So, travel notes (go wherever you want) about the Great Crimean Campaign. Written for the corporate press, it was subsequently cut in half. Here I present an almost complete version, again, edited taking into account the characteristics of the LiveJournal audience, I will post a photo later... That is, tomorrow.
Through the valleys and over the hills...
... after all, everyone has their own dream and their own temperament
Ven. Erofeev, “Moscow - Petushki”
How did it all start, you ask? It all started with the most curious letter that arrived in my mailbox last year, in a pile of other spam. In which they invited you to walk along the protected paths of the Crimean Mountains, overcoming steep climbs and equally steep descents, making your way through thickets of beech forests, hiding from treacherous foresters and eating almost pasture...
Alas, at that very moment I did not have the opportunity to arrange such a trip for myself, but the splinter in my brain stuck and itched until the very beginning of the current holiday season. And so, at the end of spring - beginning of summer, I set off on a voyage through the World Wide Web in order to find someone who would guide me along those very protected paths. At first, I wasn’t very lucky in my search: I came across some incomprehensible offers, where walks lasting an hour or two were interspersed with constant transfers, but I wanted a real hike, according to the precepts of the ancients (“omnia mia mecum porto”), because, as you know, “everyone has their own dream and their own temperament.” And so - the search is crowned with success, the route is discussed, tickets are purchased, the backpack is packed - and the train carries him and me along with him to the long-awaited adventures.
As it turned out when we met at the train station in Simferopol, the hikes were organized and the website was created on the Internet not by any noticeable travel agency, but by a single enthusiast named Kirill. Myself website supports, develops routes himself, collects and leads groups himself. And the group in which I found myself consisted, not more, not less, of four people, including an instructor: a little later the guys from Saratov joined us. We met, stocked up on food, finally agreed on the route and off we went.
Of course, we didn’t go from the Simferopol station. First we reached a village called Perevalnoye, and from there we began to climb to the lower plateau of Chatyr-Dag.
If you drive from Simferopol to the south, to Alushta, or east, to Feodosia, then quite quickly a mountain will rise above the road, looking like a huge tent. This is Chatyr-Dag (and the resemblance to the tent gave the mountain its name, translated from Turkic as “Tent Mountain”), the western peak of which, Eklizi-Burun, the second peak of Crimea, rises 1527 meters above the sea. You may say: “So what, is this height? Yes, you can run to it and come back in a day!” Yes, from the Angarsky Pass tourist center it is quite possible to carry out such a walk, and we later met such groups. But they were counting on a one-day walk and walked, one might say, lightly! And for us, one of the important tourist rules has not yet begun to apply: “The more you eat, the easier it is to go,” because we have not stopped at rest stops yet. In addition, we wanted to visit the Emine-Bair-Khosar cave located on the lower plateau, so climbing Chatyr-Dag took us, one might say, a day and a quarter... But more on that a little later.
Emine-Bair-Khosar has long been widely known and, one might say, is included in the “gentleman’s kit” of a traveler in Crimea: it’s nice to diversify your vacation by temporarily replacing the heat and bright sun of the coast with a somewhat gloomy dungeon, where the temperature stays at +4 all year round and the humidity is 100 percent. Isn’t it this contrast that attracts a huge number of tourists to the cave (we had to wait at least an hour for our turn)? It is possible that he too, but rather, the beauty of the cave: bizarrely shaped sinter formations of various colors, glistening in the light of the lamps, huge halls where at the bottom lie cyclopean blocks already overgrown with stalagmites - traces of an ancient earthquake of enormous force, a paleontological museum... Yes, yes, the cave is equipped, albeit small, but a real museum! The fact is that the entrance to the cave is a fairly wide and deep well, which became a trap for animals that inhabited the mountain plateaus of Crimea in ancient times. And now, next to the route, you can see almost completely assembled skeletons of a baby mammoth, a red deer, and in the museum - fragments of the remains of a wide variety of animals, from a fossilized crab to the teeth of a cave lion.
