Contents
This report is about the tour: Ghost Valley
About the hike "Water and Stones" June 7-12, 2009.
It was our first time on a hike, we wanted to get new experiences and emotions, take a break from the child and lose civilization. We got everything we wanted in full. Based on this, I wrote these notes - mostly emotional feelings. For those who are looking for new emotions...
First impressions
We take a running start to the lower plateau of Chatyrdag -500m- and the smell of the forest is simply killing. Someone winces, someone shudders, our guide Andrey cheerfully says: “Yes, guys, this is such an unforgettable smell in all the Crimean forests where tourists walk”..."Remember our faces"
Along the way, a group of “women and children”, as the guide condescendingly put it, walked with us. The children turned out to be reckless and touchy. One of us casually said to them: “Remember our faces. Now you will only see our backs.” The children took off without finishing lunch, frantically overtook us and shouted from the top: “You will see our backs!” We remembered the children for a long time. For two more days they breathed unevenly towards us, competing where they could and couldn’t. Our group had to slightly change the route.In the steppe
One day Anya and I were left alone on a mountain plateau to guard our backpacks. In fact, the plateau looked like a steppe. Lounging on our backpacks, squinting into the distance, inhaling the unique aromas of steppe grasses, listening to the hum of bees and bumblebees, we dozed off blissfully. We were overcome by serene peace, tranquility, a feeling of returning to our roots, nature, and even the cars passing at our feet (what were they doing there?) could not stop us from enjoying the feeling of unity with nature, when your consciousness dissolves in the steppe, like sugar in water...Stone grotto
Our first overnight stay was in tall, lush green grass near a stone grotto, far from civilization, where even mobile communications were dead. I immediately felt the contrast with ordinary life - collecting firewood, buckwheat porridge in a pot with fat called “stew”, tea, wine, beer, the first detailed acquaintance... We slept like we were shot. In the morning, the men went down to the Bottomless Well cave for water. According to them, it’s impressive, it’s a pity we didn’t see it. But Emine-Bair-Khosar was very impressed, whoever was there will understand.The hardest climb
We conquered Chatyrdag again. The ascent of 500 m to the upper plateau was memorable for everyone - we wandered like barge haulers on the Volga, without hope of a quick and easy end. Some didn’t make it... The guide, having flown up like a bird, gave out pearls: “When you’re at the top, it’s so funny to look at people climbing somewhere down there.” “I love goat paths, sharp, not flat, and so I can walk longer.” “Eh, I wish I could be as tired as you are... Well, at least a little bit tired... Well, I can’t...” Only lunch saved the guide from the brutal murder. Our efforts were crowned with the highest point of Crimea 1527 m - Mount Ekklizi-Burun! (well, almost the highest, but we won’t specify...) At that time, the entire mountain was occupied by a crowd of pilgrims, priests in robes who immediately served the service, and something like Ministry of Emergency Situations guarding the people of God.Loss of faith in the guide.
