Our family's incredible adventure

About a family hike along "Water and Stones" 06/06/2010

So, only two weeks have passed since our family’s incredible adventure called “WATER and STONES” ended. And we still don’t stop looking at our photos brought from the hike, as well as the photos of our friends that they send by email. And at night in our sleep we still walk through the mountains, go down into caves, and sit near the fire.

And it all started long before the beginning of summer...

Chapter 1. “Vacation is not like everyone else and not as always.”

At the end of winter, and this year it was snowier and colder than ever, we decided to spend our vacation not like everyone else and not like always. We were inspired by this photo of my friend, who is simply in love with Crimea. I even jokingly call him “Krymophile.” And so we also decided to go camping with the whole family. Me, my husband and 9 year old son. I called my friend and told about our idea. He was happy, but, unfortunately, he could not keep us company, since our family’s vacations and his did not coincide. But with great pleasure he suggested where to buy “uniforms”, maps, etc. In the evenings we sat on the Internet, read about tourist tents, backpacks, shoes, clothes, as they say, “he who is knowledgeable is armed.” We started going to tourist shops to look and ask prices, because in our version everything had to be multiplied by three.

But the question still remained open: with whom to go on a hike, and along what route. After all, even though we went to Crimea to vacation not for the first time, it’s one thing to lie on the beach “belly up” and quite another to walk through the mountains, and even with a child.

And one fine day I came across the website for hiking in Crimea OutdoorUkraine.com, read about the routes, people’s reviews, recommendations and... after showing it to my husband, it was unanimously decided to go on the “WATER and STONES” hike, which is organized by Kirill Yasko.

And time flew so quickly, because there was so much to buy. We were going camping for the first time in our lives, so we had nothing, absolutely nothing. We made a list of the necessary equipment and things that we needed on the hike, and bought everything, as I already wrote, multiplying by three. A kind of euphoria reigned in our family.

But I will say right away that our relatives were not enthusiastic about our idea at first. You can understand them, they were worried, but when they found out that we were not going on our own, that we would have a guide, they calmed down a little.

And now it’s the beginning of June. All the necessary equipment was purchased, and tickets to Simferopol were purchased (tickets were purchased 45 days in advance, because this is a problem in the summer season). We already know the time of collection, the name and surname of the guide...

Chapter 2. “Hike”

Day 1.

We arrived in Simferopol from Donetsk early in the morning, handed over our backpacks to the storage room and went for a walk around the city, because... We still had 3 hours before the group gathered. At 9:30 we are at the appointed place. After some time, a guy and a girl approached us and asked which route we were taking. It turned out to be Elena and Eustace. Hello guys! Hearing the name of the route, Yura came up to us, and later Alexander. After some time, another guy, Dmitry, appeared. At the appointed time, Kirill and Svetlana arrived and introduced us to our guide, Alexander, Hello Sanya! The last to arrive was Sergei.

So, there are 10 of us together with the guide. The products were distributed among the participants of the hike and packed in backpacks (Lena and I were lucky, we had a mostly male group, so our men bore the brunt, for which we thank them very much). A souvenir photo in the “big city” and off you go.

We took a trolleybus to the village. Perevalnoe and there, as they say, we said goodbye to civilization by taking the “donkey path.” The climb was not difficult, but for me personally, as a newcomer who came from a city of mines and factories, who did not have any physical training, who leads a sedentary job, since I am an accountant, it was a bit difficult. The excess of clean air, the smells of flowers and herbs made my head spin. But as they say in jokes - a joke, with stops we reached the top of the “Wind Rose”. When we sat on the top, its name became clear - a very piercing wind. And from all sides. But the view that opened up to us... was very beautiful, and hawks were soaring in the sky!

Having descended from the top, we headed to the equipped cave Emine-Bair-Khosar. Dressed warmly, because the cave was only +5°C, we went on an excursion. It was our first time in the cave. Very beautiful and unusual. My son, looking at the remains of the mammoth, said that he imagined the mammoth to be a little different - like in a cartoon - big and shaggy.

Speaking of my son, he is 9 years old and, like us, he went camping for the first time. To be honest, there were doubts whether to take it with us or not. Or maybe send him to a children's camp during our trip? But it would not be fair to deprive a child of the impressions of a joint trip with his parents. I was worried whether it would be difficult for him, whether he would be able to go the whole way along with adults. Will he freeze in the tent at night? Will he eat food cooked over a fire?

But all my doubts were in vain!!! He turned out to be a great guy. The hike was easy for him, he walked ahead with the guide, was completely delighted with what was happening, worried about those lagging behind (for me and my colleague from Moscow - Yura) everywhere and in everything he tried to imitate our guide, even at rest stops Danin’s backpack lay next to Sanya’s backpack. He ate absolutely everything that was prepared and went to bed without any persuasion, without hind legs. And in the morning, as if nothing had happened, “forward and singing” to new peaks, waterfalls, valleys, canyons. The guys even joked that he carried batteries in his backpack, from which he was charged. But seriously, in his backpack he carried his sleeping bag, rug, raincoat, flashlight, his things and our dishes. In general, his backpack weighed no less than 7 kg.