After visiting the cave, we had very little time left, just to find a place to stay for the night, set up a camp and prepare food. Such a place was found at the entrance to one of the grottoes, of which there are also quite a lot on the plateau. But “ours” is probably the largest and most lived-in: traces of previous sites were present in the form of tent mats made of dry grass, an equipped fire pit and, of course, empty tin cans littering the bottom of the grotto under the rocky arch. But we didn’t add a single one there!
Apparently, due to the fact that the day was the first and not the most difficult, after dinner there was strength and mood left for conversations around the fire, reading poetry, admiring the stars and the moon... In general, the first day gave hope that it would continue to be the same. And the beginning of the second day fully justified this expectation. We got up with the sun and were already on the route around eight in the morning (local time). For this day, the plans were Napoleonic: to climb Eklizi-Burun, go down to the Angara Pass and reach the foot of Demerdzhi, where we would park. Already the climb to the upper plateau of Chatyr-Dag made it clear that mountains are always mountains, even if they are low and flat. Probably because the climb took place along a noticeably steep slope, and although rock climbing skills were not required, I had to use my hands quite often; I didn’t remember any details of climbing to the top. And already there we were greeted with a reward for our labors: an open view of half of Crimea, distant - after all, 15 kilometers, but at the same time such a close sparkle of the sea, a fresh mountain wind... and also a stop and photography!
Following the ascent, a surprise awaited me: it turned out that the long descent was almost more difficult than the ascent. We had to descend almost eight hundred meters, and there were quite difficult sections. But the most difficult thing turned out to be walking two kilometers along the Simferopol - Alushta highway... Who would have thought that less than two days away from cars would cleanse the lungs so much that the exhaust would be felt on the way to the road, and then it would take quite a long time to get used to the noise of cars and the presence of exhaust gases in the air. But people manage to live in cities too... Although the presentation goes quite quickly, the journey from the top to the pass, after all, took several hours, during which we managed to feast on ripening blackberries and get fresh, delicious water from a spring (after the hike, I spent another week soaking up the coast; naturally, being in Crimea, it’s impossible not to taste the wonderful wine of Crimean factories; but I don’t remember anything tastier than fresh water along the route), and even be attacked by mosquitoes, and have a snack (naturally, taking all the trash with us) in the shade of huge beech trees... We climbed to the foot of Demerdzhi in the evening; to tell the truth, we didn’t climb, but dragged along, almost by force of will: the second day, contrary to expectations, turned out to be more difficult than the first. Finally, in the parking lot, which had been inhabited by archaeological parties before us, we set up camp, had dinner and went into tents.
The next morning our group broke up... The guys from Saratov, Zhenya and Dasha, had only a week at their disposal, but they still wanted to plunge into the sea and see the beauty of the South Coast, so they decided to return to civilization. The four of us reached the ruins of the Funa fortress, which served many peoples who inhabited Crimea, from the ancient Romans to the Crimean Tatars, but most of all - the Byzantines, and there our roads diverged. Our road lay to the top of Demerdzhi. If you have driven along the Simferopol-Alushta highway, you have probably noticed that on the mountain rising east of the road, one of the rocks facing the sea is very similar to a human head. They say that Prince Potemkin, showing Catherine II the new Russian possessions, drew the empress’s attention to this rock, saying that nature itself immortalized the face of the empress in the Crimean rocks. However, even before the annexation of Crimea to Russia, there was another legend about this mountain, describing one of the many conquests of Crimea, with the participation of a cruel blacksmith, a brave girl Maria... It’s beautiful, but I won’t cite it, in general, after the tragic ending, the mountain captured the face of that same Maria on its slope. If you want to know more, there is an electric Internet with search engines.