In the beech forest, the guide abandoned us for a long time, leaving in an unknown direction. Usually he often ran away from the group (with toilet paper or in search of new springs), but this time his mobile phone did not answer, it was getting dark, and the mosquitoes were biting more and more. The men left to look for Andrei, leaving the girls with the disabled man. It was getting dark...When we finally returned the guide to the group, he made excuses: “Grandfather was there, he didn’t know the way, so I led him...through the forest, through the mountains...” It was a difficult day, emotionally and physically. What Andrei promised “it’s close here, 5 minutes” and “another 50 meters” turned out to be an hour’s walk and a couple of kilometers over rough terrain to an overnight stay with a senseless and cruel number of mosquitoes. And then we began to lose faith in the guide, convinced that it was not for nothing that he was leading us along goat paths and pretending that everything was fine. As the group unanimously decided, his enemy mission was to find the most difficult, long-detour goat trails wherever there were good, fast and wide roads with a minimum difference in elevation. Andrei sweetly fought back, claiming that he is a creative person and walking along the same straight roads does not develop him as a person, as a result of which he develops an internal conflict with himself. Thus, our route plan was constantly adjusted to suit Andryukha’s creative personality.Lake Paradise
Everything passes, and so does our suffering. Having climbed a couple of mountains with the picturesque names Curly Marya, Bald Ivan, Demerdzhi, we finally came to a fresh lake, lost deep in the mountains and forests, from which we did not want to get out for a long time, despite the icy water, near which we sunbathed for a long time, spitting on the fact that we had to look for firewood and cook dinner. And in the evening they played mafia with gusto, killing the conductor first, according to tradition.Descent through the “Valley of Ghosts”
Yes, we climbed to the top of South Demerdzhi and saw the stone giants, the vast panorama of Crimea and the Soviet flag. It was 1200-something meters. But we paid for all this by spending many hours descending through the Valley of Ghosts. This is where we began to understand how excruciatingly painful it is to lose the height gained with sweat and sometimes blood... Some rode on their butts, in front of their backpacks, others fell or crashed into stones, thorns, broke tree branches in the vain hope of stopping, others demonstrated the author’s technique of sliding along a local embankment.Dzhurla
Everyone liked the small, gentle, graceful waterfall with small drops and baths of youth. The female half of the group decided to settle there and transferred all the difficulties of organizing everyday life to the men. And in the evening we played cow, aka plywood, aka crocodile, and met two Americans who themselves traveled around Crimea with a map in Russian.Saccharin and other drugs
In addition to all the conductor’s other sins, he hooked the group on harmful pills and sugar replacement. And when the Americans suddenly emerged from the pitch-black night, from the forest, and asked us for sugar, and Andrei gave them these pills, naturally, they asked: “Guys, are you kidding us? What is this, crack? We spent a long time convincing them that we were not drug addicts. Then they were offered tea with long, untorn mint from the pot. I don’t know what they thought about us, but they took saccharin and tea...Plants and smells
During one lunchtime snack in the mountains there was a strong smell of mint, and we began to fall asleep one after another and barely escaped from there. It’s like being in a poppy field – intoxicating and relaxing. From the conversation: - We have to go, otherwise mint relaxes us. -Yes, we have to go. -Now let’s relax and fall asleep. -Yes, we'll fall asleep. - That would be nice. -Let's lie down for half an hour. It’s hot, we need to rest after lunch... - (The whole group) Yes!!! - (After half an hour) Well then. Went? -Now, just a minute... Etc. I also remember something else: how we walked for half a day, making our way through the wild thickets of the mustard plant, feeling like sappers in a minefield, without stopping or respite. This is a deadly, but outwardly harmless plant: if you touch it or stand next to it and breathe, chemical burns are guaranteed. Needless to say, the group rode up the mountain without stopping.Jur-Jur
By the time we got there, not only our strength, but also that of the guide had run out. Finally! Unlike Dzhurla, this waterfall was majestic, powerful, indulgent towards tourists and did not evoke such sweet and tender feelings as Dzhurla. Rather, admiration, surprise, delight. We swam in the waterfall again, and for some reason the icy water no longer evoked such strong emotions as before...About Andrey
Having quickly gotten drunk, everyone went to bed, we dreamed of ascents and descents, and from the side of the tent where the guide lived with two guys, we could hear shouts of “Group, forward!” Rise!”, wild laughter and sounds of knockouts... The next morning Andrey did not admit anything. In general, the guide turned out to be cheerful and happy with life, with a wonderful sense of humor, which helped us all out more than once, and I wish him not to lose his desire to do what he loves!The main question
The main question is: will I go hiking again? After climbing Jur-Jur, I said that I’d had enough of difficulties, it was hard, especially in the heat, but now I can say that yes, I’ll go, maybe not as difficult or with the wrong level of physical training, but I’ll go. Andrey got us hooked not only on saccharin, but also on mountains. After the hike, we had another week of relaxing mattress rest in Laspi by the sea... and guess what: we went to the mountains again...
Alla Melnik,
Kharkov 2009