Lost World. Diary of a tourist

A story about a hike in Crimea during the May holidays 2012. Route "The Lost World"
Days in a big city drag on very long and tediously. You look forward to the weekend, especially if you have already planned something interesting and exciting. A little time has passed since we parted with the group. As soon as I sorted out my photo collection a little, I decided to write a small and modest report about how we conquered Crimea. Don’t judge me harshly, because my profession is not at all connected with literary creativity.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Kirill Yasko as the organizer of this wonderful company and, of course, to our guide and just a cheerful guy, Sergei Ryazanov. And also to our cheerful and restless group.

Where it all started...

This idea was born long before the start of the campaign, about three months. Before Crimea, my better half and I conquered the Carpathians. True, this happened in the “mattress” version. On one-day excursions, having carefully studied our route, we went on our own. So, by the beginning of spring, we were already pretty tired of the big city and Tanya, my beloved half and endless generator of ideas, decided to diversify our vacation. She doesn’t even remember how she found this wonderful and truthful site, and began bombarding me with her ideas about going on a weekend trip in May. There were many options, but we decided to go with the Lost World route. Having booked both ways, all we had to do was wait. Time dragged on for a long time, we brought this moment closer as best we could....

The meeting place and time cannot be changed...

After 14 hours of travel on the train, we are finally in Simferopol. We easily found the place where we met with the group. After quickly getting to know our guide and the members of our group, we were handed part of our cargo in the form of several cans of stew, cookies and sweets. Next we had to go to the minibus stop. Without much difficulty, apparently the communication experience of our guide on the one hand and the love of the driver of four-wheeled vehicles on the other hand affected tourists, after 5 minutes we were already taking our seats on the bus. The path to the Laspinsky pass, from where we will begin our hike, flew by unnoticed. And here we are at the pass. We were given 10-15 minutes to check our equipment. Everyone is waiting for the command FORWARD.

The ice has broken or the first tests...

And so, our instructor gave the command and we walked forward in a friendly line towards adventure. We had no idea yet what difficulties awaited us ahead. Looking ahead, I will say that we need to gain a height of about 300 meters and several hours of grueling ascent. I’m almost sure that each of us who is little familiar with mountain tourism cursed in our souls the day when we agreed to join this adventure. But, having covered several kilometers of the road, the indescribable beauties of His Majesty Crimea opened up before us. Indescribable, because it is impossible to convey all the beauty through photography, no matter how pro you are in this matter. This was the first gift for us during this difficult climb.

We climbed Mount Kush-Kaya. After admiring the view from the mountain and taking several dozen photographs, we continued moving. This time we were reassured that there would be no more such long climbs along the entire route. Our next goal is Kokiya-Kaya, a mountain on which at one time there was a military base. We didn't have to walk long. Without having time to move away from his first impressions, Sergei uttered the magic word PRIVAL. We're at the old base. Everyone scattered across a small plateau.

Here we admired the clouds that were below us and the endless clear sea. At some point it seemed that the clouds could be touched with your hands. Personally, I have never seen them so close. We were like birds that soar above the clouds and look out for their prey. But having descended to the ground, we moved on. We measured our path not in meters or kilometers, but in time. We need to cover 30-40 minutes until the next stop, the last one of this day.

There was a healing spring of water waiting for us, I didn’t make a reservation... because compared to city water it is really healing. We should set up camp next to it, where we will spend the first of two nights. There was a job for everyone who prepares sandwiches, who collects wood for the fire, and who begins to pitch their tents, while helping their colleagues. Everyone was so tired that sandwiches seemed like royal food to us, and we didn’t even think that we would have enough of it. But as they say, appetite comes with eating.

The first day was inexorably drawing to a close. It was already dark, the fire was slowly crackling with coals, and we all took our places together, according to the purchased tickets, around the fire. And so, it's time to get acquainted. Each of us told everyone briefly where he came from and what he does in life, why he is here and what he expects from the hike. After the latter spoke about himself, Sergei announced that it was time for dinner. Probably not even an hour had passed since the destruction of the sandwiches and, so you have no doubt, the male half of our team naturally supported this initiative. The rest, who supposedly no longer wanted to eat, gradually joined the meal from the smell of porridge and stew.

Kirill has an iron rule: not a gram of alcohol on a hike, under any circumstances. And then what should tourists do in the evening around the fire... right? We begin to remember all kinds of games. And we were no exception. That evening we played (Show off) Guess the word. This is when opponents think of a word, and a player from the other team needs to show this word with gestures. They fooled around as best they could. It’s like schoolchildren who have run away from class and don’t know how to kill time. The dating evening was coming to an end, and we all began to go to our tents.

Day two or taste of the sea...

Under the cheerful singing of birds, which did not let some of our group members sleep, by 8 o’clock everyone had already woken up and slowly began to prepare breakfast. I am more than sure that many of us get by with sandwiches for breakfast in the morning, or even without them at all, at best tea or coffee. Everything was different with us. Nobody refused hot soup a la borscht. After all, you can only get the required amount of energy with liquid and hot food.

The plan for the second day was no less complicated, except that we had to go down. You'll probably think, what's so complicated about that? After all, going down is easier than going up. You try it yourself, with a backpack on your shoulders, and I’ll look from the side. I assure you, both the ascent and the descent are difficult in their own way. Serezha’s warnings were confirmed, because we had to descend to the sea from about 550 meters in height. On our way to the sea we came across a spring where we filled up to capacity with water, because in the camp where we were going to camp for the night there might not have been any water. We just decided to play it safe. At that moment I noticed that we had already descended below the clouds, which means the sea was getting closer and closer with every step. We went down to the beach Figs

It took us about 3 hours to descend, but that was enough for us. Everyone was no less tired than on the first day. Finally, we found a suitable place for our camp and everyone began our usual work. This place, compared to the previous place where we spent the night, is very lively. After all, a lot of tourists gather here to relax as a savage. It’s not uncommon, or rather a pattern, to see foresters on the beach who keep order and will definitely come up to you to charge everyone for parking. Don't be scared by them, they are harmless and do their job. As soon as the camp was set up, everyone went down to the sea to taste what it was like in the spring. The water turned out to be clean and very invigorating. Boats of local fishermen and part-time water taxi drivers plied along the shore. Sergey agreed the next day for them to take us to Balaklava, thereby saving us several hours for a walk around the port.

The day was drawing to a close and we again settled down near the fire. Some told their stories, others took photographs of the sunset. The beauty of Crimea is unique. There is nothing to compare it with. But it cannot be said that Crimea is more beautiful, for example, than the Carpathians. Everywhere is beautiful in its own way. And as the song says:.. better than mountains, there can only be mountains.

Day three, final...

When all our things were collected, we went to the beach to wait for our transport, which would take us to Balaklava in about 30 minutes. Leaving on the boat, we mentally said goodbye to the mountains but promised to return more than once. But only the dolphins, who accompanied us all the way, did not want to let us go. We were sad and at the same time happy in our souls, because in such a short period of time we were able to become friends. We have even started planning where else we would like to go hiking together. After a short tour of the port, we each went to our own dens.

This is where I end my story. Thank you for your attention and for spending some time.

P.S. It’s very good that we started the hike from the end. After all, a swim in the sea on the 2nd day of the hike is the best gift for the whole group, and that climb to the mountains on the first day is just a walk compared to if we had climbed from the Inzhir beach, but... everything is learned in comparison. Maybe it’s worth thinking about finally legitimizing this order of the route (from Laspi to Balaklava)...

author: Kozitsky Dmitry
co-author: Kozitskaya Tatyana
editor: Kozitskaya Daria