With a 1300m climb on the agenda today, and rain forecast for mid-afternoon, James and I left in the (surprising) sun and (surprising) tailwind up a river gorge. The rain and cold hit at the pass, after which we cycled through the familiar high altitude lunar landscape to our warm and snug abode in Shaki.
Arctic Lake
Easy does it. The road climbs and climbs. The skies were grey and it was a bit hazy, not making for great photos. Still, it was a pleasant cycle.
Poppies
Village shop
Lake Sevan has an arctic feel. With the sun out, we had amazing views of the lake, the barren land, the snow-capped mountains and rusted paraphernalia. Today we had sun, gale-force wind (side and headwind), rain, snow, hail, thunder and lightening. And a 1300m drop into the most amazing valley. Cool!
Rusty train on Lake Sevan
The wind was ferocious – mostly a side-wind along the lake. It added to the arctic, deserted feel of the lake. We stopped numerous times for photos.
Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan
It was 15:45, and we wanted to get over the high pass and down the other side to the valley below. Well. The pass was a monster slog against the headwind, and through the snow. On the 2350m plateau at the top, it started to snow/hail/rain, the hail like bullets blown into our eyes. But my, it was beautiful!
Up out of Lake Sevan
The high pass plateau
Almost at the top of the pass
The view over the valley from the top was nothing short of spectacular. It was a long, long way down.
View from the top of the pass
And we rocketed down. We needed to find somewhere to stay. Camping was not too appealing with this weather, and the next town of any size was 25km down the valley. We are now snug as a bug in a rug (well, two bugs in rugs) in a little hotel on the corner of two roads.
arctic-cycler.com 