Do you love mountains?

Diary of a hike in Crimea June 1-6, 2008. Route "Water and Stones".

Do you love mountains? And the bright starry sky above your head? And what about magical fairy trees? All this can be found here...

This was not my first time in the mountainous Crimea, but it was my first time traveling, and therefore I was a little worried. Although I was sure that the company would be good, and I was not mistaken.

Day one. Gathering, getting acquainted, first night

Meeting point Simferopol station, meeting time - 12.00. Despite the weather forecasts, the morning in Simferopol was sunny. And although the sky was periodically overcast, a good start had been made. Already at about 11.30, a group began to gather near the storage lockers, which was met by Sveta. Kirill and our guide Andrey arrived later.

The group gathered was international: Russians Maxim, Anton, Nikita, Egor, Leonid from Moscow), Ukrainians (Natasha and Denis from Gorlovka, Stas from Pervomaisk, me, Yulia, from Kharkov), Belarusians (Sveta, Andrey, Ulyana from Minsk) and a German. There were 14 of us with a guide, 11 adults and 3 children.

After a brief discussion about what would happen on the hike, we sorted out the food for the hike from a huge bag. And when everyone was already in place, they set off.

We took a trolleybus to Sosnovka and immediately turned into the forest and began our journey along the “red trail”. At the first small stop in the forest, we were attacked by hungry and angry mosquitoes, so we decided not to stay too long and moved on. When the path strewn with red stone and the forest ended, we saw what we had to strive for - the lower plateau of Chatyr-Dag.

Thanks to the trekking poles: thanks to them, the climb seemed not so long and not so difficult. (Has everyone heard?) From above, the mountains around us were already clearly visible. And what beauty there is! For lunch we stood near a spring. The water in it was simply icy, and the piercing wind was just as cold. The sky began to become cloudy. Everyone quickly began to warm up.

Then our path already lay to an overnight stop, and we decided to go to the cave we passed by tomorrow. Our first overnight stay was near the Dolgiy grotto on the lower plateau of Chatyr-Dag. There was already a fireplace and some firewood. After we set up the tents, brought water and prepared dinner, we began to get acquainted and then discuss plans for the next day.

Day two. Cave, along the road with clouds, Beech glade.

It was raining at night and cold, so in the morning everyone got up early and crawled out of the cold tents into the cold, wet embrace of the clouds on the plateau and went to drink tea. After this, the group split up: some of us went to the Emine-Bair-Khosar cave, and some remained in the camp. The state of nature changed every few minutes: wind - calm - clouds - drizzling rain - sun - wind again, this probably only happens in the mountains.

The cave made an unforgettable impression: huge varied halls, majestic stone columns, stalactites and stalagmites, natural wells, underground lakes, legends and stories:

Afterwards we returned to the camp, and as soon as we had breakfast and packed our things, it began to rain, and almost until the next stop at Yew Gulch it kept up with us. After a beautiful place in the gorge, a test awaited us: climbing the eastern slope of Chatyr-Dag, where we were “covered” by a cloud. It was cold, windy, you couldn’t see anything, but it was an adventure! But, despite the not at all summer wind and the lack of visibility beyond arm's length, we overcame this section of the path.

At the top, where it became completely cold, lunch warmed us up (how delicious sandwiches seem in the mountains during the trek) and the most vigorous ones reached the stick that marked the altitude mark of 1453m. After a difficult and long climb there was an equally long, difficult and beautiful (!) descent (along the plateau, past a shelter of stones, and then down-down-down to the forest). On the way, the sun warmed us up, and we rested among the fabulous beech trees (beeches in Crimea are my favorite theme, it’s just incredibly beautiful and fabulous!!!).

Further through Hangar-Burun to Beech Glade, the adventure was no less exciting: descending through a beech forest, avoiding fallen trees and sliding down rain-wet foliage and ground. In the evening, near the fire, everyone was intensively drying their wet socks, sneakers, and trousers, and then listened to Andrey, who played the guitar. (Hurray for people who even take a guitar during such madness, and most importantly carry it, and then they still have the desire to sing!)

Day three. Valley of Ghosts.

As promised, this day was the hardest. In the morning we went down to Lake Kutuzov, which even close up resembled a large puddle, and not a lake at all, admired the sequoia grove and went to the foot of Demerdzhi along the old Crimean road (as it turned out, the path we walked along was not a path at all, but a bridge, and under it there once was a river), through gentle mountain streams, along lavender-tea-pink fields. Near Demerdzhi, the group split up: part of the group went around, and the rest decided not to look for easy paths and go to the parking lot through the Valley of Ghosts. We went to the Spring of Youth and took photographs near the famous stone and hazel tree.

Along the way, we looked at interesting and unusual statues in the Valley, and to make the walk even more interesting, we tried to solve riddles. But as soon as a serious rise began, there was no time for talking. The climb was hard, long, exhausting and hot. In some places we walked along a narrow path, holding on to , somewhere we made our way through the bushes, at some moments it seemed that our legs would not go further, we were worried that there was little water left, and the walk was still long and hot, but, despite all this, of course, we admired the beauty of the surrounding nature, saw eagles, looked at the cities and villages that remained far below, and enjoyed it (otherwise, why climb there?!).

On South Demerdzhi we overcame a terrible chasm to get to the triangulation at an altitude of 1194m. After that, rested and hopeful that there was very little left, we went through the Demerdzhi saddle to the Dzhurla tourist camp, where we stayed for the night.

Our separated guys reached the parking lot before us, examined the area and Martin found a canister of gasoline (identified by smell). Everyone was happy about the fact that the fire would quickly flare up, we would quickly cook dinner and eat quickly. It was a whole performance when he carried the canister to the fire to splash fuel on the firewood, and we ran away in horror. How disappointed everyone, especially our Martin, was when the fire didn’t light up at all. In fact, there was water in the gasoline can and Martin simply wet the wood. Editor's comment: You were very lucky that there was water in the canister. Pouring fuel onto firewood is extremely dangerous - gasoline quickly evaporates and forms an explosive cloud.

