The Armenian hospitality
I left my Armenian friend Laci and went on with my journey to Iran. It was a 425km long pretty hard track. I had 5 days to complete it, and in the meantime I planned to visit three monasteries along the way.
The first one, Khor Virap, was right next to a village, was a detour of just a couple of kilometres and was on an almost flat terrain. From the backyard of the monastery I had stunning view on Mount Ararat; the snowy peaks of the Lesser- and Greater Ararat (3925m and 5165m) showed a majestic view. Also in the backyard there was a man sitting with a moustache. I just had to take a picture of his extraordinary moustache.
To the border of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakhchivan_Autonomous_Republic) I followed the plain riverbed of the Aras river, on a nice and good track. But out of nowhere the road turned left and started to climb. Enormous wind started to blow, bringing a sandstorm with him. I was cycling for an hour already in the dark, no sign of any village anywhere. Then again, just out of nowhere a car stopped next to me and a shady looking person signed towards me, that I should follow him. I was pretty tired, so declining the offer did not even crossed my mind. Than, at his house, I knew I was in good company. I was meet by his wife, son and grandchild. After I washed my hands I was invited to dinner. Tigran, my host, brought in a bottle of cognac and we drank two glasses just before dinner. Then another one "za druzbu" (for friendship) and another one "za nás krestansky narod" (for our Christian nation), than a fifth and sixth followed... I do not speak a word in the Armenian language, but my knowledge of the Slovak language helps me a lot in the whole Caucasus, as the elderly people all speak Russian. It was the next day that I realised how much of a blessing it was that I got invited, and that I accepted the invitation. The road was still climbing, from 1150m up to 1815m, and I saw no house anywhere near me.
It was midday already when I got to the road leading to the Noravank monastery; and it took me additional two hours to climb up to the monastery. But standing in front of it, I must tell, it was well worth the trouble. From there the road led me through a narrow canyon, which was pure enjoyment, although it did not last longer than 10 minutes. That day, together with the detour to the monastery, I made 2040m in elevation, and it was this day when I passed the 2000km mark.
From there I followed the beautiful valley of the Arpa river. Next to the road there were many nice looking restaurants, some of them partly build on the river. The weather on the other hand was not so nice. For the night I had to find shelter in a hut made of reed, due to the immense wind which was blowing, but I was afraid that the wild will blow me away together with the hut. In this grim weather I was thinking of the struggle of Zsolt Erőss and his team; it was just couple a days since I got the news that they went missing in the Himalayas.
The next morning the wind was still blowing. Then, around 11 o’clock, it just stopped. I started to climb, but up in the mountain pass it was already pitch dark and thunder came from all sides. Pouring rain followed soon. I assumed that from the mountains I just would have to slowly roll down; from 2350m till the Tatev monastery. Far from it! I got down to 2100m, than I climbed up to 2200m, than down to 1950m, just to go up to 2100m again. I was tortured by the elevations and the pouring rain. As I did not have the time to put on my waterproof clothing, I was soaking wet, and the temperature got down to 6 degrees. In the meantime lightning struck into the electricity pylon next to the road, which replied with a strange murmuring sound.
According my Visa, I would have to enter Iran till May 30th for my 30 day tourist Visa to be valid. For that reason I wanted to enter the country at least on the 29th, so that they would not even have a reason to not let me in. I left the Armenian border 23:40, but what I did forget was that there is a time difference of half an hour in Iran. That meant that I entered Iran 00:15. But luckily, the customs officers did not questioned me why did I wait till the last day to validate my Visa. With that I got a new stamp in my passport with the date: 1392.3.9.
Just to compare: on the first part of the expedition I cycled 1420km with 7860m elevation, and during the second part, the Georgian-Armenian track, I made 898km with 12525m elevation.
