Posts Tagged ‘Sevan’


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

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

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

Up out of Lake Sevan

The high pass plateau

The high pass plateau

Almost at the top of the pass

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

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.


Sometimes you want to meet the locals, and have a local experience. Sometimes you need quiet and to be by yourself. Today we wanted peace and a good night’s sleep. We had a beautiful day’s cycling in the sunshine to Lake Seven – a beautiful lake surrounded by snowy mountains. And then a 10 hour sleep. Wonderful.

Fisherman on Lake Sevan

Fisherman on Lake Sevan

Today was up, then down, then up, then down. All in the beautiful sunshine in the Armenian mountains. We got an early start from our kind host in Vanadzor as we needed to climb quite some metres today.

View on the way to Dilijan

View on the way to Dilijan

James on the way up

James on the way up

Emerging from the tunnel before Lake Seven we found ourselves in the snow. Cruising down the river, we saw a gap in the mountains open out with each bend in the road, which turned into a wide expanse with snow-capped mountains on the horizon. Beautiful.

Entering Sevan town

Entering Sevan town

All along the road following the lake shore were little huts, and fisherman waiting for cars to pass. They held out their arms, indicating the size of the fish they could sell. They must have mighty big fish in this lake!