When we finally set up camp, lit a fire and had dinner, we had an evening of solving riddles, playing and, of course, for the night owls, songs with a guitar and a huge starry sky. Like the previous two evenings, it was not at all hot and we left the fire with regret that it was impossible to take at least some of the heat into the tent.

Day four. Jur-Jur waterfall.

We walked along the Northern Demerdzhi Plateau to the Khapkhal Gorge. And again the landscape changes: a sunny, hot, huge plateau with broken or scorched trees, a dusty road, stones with bright orange spots of lichen. Descending into the gorge (it seemed that the descent would not end: in the middle of the already not very clear path there were fallen trees, sharp turns among trees and stones, clinging to branches, and sometimes almost sliding down). Andrey the guide encouraged us by shouting: “Waterfall!” Dinner! Hurry up!>. This helped, I really wanted to go faster, but the descent was not easy.

When we completed the first part and had lunch, we went on easier and faster. And when we went down to the river, it was clear that it was worth it. When we walked along the upper waterfalls of Jur-Jur, we saw how small tributaries and waterfalls merged into one noisy, seething stream; Now the river became narrower, now wider. When we reached the bath of youth, tired and sweaty, there was a desire to plunge into the ice water (+6-8 !!!).

Here the group temporarily split into two parts: someone took a swim and went forward, while four remained and got lost, quite a bit. Or rather, we didn’t even get lost, but instead of going down to the waterfall, at a fork in the road we accidentally went further to the place, as it later turned out, of our overnight stay. But our valiant and caring instructor did not let us get completely lost: he found us and led us to the stunning Jur-Jur waterfall. It amazed with its beauty and splendor (even despite the fact that it was all filled with tourists taking pictures near it and swimming in it).

Having admired the beauty of the waterfall, we went to the parking lot near the waterfall. After dinner, we had fun playing “Cow” (or “Crocodile”, or “Iron”, whichever you prefer) - they showed and guessed the words. Without a doubt, the best performers were the children.

Day five. Chigenitra.

For this day we had options: if we had reached the Ai-Alexiy spring the day before, then on the fifth day we could have gone to Karabi-Yayla, but we stayed near the waterfall, so the next day it was decided to go past the spring directly to Chigenitra. In the parking lot near the waterfall, a dog wandered towards us in search of food, and in gratitude for the fact that we fed it, it decided to follow us and protect us. The road was hot. The sun was hot, and when we emerged from the coolness of the forest, no one had any doubt that now it was hot summer and the sun in the cloudless sky would not spare us.

For lunch we stopped at the Roadside Spring. And after lunch, when we walked through the pines, the real mushroom hunt began! There were a huge number of big butterfish there. Denis and Natasha, as avid mushroom pickers, offered to collect mushrooms and cook soup from them for lunch. But even despite the protracted journey and the guide’s worries that at this rate we would not reach the overnight stop even by nightfall, we arrived at the parking lot in the gorge very early.

To our great surprise, the river from which we were supposed to get water dried up, but fortunately, there were small streams upstream, so we didn’t have to go further in search of a parking lot with water. On this day, everyone had enough time in the parking lot to set up tents, relax, and sunbathe. I managed to once again clarify with Andrey the names of all the points on the route, all the stops and rivers, Maxim, who was sitting next to me and holding a printout of the route from the website in his hands, accompanied all this with comments and demanded an explanation as to why we went this way there, but here it is written differently. Last evening together. We exchanged addresses and phone numbers.

Then there was an early dinner, and in addition to porridge, there was also mushroom soup. There was plenty of food, even the dog that came with us was fed. The parking lot was very beautiful - there were mountains on three sides, and the remaining space was occupied by the visible sea - but very, very windy.

Day six. Rybachye.

According to Andrey's humorous forecasts, the last night would be the coldest, but it was that night that everyone slept well, because... it was unexpectedly warm. In the morning we had our last shared breakfast. In recent days, our German Martin has begun to take an increasingly active part in the social life of the camp. It all started with him putting wood on the fire and giving us “pioneer fires.” And on the sixth day in the morning he prepared breakfast for us and, in addition, tapped the ladle on the lid of the pot, as our guide liked to do when the food was ready. In general, I completely integrated into the team, adopting the unspoken rules.

After breakfast, Andrei the guide once again told us how best to get where. Andrey and his guitar played and sang to us the last song of this trip. After that, we packed up and headed to Rybachye, mentally saying goodbye to the mountains. It was hot to walk, we went down to the vineyards, walked past the lake, and began to walk around Mount Papa-Yur along a dusty, worn-out road. Here we were already resting, even with backpacks on our backs, despite the dust and scorching hot sun. We knew that the sea and civilization were already nearby. A few hours later we reached Rybachy, at the station we bought tickets for minibuses: whoever went where, we bought the missing food in stores, and most importantly - drinks, and went to celebrate the end of the route to the beach, to the cold but long-awaited sea.

Thanks and greetings

I tried to make my report not very long, although, in fact, the story could be very long. There were many funny and amusing moments. There was a great group of good people. There was beautiful nature, there were rivers and mountains. But besides this, I want to say a big thank you to Kirill, who organized it all, and a special big thank you to our guide Andrey, who led us, supported us, introduced us to the beauty of the nature of Crimea, chose the most comfortable parking spots for us and told us the most incredible stories about “terrible” ascents and “terrible” descents. His phrases like: “Go crazy!” or “In a big family, niht klyuven clack-clack” we still remember with laughter. Thank you! It was great!