Hiking in the mountains is not a walk in the park

A merchant seaman about "Water and Stones" in June 2010.
I have always believed that rest should be active. Especially the rest of a sailor who is used to spending most of his time on a ship in vigorous body movements. And my purely personal opinion is that boarding houses, air conditioning, beaches with countless people, food in canteens, shawarma, shrimp with beer and other benefits of civilization are all frivolous. Not a vacation, but a waste of money, energy and health. A person by nature needs to overcome and fight difficulties in order to feel like a living substance. And a hike through the mountainous Crimea perfectly combines active recreation and the opportunity to test your strength.

I started planning the trip back in February. Fortunately, the Internet was available on the ship. The search engine suggested an excellent resource - OutdoorUkraine.com. A most interesting and mega-informative site on the topic. Thanks to the single enthusiast Kirill Yasko and his brainchild, I found exactly what I wanted - hiking in the mountainous Crimea. Special training, as such, was not required, but you just had to be able to walk. There was a huge selection of treks available for both three and six days.

I settled on a route called Water and Rocks. An intense six-day hike along mountain peaks with visits to caves and waterfalls. I bought equipment for the hike separately through online stores, although everything could be rented for pennies. The start date was given on June 20. And now the hike is over and I want to tell my dear readers about this excellent form of recreation, about the mountainous Crimea and about the difficulties.

As I already said, the start was given on June 20. Meeting of the participants of the campaign at the station in Simferopol. In total there were ten people eager to conquer and overcome. Four people from Dnepropetrovsk, a couple of young guys from Kyiv, one guy from Nikopol and we are a family from Kherson consisting of three people. The guide's name was Taras. By the way, he is an excellent specialist in his field, an excellent conversationalist and the soul of the whole group. At the station, food was distributed into backpacks and rental equipment was distributed.

At the station we boarded a trolleybus going to the South Coast. After more than an hour, we reached the departure point - the village of Perevalnoye. In the store we bought more, whoever didn’t have time, and checked the equipment again. Along the Donkey Trail, first through the forest, and then in open areas, we began to climb to the lower plateau of Chatyr-Dag (which translated from Turkic means Shater Mountain). If you drive towards Alushta from Simferopol, you can see one of the peaks of Chatyr-Dag - Eklizi-Burun - the second largest peak in Crimea (1527 meters). We had to get there.

But more on that a little later. The first climb was probably the most difficult for all participants. Firstly, a sharp physical load on the legs and heart - some were short of breath, plus everyone had heavy backpacks on their shoulders. Morning exercises, after all, are a great thing, and preliminary monthly jogging helped in such a situation. Our guide told us that already here, on Ishachka, many could not cope with the load and returned back. Hiking in the mountains is not a walk in the park.Towards evening we reached the Mramornaya cave, where we set up camp for the night nearby in a picturesque forest. The Marble Cave is a huge hall with bizarre forms of sinter formations and the rarest types of crystals. The length of equipped excursion routes is about one and a half kilometers. Beautiful. Speaking of parking, throughout the entire route our guide Taras chose places where there was an opportunity to properly set up tents, there were ready-made fire pits and logs around for sitting and relaxation.

The most important thing on a hike, besides self-confidence, is to quickly set up a tent and light a fire, because rain in the mountains is not uncommon, and fussing around in the rain is not a pleasant pleasure. Meals on the hike - milk porridge with raisins for breakfast, a dry snack for lunch - sandwiches, sausage, sprats and pate, for dinner - buckwheat porridge or pasta with stewed meat. It seems like not enough, you might say, but no one was left hungry. The conductor cooked skillfully and deliciously. Everyone ate with pleasure. And what tea is just magic. Thyme, St. John's wort and lemongrass. Healthy, environmentally friendly and non-GMO. Water was taken from a natural spring near the cave.

On the second day we crossed a relatively flat plateau, passed through the Tissovo Gorge and found ourselves at the foot of the Upper Chatyr-Dag. From here there was a view of the Simferopol-Alushta road and the Angarsk Pass.

We took a break and began the long climb to the top of Eklizi-Burun. In some places the climb was half a meter from a deep cliff. Extreme and that's all. Each of the participants walked at their own optimal pace, some more slowly, resting frequently, others faster. The experience gained on the Donkey Trail the day before was very useful. At the top, a light snack and lunch awaited us among the slowly rising clouds from the gorge. And the clean mountain air is something indescribable.

