Review of a hike in Crimea in the summer of 2006

Having been on a beach holiday in Turkey last year and having gained 2-3 kg in a week in carelessness and serenity, my wife Anya and I independently thought about whether to try something romantic and mobile with a touch of extreme sports as a vacation this summer. We had a week at our disposal for this kind of adventure. Crimea was unanimously chosen as the territory, as it had been previously visited and known from childhood. We began searching on the Internet for someone who offers this kind of service for the request “Walking tour of Crimea.” There were only a few of them and we chose Kyrylo Yasko’s site as the most informal, friendly and friendly-emotional.

All issues of equipment and supplies were successfully resolved in prompt correspondence and we set off from Moscow to the meeting point - the fountain of the Simferopol station. At the agreed time, all members of our expedition (another guy from Kyiv and Kirill himself) got together, shuffled their things, left everything unnecessary in the storage room, divided up water and food, bought what was missing at the nearest market and rode out on a city trolleybus to starting place.

Along the route, it became obvious that it was raining overboard, but in the village of Perevalnoye, where we left, it subsided. A group of wet young men came down to meet us from above, and in response to our question, “How is it up there?” They answered briefly, “Terrible.” But we didn’t believe them and began climbing the Chatyr-Dag plateau.
Having climbed the Donkey Trail and not seeing a single donkey, we found ourselves at an altitude of about 1 km. Rain clouds simply slid over our heads and sometimes fell with a light drizzle - we climbed under our raincoats. From the very top we saw Simferopol, the village of Perevalnoye and our starting place. It seemed that we had walked a lot, but this is just a mountain mirage. In fact, 2-3 km. When the caves appeared, we began to discuss the plan for the first night, and then a huge rain cloud caught up with us and began to pour with the monthly norm of precipitation. Anya was close to a slight panic, vague doubts began to overwhelm me, but Kirill radiated optimism and quickly led us to the speleologists’ base for the night. There we quickly dried off, sat by the warm fireplace, had dinner and went to bed.

The next morning the sky was in the clouds, but there was no rain. In the morning, we still visited the cave with an hour-long excursion and, having collected our backpacks and said goodbye to the speleologists, we moved on. The route was shortened a little, deciding that it was not worth climbing higher into the clouds again. We approached the edge of the Chatyr-Dag plateau - the wind was driving the clouds towards Yalta, and in the area of ​​​​South Demerdzhi it was sunny. This is where our path lies today, Kirill said.

The steppe part of the plateau ended and we began our descent along the yew gorge, almost in the green twilight from the crowns of centuries-old trees. It was harder to go down than to go up, because... The paths were washed away and the ground slipped from under our feet. Anya was very upset when the trail began again instead of descending.
climb, but buildings soon appeared, we again found ourselves on the Simferopol-Yalta highway and crossed it in the Angarsk Pass area.

Here we had a snack and went further along the forest paths. After an hour or two, the forest ended and we continued to move through open glades, passed through thickets of wild roses and lavender, met a roe deer and by the end of the day, exhausted, we approached the foot of South Demerdzhi. We set up a camp of two 2-person tents at the horse station above the village of Luchistoye. Kirill quickly lit a fire, prepared an unusually tasty dinner, and we washed and
After washing in a nearby spring, we finally felt what a romantic journey we were on. It was getting dark. Below us lay the evening Alushta all in lights, the Alushta-Yalta highway was burning, the lunar road to the sea was glowing, and behind us Demerdzhi rose almost to the sky. All night snorting horses wandered around us, almost peering into the tents and ringing bells the size of
the ship's bell cow. For us - typical city dwellers, accustomed to sleeping in silence - this became the next test.

