Didn't stay at home

About how I went to the Kudykin Mountains or Demerdzhi tour on May 8-10, 2010.
Why did I go to the mountains? Who knows))) I wasn’t sitting at home. Seeing my group and Sasha (our guide) at the station, only one thought was spinning in my head - this is a scary thing, a backpack and a hike and in general... But everything turned out to be not as sad as expected;)
Having arrived by trolleybus to the Angarsk Pass, we immediately walked vigorously into the mountains. The forest unexpectedly surprised me with its greenery and colorfulness. For some reason, we were still expecting to see gray trees and... gray trees - since it was only the beginning of May and all that, but no - greenery was blooming all around and making us happy in the spring

Having made a small stop near a beautiful and very hollow tree, we decided that it was time to get ready for the journey, otherwise we would remain a mosquito bite and surrender the battlefield on the first day))) Surprisingly, it should be noted that these blood-sucking creatures feasted only on the first day - the rest of the time without even reminding us of their existence.

Coming out to the MAN clearing, Sasha showed where we would go... and turned in the other direction - our route ran to the MAN cave. The cave turned out to be average and dark, but the path to it was quite colorful - the path went along the edge of a cliff and it was extremely advisable to look at your feet;) and if you add here beautiful views and a variety of flowering plants (I recognized only a wild peony, alas, I didn’t know the others, but the multi-colored carpet is like on the best alpine lawns in front of the banks of megacities, but only it’s all natural;) right away I felt like yes! mountains, Crimea and nature))))

After a snack, we had to stomp back along the already familiar path to the MAN clearing and walk only forward, or, more precisely, to the place of our parking)) there was still a lot of walking, but I wouldn’t say that it was upsetting - rather, on the contrary;) we had to walk along the edge of cliffs where very interesting piles of stones and the results of the work of the winds were revealed.

Yes, at the first stop - everyone got to know each other, and along the way they also worked hard, carrying wood for the fire)) But the night was cool, for some, of course, but because of the cold, I wanted to not give a damn about the fact that normal people sleep at night and at night, and to quickly get out of the tent - light a fire and finally warm up, fortunately the morning did come...

Last evening, the council did not decide who would be the victim and would remain sitting with their backpacks while all the other lucky ones were driven to the top of Demerdzhi, and at the same time to the Valley of Ghosts, the morning did not change the situation in any way, so it was decided to perform this stoic act in an embrace with their backpacks)))

Of course, we reached the top, but the clouds, the rain and fog expected any minute, confused our plans a little and we were not destined to see the Valley of Ghosts:( although... there was something to see there even without the valley - the outlines of cliffs, stone sculptures and bizarrely shaped trees emerging through the fog created an unexpectedly interesting atmosphere around)

I must say that we walked through the fog all day))), and where our view should have opened up to the sea, we saw only a gray wall of clouds woven from fog. These are the kind of lost things we wandered around for the entire second day)))

By nightfall, having learned from bitter experience, I pulled out all the warm clothes I had from my backpack in advance and put them on - yes, the hope of staying warm and getting some sleep at least today did not leave me) What can I say - three sweaters and a jacket on top had their effect and I slept almost until lunch. Besides, we were in no hurry - it was our last day - everyone had trains late in the evening, the only thing left in the plan was the Jur-Dzhur waterfall, plus it rained all night, it was also drizzling in the morning, which, you see, was not conducive to an early excursion from the tents)

After breakfast of oatmeal with pineapples (or stewed meat - whichever you liked more), we hit the road. It was very close to the waterfall - all we had to do was go down the slip path without incident, which we did with great joy. Leaving our backpacks at the entrance with the guards, we went to look at a local landmark))

Beautiful, powerful... good, in a word, waterfall... though it can’t compare with Uchan-Su, although I recently saw photos of the latter - a very seasonal thing - apparently I was lucky to see it during the high water period, but Jur-Jur, according to rumors, is always as powerful as in the spring))

Having looked at the waterfall, we walked upstream and even climbed the rocks a little))))) it was fun, even better than the waterfall itself;) Strangely enough, no one particularly wanted to swim, despite the fact that all the days before that they had only dreamed of swimming, however, some made up for this omission already in Alushta itself;)

That's basically all))). The trip, as for me, turned out to be successful, then why did I go, namely to take a break from everything at home and look and look at the Crimean nature after hibernation, it was done perfectly. Special thanks to the group and guide Sasha)) Good luck to everyone!;)

Natalia Kornienko, Zaporozhye