The path to the top of Demerdzhi lies through two belts of forests - first deciduous, then coniferous. Pines even grow on rocks, clinging to the rock with their roots and resisting the winds. The wind gives the trees very bizarre shapes, reminiscent of Japanese prints. Although now there is no unquenchable flame burning on the mountain, it fully justified its ancient name - a cloud clung to the top, covering both us and everyone who decided to take a closer look at the wonders of Demerdzhi. The route along Demerzhdi is very popular, and, as it turned out, not only among Russians and Ukrainians: Crimea, apparently, has become a favorite vacation spot among the Poles, and already at the top we met a group from France. There, at the top, enterprising locals created a cafe where you can drink tea, taste pilaf and taste the gifts of the Crimean vineyards... Stop, we’re on a hike!
Our third stop was in the valley between South and North Demerdzhi. A wonderful place, however, the pleasure of being there was somewhat overshadowed by the proximity of an excessively noisy company. Therefore, the next morning we hastened to say goodbye to them even before our neighbors woke up after a stormy night.
From the valley, where we spent the night not very peacefully, we climbed to Northern Demerdzhi. A mysterious structure was discovered there, generally noticed since Chatyr-Dag: two towers, most similar to basketball backboards. After some thought, we finally came to the conclusion that this is not a basketball court, once favored and equipped by aliens - otherwise who could have installed five-meter basketball backboards at an altitude of 1365 meters - but some kind of reflector antennas. But if you find yourself there, you can come up with your own versions of what these not entirely clear things are. From there our path ran along Demerdzhi-Yayla past Table Mountain, then along Tirka-Yayla and further to Karabi-Yayla. Yayla is a vast plateau of the Crimean mountains. At first glance, they are very similar to the steppes of the Middle Belt, but if you forget for a while that you are at an altitude of just over a kilometer above sea level and do not pay attention to the rocky outcrops peeking out from under a thin layer of soil. And to remember that we were not walking through our native Black Earth Region, it was enough to go to the edge of the plateau and admire the opening panorama of mountains and sea. A very unusual detail for a lowland person will be birds hovering somewhere down there... The path along the yayla is not distinguished by a variety of landscapes, unlike the valleys separating different sections of the plateau. Before the hike, I had never been in a beech forest; it differs quite significantly from our usual forest. First of all, there is much more shade, therefore, coolness and moisture, and the undergrowth, on the contrary, is very modest. But - whole thickets of ferns! This is where to go on the night of Ivan Kupala to look for fern blossoms! However, I did not mention that we quite deliberately deviated from well-known tourist routes - if in the previous days we met other groups quite often, then until the very finish of the hike such meetings became rare. Initially, we were going to pass by the Dzhur-Dzhur waterfall, also a very popular place to visit, but when Kirill found out that I had already seen this waterfall, he decided to show me his favorite place in Crimea - the Karabi-Yayla plateau. This place, he said, evokes very vivid associations with Inner Mongolia, mentioned by V. Pelevin in “Chapaev and Emptiness.” And during the journey from the southwestern tip of the plateau to the weather station located almost in its center, this could be fully verified. Monotonous hills overgrown with burnt grass, along the borders of the plateau - forested mountains, intricately intertwined paths running from hill to hill... And far on the horizon - the goal of our day's trek, a weather station. At the weather station there is another reason to remember Pelevin: on the roof of the building covering a well with drinking water, there is a machine gun. Of course, not real and not even clay - wooden and tin, but against the background of silence, the sunset sky, the plateau scorched by the sun and dried by the winds, something otherworldly was discernible in the machine gun barrel directed into the sky. The weather station was equipped with a tourist shelter, so we had the opportunity to cook food on a gas stove and sleep on the beds. With terribly pressed nets by generations of tourists.
The next morning we left early, since preparing breakfast and getting ready took less time, and we wanted to leave the plateau before the Crimean sun fell on it with all its might. Soon another reason to leave the open area appeared: clouds began to accumulate in the north, and from these accumulations we could hear dull thunderclaps. But nevertheless, we managed to examine three of the many caves located on Karabi-Yayla.