The descent from the summit turned out to be even more difficult for many than the ascent. The muscles in my legs rebelled and sometimes it felt like my knee joint was about to jump out of its normal place. The finale of the second day is an overnight stay at Bukovaya Polyana. Parking at an altitude of approximately 800 meters above sea level. A wild beech forest, damp, quiet and full of russula. Plus a spring with icy mountain water.

The next day, after breakfast and traditional morning tea, our group descended to the Angarsk Pass. Here was a chance for those who decided that they had had enough difficulties to go home and it was time to quit physical activity.

But there were no such people and we continued our journey to Mount Northern Demerdzhi. Again a long climb along partisan paths through a beech forest. Due to the recent rain, it was very damp, the road was wet, plus mosquitoes did not let me feel sad. We stopped at Polyana MAN. From here there is a magnificent view of Mount South Demerdzhi, Alushta and the sea. There are stone circles right in the clearing - this is a place where those who are thirsty are charged with cosmic energy.

Due to accumulating clouds and thunderclaps nearby, Taras slightly changed the route and, after an hour's rest, we immediately headed to the parking lot.

The path ran along the cliff. Along narrow stone paths among beautiful landscapes we reached the tourist site of Dzhurla. There was a pond and a spring there. The girls had a chance to come to their senses a little and do some laundry. True, the number of other tourists, noise and garbage around a little darkened our time. I wanted privacy. After dinner we were hit by wild rain and hail. But everyone managed to choose a place and set up tents before the rain. After some time, the hail stopped, but the rain continued to test the strength of people and tents throughout the night.

On the morning of the fourth day, it turned out that the tent of the guys from Dnepropetrovsk was completely wet overnight, including the people themselves, their belongings and sleeping bags. It was a blow for them. Somehow we dried out, but the bad weather and physical fatigue, in my opinion, greatly undermined the morale of the Dnepropetrovsk residents. In this regard, due to the bad weather forecast and delays at the parking lot, Taras suggested holding advice on the further route.

It was decided to go to the upper reaches of Demerdzhi-Yayla, past the Dzhurla waterfall, the Choban-Chokrak spring, through an impenetrable windfall to descend into the Khapkhal gorge and spend the night there. And the next morning, go further down to the Dzhur-Dzhur waterfall and civilization - the village of Generalskoye. And from there who goes where: some to the sea, and some to dry things and go home to rest from their vacation.

On the way to the Khapkhal gorge we rose to a height of 1300 meters. Beautiful view, flora, fauna and again clean mountain air. We had lunch, dried some things under the warm Crimean sun, rested and began our descent into the gorge. This is where the real extreme and adrenaline was. A real adventure. Because of the rain, the entire trail was wet and slippery. In some places it was necessary to crawl under fallen trees and look for an alternative path due to the mud. We descended very slowly, following the guide, controlling every step. Since excessive self-confidence could play a bad joke in the form of broken limbs.

Frankly, this event did not go smoothly for everyone in the group. There was also hysteria - they were afraid that they wouldn’t cope. But our “boss” Taras controlled the descent of each member of the group. A true professional. And everything went without incident: falling on a soft place and getting dirty clothes - that’s the whole result of an extreme mountain descent.

We spent the night in a parking lot near a noisy mountain river and waterfall. Nearby there was a small cave, where, according to the guide, there was a partisan hospital during the war. We collected some mushrooms: russula and boletus. After dinner we cooked and fried them over the fire. Delicious.

On the morning of the fifth day we began to descend along the gorge towards civilization. Along the route, we faced further difficulties: crossing a fast mountain river along the trunks of fallen trees and a sheer rock cliff directly in front of the Jur-Jur waterfall. These were unforgettable moments - difficulties that, having suppressed internal fear, each member of the group eventually overcame.

When we saw the vacationers, we realized that civilization was somewhere nearby and we felt somehow sad. Personally, I was a little upset that our trip to the mountains was coming to its logical conclusion. Another two or three days would have been just right. Although some of the guys from the group, I must admit, breathed a sigh of relief.

Next was the mountain village of Generalskoye. There we parted ways with the guys from Dnieper. Then, in the back of a UAZ, we moved to Solnechnogorsk and the rest of the group: we, the guys from Kyiv and Taras went to spend one day by the sea, on the South Coast. We stocked up on food, homemade Crimean wine and headed to the wild beach.

We rested, swam and regained our strength. And at the same time we lively discussed our recent adventures - we were firmly convinced that this would not be our last trip. We will definitely go again. After all, mountains are beautiful. Purity of thoughts and relaxation for soul and body. This is a REAL VACATION. Try it at least once, you won't regret it.

Vladimir Gavrilyuk. Kherson