... after looking at the cave, taking a lot of photos, having a snack, we headed to our first place for the night. We spent the night under the arch of the grotto. The weather was a little gloomy and cold. We set up our tents, the guys collected firewood and lit a fire. Over a delicious dinner, under the crackling fire, we got to know each other better. We had an international group of 3 guys from Moscow, our family from Donetsk, Berdyansk, Partenit, Makeevka, Saki of completely different ages and different professions with different hobbies, but I can say with full responsibility ALL THE GUYS ARE JUST SUPER!!! After sitting for a while, we headed to our “homes,” as we jokingly called our tents. At night there was heavy rain, lightning, thunderstorm. The morning was also cloudy and it started to rain.

Day 2.

My husband and I woke up early, but as it turned out, we were not the only ones who were already awake. Lena and Yura had already woken up too, and it was decided to go for water in an unequipped cave, where Sanya took the guys in the evening, among whom was Elena. Elena is our “Susanin” in search of water. We didn’t find the cave right away, we got lost a little, but still Lena led us correctly. This cave was radically different from the one we visited yesterday: no light for you, very dark, slippery, damp, but SO INTERESTING!!! Like speleologists, we climbed through narrow passages in search of water.

...after having breakfast and packing up the camp, we crossed the lower plateau covered with karst sinkholes and numerous caves. After a long climb, we were supposed to find ourselves on one of the highest peaks of Crimea - Eklizi-Burun (1527m), but due to very heavy fog, the weather deteriorated and was unpredictable, we rose to a height of 100 meters less, and our guide decided to start descending along the southern slope.

Our second stop was in a very beautiful place - a beech forest. I would like to note that all our sites were beautiful in their own way.

Day 3.

...through beech forest and wild alpine gardens we hit the road. By lunchtime we climbed to the top of South Demerdzhi. That day we were caught in the rain (the only time) during the entire hike we got wet. The road was wet, the climb was long, we didn’t reach the Valley of Ghosts that day, but set up camp in the gorge. My mood somehow dropped. We were wet, tired, the fire could not be lit (it was very damp all around). But our men did not give up, somehow the fire was lit, and what a fire!!! Dinner was prepared, shoes and clothes were dried and we warmed up... We sat for a long time that evening, laughed, told jokes, played a game, took pictures. And in the morning, looking around, we saw that we had spent the night in a very picturesque place, we also sat in the morning by the fire, chatted, drank tea, and set out on the road already around 12 noon.

Day 4.

Our way up passed through stone chaos (a collection of huge boulders) and the famous Valley of Ghosts (a whole garden of bizarre stone pillars). The weather was pleasant and the mood was excellent. In the Valley of Ghosts we even fooled around (Lena and Eustace put on their raincoats and pretended to be ghosts). Danya brought a goat from somewhere that was grazing in the valley and got lost. Our group fed her candy, she took a souvenir photo with us, and we set off. We set up our camp in a birch grove (tourist camp Dzhurla). The men took a refreshing shower in the stone bath of Jurla Falls. That evening we didn’t sit for long and went home somewhat early.

Day 5.

Morning. We leisurely have breakfast and pack up camp. And after a few more hours of traveling along the Demerdzhi slope we will reach the Khapkhal gorge. Here is the deepest waterfall in Crimea - Dzhur-Dzhur. A very beautiful sight. Usually travelers stop there. Our guide leads us further - behind the waterfall. This is where the most interesting cascades are located. We spent the night near one of them to the sounds of falling water.

This is our last night on the hike, during this time we have already become friends, it seems that we have known each other for a hundred years. We saw a lot, experienced a lot together. We sat and drove away the thought that tomorrow we would have to leave. We sat and remembered that we had only recently met in Simferopol, that it was just the beginning of the campaign and how in an instant everything was coming to an end. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers, and it was unanimously decided to meet exactly a year later with the same team at the same time, but only along a different route on a hike in Crimea. We sat for a long time and didn’t want to sleep...

Day 6.

Day six. Farewell day. Having collected the camp, we went down to the village. Generalskoe, from there we drove up to the village on a passing UAZ. Solnechnogorsk. Sea. Yes, we saw it on the 2nd day after climbing to the top - Eklizi-Burun and now it is in front of us. Having thrown away their backpacks, everyone rushed off to swim. And there is only one thing in my head, we did it!!! We passed!!!

Chapter 3. "Epilogue"

Before the hike, I thought I was “not a hiker,” but I was wrong. Me, my family and our friends had an unforgettable experience. Maybe the body received a shock from constant descents and ascents, loads. But I know for sure that there was some kind of reboot of the body, an injection of adrenaline.

I know for sure that our son will remember his first trip all his life. And I know for sure that this is not our last adventure.

I want to say a big thank you to our guide, Alexander Arkhipov, for being there, for showing us the extraordinary beauty of the place, for the delicious food at the fire. Sanya, thank you very much!!!

Thanks to all the guys in our group for their support and company. Our group was really very friendly.

Golovko Oksana, Alexey and Danya, Donetsk