In the morning, I ran down to the village to the local market, brought fresh milk and fresh raspberries for breakfast, and we happily had breakfast, broke camp and began climbing the mountain. The sky was unusually clear, soon we found ourselves in the Valley of Ghosts, admired this miracle of nature, climbed higher and higher. There was a blooming linden tree near the path and we picked it for brewing until the very end of the hike. The height of the ascent grew, the breaks became more and more frequent, the strength slowly left us. The most difficult were the last hundreds of meters of the climb to the top in the open sun, Anya probably at that moment very much regretted that she smoked in life. She did not believe that she would get there. But she pulled herself together and made the last push to the top. And here we are at the very top, but almost no one had the strength to take pictures on the top pebble. We took out tourist cards the rugs collapsed on them and didn’t move for about an hour. I finally got to the top pebble, stood on it, took a photo. The landscape, of course, opens up unimaginable. The panorama to Ayu-Dag to the west and to Rybachy and further to the east. Spread your arms like in the movie “Titanic” and feel like a soaring bird.

Then there was a gentle transition to a forest campsite with a mountain lake nearby. The next day - 2 waterfalls. The first smaller one is Dzhurla. We saw that the tourist girls were having fun swimming in it and decided to try it too. The water turned out to be cold, but without cramps, 10-12 degrees. I changed into swimming trunks and splashed around for about 5 minutes - it was very invigorating. In the evening we approached the large Jur-Jur waterfall. Along the way we walked through strawberry meadows and feasted on sweet berries. Anya was able to collect mushrooms (moss mushrooms, chanterelles) for dinner. We set up a parking lot not far from the waterfall and heard its “Niagara” noise all the time. After dinner with mushroom soup and porridge, we spent a long time admiring the unusually black starry sky with the Milky Way.
In the morning I was overcome by the desire to swim in the fountain again. Almost alone, I climbed under the stream and felt its enormous power, knocking me off my feet.
Grandiose!
The next day we walked almost horizontally through the forest, oaks and hornbeams gave way to Crimean pines, thickets of rose hips, abundant springs with cold crystal clear water awaited us every 2-3 km. The last mountain site was called Chiginitra. Behind us was the Korabi plateau, below us was almost an abyss with thickets of pine trees, and in front was an endless sea merging with the sky. Ayu-Dag was no longer visible, only Alushta sparkled in the distance with lights like the embers of an extinct
fire. What is surprising is that during the hike there was not a single annoying mosquito. After dinner, we took out a map and ran a curvimeter along our route - this is such a device. It turned out that we walked an average of 10 km a day. But taking into account the fact that we were carrying luggage, this is a double or triple load. It cannot be said that any unprepared person of any age
can take part in the hike. You need a little bit of physical fitness (at least to climb stairs with bags without an elevator), no problems with the heart and lungs, some endurance, a willingness to overcome hardships and inconveniences, will and a strong psyche.

In this case, the success of the expedition is guaranteed. And if at the end of the trip you feel a sense of pride in yourself (“I was able to do it!”), then you are young not only in soul, but also in body.
In the morning we began our descent to the sea. It was surprisingly easy and fleeting; by lunchtime the outskirts of the village appeared, and then the sea itself. Another half hour - and we were already standing in the surf. Having thrown off everything except our swimming trunks, we jumped into the waves.
Having bathed to the brim and set up camp, we rushed to the village. I found the taste of the Obolon keg beer and boiled young corn quite surprising. The farewell dinner included potatoes (boiled and baked), herring, cucumbers and tomatoes flavored with homemade white
nutmeg on the seashore. Just amazing!
The last night passed under the gentle sound of the surf. In the morning we got up early, the next
The destination of our vacation was Yalta - just in case, we took vouchers to a boarding house for “rehabilitation”. Dolphins splashed a short distance from the shore, the sun had already risen and this was the end of our romantic journey. We said goodbye to Kirill - the success of the expedition was largely due to his merit.
This is an amazingly dedicated person, in love with Crimea, touchingly caring, distributing his positive energy to tourists. Thank you very much and success in this difficult field!
P.S.
A couple of hours later we were already at the boarding house and experienced bliss from such seemingly elementary achievements of civilization as
- HOT WATER AND SOAP
- BED LINEN AND SOFT BEDS

July 2006, Moscow

Igor and Anna Kolodensky