On the territory of Crimea there are many different reserves, wildlife sanctuaries and protected natural complexes; on Karabi-Yayla there are two of them: the geological reserve Mountain Karst of Crimea and the Botanical Reserve of Karabi-Yayla. The Crimean mountains are composed mainly of sedimentary rocks and are very susceptible to destruction by water and wind. Thanks to the action of these forces, the bizarre rock formations of Demerdzhi and the Chatyr-Dag caves were formed, and Karabi-Yayla, in terms of the number of caves and the appearance of the stones that come to the surface, resembles a huge piece of cheese. The abundance of caves, both explored and unknown, both vertical and horizontal, both large and small, has made the plateau a very popular place among speleologists. We most likely passed by a lot of caves, deliberately stopped at only three, descended into only one: the Kruber mine is a mine because it immediately goes down from the surface, the entrance to the Mamina cave was - intentionally or accidentally - blocked with stones, and we managed to go down to Bolshoi Buzluk. Another name for this cave is Ice, in the midst of summer there is ice at its bottom, but in winter and spring all its vaults are covered with ice decorations. I was somewhat puzzled by the astronomical sign of Mercury painted on the roof of the cave, but there was no one to find out how it got there and for what purpose. Let it remain a mystery.
Having left the plateau - we managed to escape from the rain for some time - we went through places in which the breath of history was clearly felt. First the ancient one, then the newest one. Ancient history reminded us of itself with the names of passes on ancient routes from the inhabited areas of Crimea to the sea, and the newest history with monuments to partisans. And already at the passes the rain, which had been following us since the morning, finally caught up with us. First, a cloud crawled across the ridge, as two days before, and after it came a rain cloud. And it’s not that the rain soaked us too much, but it delayed us significantly: we had to wait it out, and then try to make up for lost time by moving faster. But all the same, the descent along the wet slopes delayed us, and we arrived at the parking lot at dusk.
The Nizhny Kok-Asan site, apparently, is located in the wettest area of Crimea. The rain had long passed, and the cloud that was clinging to the mountain was blown away by the wind, but drops of water hung on the leaves of the beech trees all evening, all night and all morning, falling down from time to time. It was fun: you eat, for example, porridge with stewed meat, but no, no, a large drop will fall into your bowl, or into a mug of tea. What’s most interesting is that despite the dampness, there were absolutely no mosquitoes. It would be fair to call such places rain forests, but this term is reserved for Africa.
The sixth day of the hike, in general, differed little from the fifth in terms of the surrounding landscapes, but by the end it was already beginning to be overcome by fatigue. Moreover, strengthened again by the rain and the road through the sunset forest. When visibility is twenty to thirty meters, at every turn only a path surrounded by trees opens up again and again, it seems that you are about to come out into the open, but again you find yourself in the thickening shadow of beeches and it is completely unclear how long this can last. There is even bewilderment, developing into irritated surprise: how did people manage to live in the forests?
On the evening of the sixth day, a unanimous decision was made: it was time to return to civilization. I wanted to soak up the coast for the second week of vacation; the only food left was cereal, and we are not fans of vegetarianism. Therefore, in the first half of the seventh day of the hike, we descended into the village of Mezhdurechye - although not a single river flowed through it at that moment, one - the Raven - generally remained behind the mountains, the other - Ai-Serez, very stormy in the mountains, replenished by many springs - was completely dry in the valley. When we descended from the mountains to civilization, the pace of life accelerated many times over. Literally an hour later, a passing car took us to the village of Morskoye, from there another ride to Sudak, and from there we took a bus to the blessed Koktebel, where we exchanged photographs and parted: I stayed there, and Kirill went to visit relatives in Feodosia.
It would be possible to end with a standard pioneer phrase about “tired but happy,” but cliched phrases will only spoil the still remaining feeling of incomparable freedom, self-confidence, involvement in the secrets of nature and the joy of learning new things. Next summer I will definitely try to repeat it, maybe just changing the route.
Mikhail Penkov
20.10.2005
