2 - 14 July
Armenia is HOT!!! And not just because more Western tourists have discovered Armenia, no, this is still at a very moderate level, I mean the temperature. We cross the border at 42∘C. Fortunately, we have made a reservation for a Bed and Breakfast with Airco, so we can cool down after we have climbed the first 12 km in Armenia to Meghri. Especially the last kilometer in the village is extremely steep, so we are glad to arrive in a shady garden. After inspection of the room we conclude however that airconditioning is not one of the features of the accommodation. We have to try to survive with a fan that does its best to circulate the hot air, like in a turbo-oven. The owners are very warm hearted people and they cook a fabulous meal for us. Our Bradt Guide of Armenia had already promised us lots of vegetables and fruits and indeed we get a vegetable rich meal. Armenia is famous for its fruits and vegetables and since they do not export it, they pick the fruits ripe. We will therefore taste many many times delicious cherries and apricots. Apricot trees, by the way, are originally from Armenia. Their Latin name is:
Prunus armeniaca.
The next day we have choice to cycle two routes to get access to the northern part of Armenia, both passing a high mountain pass. We choose the western route via the Meghri Pass since we know there is plenty of water whereas the eastern variant is known for its drought. With these temperatures and 1800 m of climbing the most water rich route is safest. Unfortunately, this is also the road that Iranian truck drivers take to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, but actually there are not a lot of them. A few hundred meters under the pass we find a good place to camp along a small river. After a while a couple of men come to have a barbecue party on the same spot (doesn't this sound familiar...?). We are a bit nervous because we are now in vodka country and I am not really fond of camping between a couple of drunk, fat-bellied, loud, ugly men. But I tell myself that most people are actually friendly and don't have bad intentions. And as always it turns out to be that way. We are invited to eat and drink along with the jolly men. Especially difficult for Martin who will never earn respect from the Armenians based on his vodka drinking speed. The content of his glass disappears quite quickly into the river, whereas I sip as slow as possible from my glass to avoid multiple refills. The barbecuing strategy is much the same as in Iran. Only the meat type is different: no more chicken and lamb, but mainly fat pork meat. But still the beautiful tomatoes, bell peppers and egg plants, that are grilled and then mixed together and supplemented with greens to make a tasty salad.
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| Picnic with jolly Armenian young men. The bottle in the hand of the guy at the left is not filled with water... |
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| Meghri Pass (2535 m) |
Poor road conditions
The next day we discover what it means to cycle in a poor country. The surface of the road is extremely bad and is held together by multiple and overlapping repairs. The worst roads in the Belgian Ardennes are shining examples of smoothness compared to the Armenian roads. In the coming days we will learn that any deviation from a main road may very likely lead us to an unpaved road whereas being on the main road is not a guarantee at all for smooth asphalt. We get to ride roads that were once (in the good old Soviet times?) tarmac roads, but have since then not received any maintenance, resulting in unpaved roads with traces of asphalt. It is always a puzzle and quite hopeless to connect as much of these small pieces of asphalt together. Also the color of the road on the map is not indicative for the condition of the road at all. It is always a surprise. We also notice that the lids of the pits are often missing and we observe a repair in action. Bad parts of the road are cut out of the asphalt and then... left alone. For how long, nobody knows. We will have to be very cautious during descents not to disappear in one of the pits or holes.
Our next town in Armenia is Kapan. Quite small compared to the 'small' cities in Iran, but as turns out later, actually among the bigger ones in Armenia. It has a couple of relatively good supermarkets (with peanut butter!), a range of hotels and importantly a shop where I can buy an Armenian SIM card. It is also a typical Sovjet style town with lots of ugly flats. It looks quite strange in the beautiful mountain landscape with forests and gorges. We have a complicated discussion with the hotel personnel that try to give us a hotel room that doesn't have the features that were mentioned on Booking.com. Complicated, because the personnel is not really willing to help and no-one speaks English, whereas speaking Russian and Armenian are not among our skills. Finally, with the help of someone on the phone who does speak English, we find agreement and we enjoy a night at acceptable temperatures thanks to the airco.
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| Good road to Kapan. View on one of the villages in the valley. Note the big Sovjet style flats. |
The next day we take one of these side roads and it doesn't take long until we are heavily mountain biking. We have a wonderful camp site along a river. It is a picnic site with a river, a sweet water source and a large piece of flat grass and lots of shadow. We arrive early at Tatev Monastery and have plenty of time to visit the Monastery and its oil press building, which is quite im
pressing.
