north to Georgia.
Indeed, the road to the Armenian boarder becomes worse and worse and since there was a superheavy thunderstorm the evening before, we require our swimming skills to pass the numerous potholes on the road.

We closely observe trucks to estimate how deep the potholes are

Soil has been transported to the potholes to fill them up. Unfortunately the budget fails for actually doing that...

Back in Armenia (where the road at a sudden transforms into a huge flat, perfect piece of asphalt) we have a really lovely homestay in the Geologists House. Actually, it was not the owner's plan to rent the room, but for some reason they didn't refuse us when we called them. The family was staying for the weekend and a huge grill party organized. Many of the family speak English and we really have a fun evening. This family also produces lots of fruits in their own garden, which finally resulted in very good wodka, made from pears and another one from apricots. Lots of toasts were celebrated, the one that always returns is the 'parent toast' (for the health of our parents). But their was also one for the young guys at the table who had just fulfilled their military service in Nagorno Karabagh.

Diner in Geologist's house. Armin, at the right, is a very energetic, cheerful man who has turned the house of his father in law (the geologist, who passed away 3 years ago) into a guesthouse. He has built many of the furniture himself, he explores new mountain bike routes and hosts travelers (and much more).

The next day a mountain pass is on the program (Pushkin Pass, 2031 m) and we really enjoy it because all the cars go through a 2 km long tunnel, whereas we have the road to the pass for ourselves.

On Pushkin pass 4 or 5 wind mills are built. They are built by an Iranian Company and are a gift from Iran to Armenia. Strangely, we have hardly seen any wind mills in Iran.

From there it goes down and westward into a region of Armenia that has been completely destroyed during the last big earthquake (1988). 25'000 deaths, 20'000 injured and 500'000 people homeless. The earthquake was followed by the break-up of the Sovjet Union (1989) and war with Azerbaijan. With the help of IMF the region was rebuilt and the economy repaired until during the global financial crisis the economy declined again. Anyway, what we see is quite a lot of relatively good looking houses, as complete new villages were built after 1988.

Lunch near Armenian church

Grasslands on a high plateau in western Armenia. It gets more difficult to find good camping spots.

Wanted: Car wreck to complete my fence. 

Also visible piles of dried shit balls that are used to fertilize the soil.

Beautiful sunset while camping in the grass lands

The landscape in this part of Armenia is quite boring as it is a huge plateau between 1500 and 2000 m. It has some big lakes that attract a lot of birds, but for the rest it is grass land with only one or two trees here and there and some hill tops at the horizon. To emphasize the boring landscape we have some pretty grey weather too.

This continues quite a while, also in Georgia, where we again pick up our new hobby, pothole diving.

We have now definitely entered the last stage of our journey. Armenia and Iran are behind us, only Georgia and the Upper Kaukasus are left to explore.

Epic bike ride in Armenia

29-30 July

After our relaxing stay in Sandra’s oasis in Goght we have to head back north to Hrazdan.

