Continuing to move west from the Nikitskaya Cleft, I found myself on a dirt road running parallel to the highway, but a hundred meters higher. Walking here was clearly more interesting than on the asphalt, and if it weren’t for the threatening signs hung up by the local youths, one could relax and forget. Soon the composition was complemented by barbed wire on the trees, and things got really interesting. A marked path turned up from the road. I couldn't resist and followed her. Having climbed the nearest rock (marked on the map as height 489), the path ended, apparently it led to some kind of rock climbing route. But far below I made out the silhouette of the Massandra Palace of Alexander III.
It’s not difficult to guess that that’s where I headed. Under the hill I came across numerous remains of stone walls of unknown origin. Flocks of woodpeckers were raging in the pines (I didn’t know that they fly in flocks). And I quietly walked along the path, which at first became a country road, and then unexpectedly led out onto an asphalt serpentine. I have long had a prejudice against paved roads. In this case, it also paid off - the road led me to a high fence, a gate with the sign “no entry” and an angry dog on a leash. In other words, a dead end.
I once heard that in the outskirts of the Massandra Palace there was either a government dacha or some other closed facility hiding. Such objects are not to be trifled with - they must be avoided. But how? I tried to bypass the forbidden territory on the left and... just a hundred meters from the Massandra Palace I ran into security. Despite the early morning, a lot of people came running to look at the intruder (that is, me). However, it soon became clear that I was just a wild tourist, and interest faded. To keep order, they tormented me for another 15 minutes - they checked how well I knew the contents of my own passport. After which they sternly waved their finger in front of my innocent face and told me to go back to where I came from.
I had to go around all these fences and barbed wires even further to the left in order to finally end up at the main entrance to the palace territory. After all the adventures, I didn’t want to go to the palace and I went to Massandra to look for a quiet life at a seminar on hand-to-hand combat.