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| Martin approves of young soldiers exercising in the very early morning |
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| Side road to Tatev Monastery |
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| The side road to Tatev has luxurious camping spots |
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| Cycling to Tatev Monastery is a challenge |
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| Long time no see. These guys are omni present in Armenia. Both walking around and in pieces above a barbecue fire |
Tatev Monastery
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| Tatev Monastery in evening light |
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| The Tatev oil press |
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| Tatev Monastery is on the edge of a gorge. At the bottom of the gorge is the Devil's Bridge, which is a big rock fallen down a long time ago and bridging the gorge. At first I didn't recognize it until I realized that I was walking from one side of the gorge to the other without visibly crossing the river. So, I was actually standing on the Devil's Bridge without realizing it. In the gorge is a source of warm water. |
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| In the gorge we met Khubi III. A small black dog that decided to participate in our pack, at least in the walking part and in the part when we were climbing out of the gorge. When, at the top of the gorge, we started our descent, Khubi III was resting in the shadow, he openend one eye and saw which direction we were going. He was smart enough not to follow us any longer. |
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| The gorge can be crossed by a gondola from a village (Halidzor) to Tatev, called the Wings of Tatev. It is a 5.7 km cableway and the longest reversible aerial tramway built in only one section. It holds the record for longest non-stop double track cable car. |
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| Getting out of the gorge |
Armenian high tension line towers and vegetables
While cycling to Goris we discover another typical Armenian feature: An unreasonable amount of high tension line towers. Many of them are happily rusting away and we wonder whether they are still in use. Martin thinks that maybe since the boarder conflicts with Azerbeijan (Nagorno Karabagh) they are not in use any more. Anyway, I find them ugly and it is difficult to make beautiful pictures with these guys everywhere. In Goris we visit the Tourist Office which is run by volunteers. The man who helps us organizes a home stay and when I ask him to explain a little bit more on a touristic site in the neighborhood his English speaking skills are not adequate and his answer is that we have to look at the website. There is also a festival ongoing but there are no flyers, not even in Armenian. From others we hear that it is an art festival for Armenia and neighboring former Sovjet countries. In the evening our host cooks dolma and other local specialties. I count 8 different vegetables. The diner is accompanied by vodka and Armenian brandy, the latter tastes quite fine. In this region the vodka is made from mulberries. Those poor delicious mulberries, too bad that they end up as a bottle of vodka.
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| When a diner is prepared in a homestay we always ask for vegetables... |
From Goris we make a short tour to a neigboring village behind which an interesting phenomenon is hidden. In between the meadows and fields is a gorge of soft stone in which people long ago have hewn their houses and built two small churches. The last time the rock houses were used was during the shootings between Azerbeijan and Armenia as hide-aways. Nowadays cows find shelter in the stone houses on hot days.
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| On our way to the cave village near Khndzoresk we came along this monument where children were preparing a performance for singing and dancing |
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| One of the small churches in the gorge with cave houses |
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| Cows nowadays use the caves to find shelter or to reach extra juicy leaves |
The following days we cycle to our next stop camping Crossway. Unfortunately, we have to follow the Iran to Yerevan road again. We try to use smaller roads more or less parallel to the main road and leading through smaller villages. However, this often results in heavy MTB exercises. Mostly very beautiful, but also very slow.
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| We pass Karahunj (Zorats Karer) on one of our detours from the main road. It is a Stonehenge like site with big monolytes that each have a hole. Their meaning is still unclear. The most accepted explanation is that they formed an ancient astronomical observatory dating from sometime prior to 2000 BC. The stones are basalt and the largest, 3 m tall, weighs 10 tonnes. The ones we visited were not the original ones, but a modern representation by an Armenian artist. |
The day we leave Goris is a special day: it is National Water Throw Day. Fortunately, the weather is very warm. In the villages children are throwing water at cars and at, yes of course, much more fun, cyclists. We are perfect targets. In the evening we have the pleasure again of camping in a very beautiful natural environment. And again, because it is Sunday, hordes of barbecuing Armenians all along the river. Next to us a pack of fat-bellied, ugly young men (soldiers). One of them comes to us to find out who we are and to ask us if we are hungry (we are not, we already had diner). Again with the help of a friend on the phone we have a conversation in some sort of English. He has a lot of fun when we accept his offer to bring us the remainders of their barbecue, which really more looks like a lot of garbage. He also wants to try my super comfi light weight camping chair, which I allow him, hoping that his weight and his lack of co-ordination due to excessive use of vodka do not abruptly end the life of my chair. The chair survives, the soldier has some problems getting out. When the men drive away, we try whether the remainders of the barbecue can float and indeed the river happily transports them away. And then it is quite and beautiful. Time for a cup of tea in my super comfi camping chair.
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| Beautiful detours away from the main road to Yerevan |
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| with lots of flowers |
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| I don't know what this is, but it looks funny |
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| Martin arriving on Vorotan Pass (2344 m) |
Noravank Monastery
Camping Crossway is a small oasis in the middle of hot Armenia. We still manage to stay active and make a beautiful bike ride through a gorge to the Noravank monastery. We do this in the very early morning and are back on the camp site at 10 am where we basically do nothing apart from some swimming.
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| The access to Norovank monastery is through a steep gorge |
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| Steep and narrow stairs to the second floor of the church |
Two day tour
We also make a two day tour into the mountains, leaving our luggage on the camp site, and we stay in a quite luxurious hotel, also with a pool and then return to the campsite. The landscape is beautiful, gorges, meadows, flowers, the ruins of an old church and a perfectly shaped volcano that gives this region of Armenia its name: Vayot's Dzor. And of course, steep mountain roads.
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| Vayot's Dzor, the highest volcano of this area. It also has a crater lake, which we didn't visit |
Since there are only a few official campings in Armenia western European tourists gather here: two cyclists on their way to Iran, a French couple trying to make a world tour on a tandem recumbent (this is a bike in which you lazily lay down instead of sitting on it), hitch-hikers and a family with 4 children. Almost everyone is de-energized by the heat and stays in the shadow or the pool. Information is exchanged, especially between the cyclists. The recumbent cyclists have a lot of technical issues and physical issues as well since it is really difficult to ride steep roads on a recumbent. We are wondering how they would cross the pass to Iran.
We study the map to plan our own tour in a bit more detail and come to the conclusion that it will be difficult to cover all of Armenia without riding some roads back and forth. We also come to the conclusion that Camping Crossway has the highest temperatures of all Armenia, so it is time to climb a mountain pass and cross to Lake Sevan, which is situated at 1900 m elevation. Weather forecasts promise us that it is much cooler there.
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| The most naked version of our tent to let as much cool air and wind in during the night |