Unfortunately, we cannot find any attractive alternatives on the map for the route that we already did to get to Goght, so we should bike the whole route in opposite direction. Alternatively, we can get a train from Yerevan to Hrazdan, but the signs aren’t good. Although I find some information on internet, Sandra isn’t capable of confirming the existence of this train, let alone the schedule. We still want to give it a try and book a hotel in Yerevan close to the train station. We go to the station the night before and find a schedule indicating that the train should leave at 8 am, exactly what we expected based on the internet data. However, when we arrive the next day a man seems to warn us that no train is coming (he is shaking his head, which is universal language). The station looks quite shabby and not used for quite a while, so we assume that the train starts from another station in Yerevan (which was the actual information from internet, however, a station with that name we couldn’t find on all maps that we checked). We have no other choice but to ride the whole thing to Hrazdan back, but while doing that we pass by the second station on the line and ask there for information. Surprisingly, there is someone around and he also speaks a word or two of English and he explains that the train only rides from Friday to Sunday. OK, well since it is Monday today, we now know for sure that we will have to bike. And so we do. It is extremely warm that day (38-39°C) but we make good progress. When we arrive in Hrazdan we leave the main road and ride into a valley to find a place to camp and to get closer to the ride of tomorrow. We head for a sporting accommodation that we have found on Google Earth and which should have a swimming pool and enough space to pitch a tent. When we arrive, we are really tired and worn out by the heat and the guardian is happy to let us in. However, to be sure that it is OK he calls the manager and then I know, this is not gonna work. Indeed, the manager does not agree, most likely we do not fit into the concept of his/her enterprise, even though we are rather sportive, but not so spotless as his/her facility. So, we cycle back along the same road to find a wild camping spot. There are actually plenty, along the road a lot of spacious picnic terrains are available, although none of them have a swimming pool. There is one terrain empty and we will soon find out why. We are welcomed by a family and with the aid of Google Translate we ask whether we can pitch our tent, which they confirm. The boy then says: ‘Money’. Well of course we will pay some money, but we soon find out that the lady expects us to pay 20’000 Dram (almost 40 Euro), which in Armenia is the price of a (very) good hotel (with swimming pool), whereas her terrain only has ground, no water, no WC, no shower. The lady clearly wants to take advantage of the situation, but we know that there are enough camping spots, so we leave them alone. 100 m down the road we ask at another picnic site and we are advised to look for a spot somewhat deeper in the side valley. No money asked at all. While we are putting up our tent a man and a lady arrive. What we understand from the conversation is that they have seen us riding back and forth and they guessed we are looking for a place to sleep. So, they ask us to stay with them. Fortunately, not all Armenians are so unwelcoming as the lady 100 m down the road. Since it is too much hassle to get to another place we thank the man and woman for their offer and stay where we are.

During our ride back to Hrazdan we come along a hotel that has never been finished. There are many unfinished projects in Armenia or used buildings that are abandoned and are crumbling down. 

Building on very high legs. It seems to belong to the dam of the lake that is hidden behind the trees. It is unclear to us what the super high legs are for.

The next day we have a bold plan. We want to go to Vanadzor and to avoid even more cycling back on the same road we came, we want to cross right through the mountains via the Margahovit Pass (2628 m), using a road that is painted white on the map. This is quite a risk, because we have hardly any information on the condition of the road, apart from one description on internet on a MTB Website that says that it is the best MTB trail in Armenia. We have also calculated that the average steepness is 8.5% and the altitude difference up and down is 900 m. We have quite some experience now with rough roads, but this one turns out to be our biggest challenge so far. It starts out relatively easy (but steep), but after a while the road becomes more and more rough. After a stony and rocky stretch, we cross grasslands, with grass so high that we even can’t see the base of our wheels anymore. The tracks of the car wheels get so deep that our pedals hit the ground bordering the tracks. There is no room for swinging out, we just have to follow the track precisely. There are huge rocks to conquer, a mountain stream to cross, mud pools and very steep curves with deep muddy jeep tracks, that would make the jeeps bend over 45°. In summary, there is a lot of pushing involved, sometimes so steep that we push one bike together. When we are eating lunch it also starts to rain and since we haven’t had rain for a long time Martin can’t remember anymore where his rain coat is. He finds it in the fifth bag, although he has only four. At that time the rain had already stopped 😂

After a lot of hard work, we finally arrive on the pass. We are welcomed by curious horses and surprised cows gathering around a small lake. We quickly proceed because the sky is turning quite dark. Again, a lot of stones and mud and to make the ride more heroic it indeed starts to rain. And hail. And thunderstorm. The road makes long traverses, one in the direction of the heart of the thunderstorm, the other away from the thunderstorm. It is a scary situation and although I should concentrate on the biking I do see the lightnings in front of me. We simply proceed, there is nowhere to hide. Fortunately, after an hour or so, it stops raining and we also enter a dense forest. Now our challenges are branches from trees hanging over and a sandy surface that is completely washed out. It has banked curves (this is fun) and sometimes, very tricky, patches of quicksand, that once make me make a quite sudden stop. We have to balance on curly, narrow ridges of hard sand and after a while we really get the hang of it. And of course we are constantly attacked by flies and other insects, but since we are still wearing our complete rain suits, we are this time not defenseless targets.

Finally, we arrive on the ‘normal’ road, which still doesn’t bring the relaxation we need, because it is a concatenation of small pieces of asphalt and huge potholes. But at 5 pm we then finally arrive in our brand new hotel in Vanadzor with swimming pool. It is twice as long as I am, but who complains?