octobre | 2019 | curiouscycling

June 29th – 30km, 675+, Garni
June 30th – 6km, 500+, Goght
July 1st to 4th, Goght
July 5th – 62kms, 20+, Khor Virap

Leaving the city we got flushed by heavy rain – we “missed” this after a few days in an apartment. So we stayed in Garni village to dry, and take some rest, as we had some stomach ache. In Garni, a pagan site was rebuilt from its ruins. The place was very green, surrounded by mountains and rivers. After a week staying in a big city, it really felt good to walk around and see the nature again.

The following days, as soon as we still had to wait for our package, we decided to pitch our tent in a camping. And what a place! In the 3GS camping we had 2 great kitchens, a swimming pool, nature and mountains close by, clean toilets and very very nice people. By far the best camping we have ever seen. Well, ok, this was the first official camping of our journey, but still a very nice place. There, we met some traveling friends (Silke and Jan’s FB page) and spent 6 very nice days until our package finally arrived. It was very good to hang with some friends again, sharing good food & good discussions.

Close to the camping stands the beautiful Goght monastery, right on the side of the mountain. Lots of tourists were there. Weird to see all those buses full of people… But still, it is worth the climb there. Also, we saw a kind of a weird tradition: people use to hang some tissues or objects on the trees, in order to make a wish. It could be a nice tradition, but in our days, we saw specially plastic bags, baby wipes, toilet paper and dirty sockets. Not exactly the nicest thing to see hanging in the trees. Especially when the track to a panoramic view goes RIGHT in all these trash-hanging branches.

Make a wish and put some trash on the trees.

After the visit and while we came back to the camping, we met on the road a South Korean cyclist, on the road for 3 years already. This guy was friendly and we are always happy to meet other cyclists travellers to share our experiences. But… But something was slightly weird with his behavior. For instance, one of the first question he asked was “Where do you sleep tonight?”, which is rather unusual as a first talk (specially in the mornind and as we were going in opposite directions). We told him that we were staying in a campiste. Well, he never showed up to our camping.
We learned later in a Whatsapp groupe that this guy is actually stealing money from other travellers, and had already been in jail for having robbed around 15000 USD (from cyclists especially)! We were shocked. The cycling people is usually a nice community where everyone help and respect to each other, whatever the way, speed or reason of their travel. So another lesson learned: even though we meet mainly nice people on the road, we should always remain vigilant.

Some months later, as we’re talking to another cyclist, we told him that we were shoked about this history. He was worried and wanted to know the name of this guy. We told him that his name is John. Our friend was very disturbed and asked us to show him a picture. We did so. In this moment he said:
– I traveled with this guy, John, for one week in Georgia. After he left, I figured out that my money was missing. So far, I never knew who stoled it from me: was it one of those nice families that hosted me? Someone in the hostel? An uknown person while I was sleeping? I never talked about it with anyone, because I never knew who I could blame. Now I’m happy that, at least, I know who made it.
We said that we were very sorry about it. We asked him how much was robbed from him.
– Around 1000 dollars… Also, I just figured out that this money was missing when I entered Iran, where I can not use my credit card anymore. Fortunately, I was lucky that during my journey in Iran people were often inviting me and giving me food. Finally, all this money was not that necessary anymore, it came back to me in another way.

*99,99% of the people we meet are just great!*

During a quiet sunny morning, the miracle happened : FedEx informed us that our package finally arrived in Yerevan! AND that it should be ready for pick up during the afternoon, after custom clearance!! Alleluia!!!!
So we prepared everyting we needed to arrange the wheels, informed the most trustful bike shop we could find that we will arrive during the afternoon and jumped in a cab to Yerevan.

We were so happy to receive this stupid package. After sending back the stuff we didn’t need anymore (using the regular post office…), we headed to « My Bike » bicycle shop in Yerevan. The former mechanic of the Armenian’s racing bike team is working there – quite a straightforward guy. Golden teeth, getting chubby after retire from cycling, strong like a caucasian bear, accurate eyes. And well, we trusted him. We had the Rohloff wheel fixed, relaced and trued within 10 minutes, using the good old style earing with vodka adjustment technic (forget to find a mechanic with tensiometer for your wheel in Central Asia). The job was done, we were ready to hit finally the road again. Close to 6000kms later on horrible gravel roads among others, the wheel hasn’t moved!

When we finally left our camping, we met again a super kind German couple, Simon and Claudia, who are overlanding with their fully revamped T3 van. We were both going to the same place, Khor Virap. It is a monastery with a nice view on the Ararat mountain (where Noah is supposed to have landed on after the Great Flood).

Armenian cemetery. You usually find those images on the tombstones (that really look like ghosts from far). But you’ll also find picnic tables, barbecue and fountains close to the road, where people died on car accidents.

Simon and Claudia found a super nice camping spot on the top of a hill, with a wonderful view. We put up our tent and, after some moments, wind. More wind. A huge and powerful sand storm, actually. The wind was so strong, that we were afraid it could break our tent – the hoops were bending like crazy. In a rush, we took our tent off and jumped in Simon & Claudia’s van, protected from the sandstorm. While this storm was going on, we saw a big bush fire, getting bigger and bigger every second because of the wind. Claudia and Larissa were really not feeling very safe there, but it does not seem to bother Pierre and Simon. After some discussion around sand-crunchy pasta, it has been decided to change our camping spot, going down the hill where we could potentially find a place protected from the wind (and the fire?). We found a place, in the middle of the trash, having the nice company of some scorpions. Larissa woke up in the middle of the night because it was smelling smoke. It was a false alert, the fire was far. And Pierre was sleeping as a baby, anyway. Back to sleep, pay attention with the scorpions, please.

June 21st – 62km, 380+, Sevan
June 22nd – 70km, Yerevan
June 23rd to 28th – waiting in Yerevan

First of all, thanks for all your comments and messages – yes we got them.
We’re very happy that you’re following our adventure and supporting us. Thanks, thanks.

Also yes, it has been some months without posting anything… Well, it is easy to explain: after Armenia we went to Iran, were most websites (Google, Booking, Facebook and… WordPress) are blocked. Also the people there rarely gave us some free time to work on this blog. Arrived in Central Asia, WiFi speed drastically dropped. In Turkmenistan, we barely had internet access in the desert and 5 days to cross the country was kind of a rush. In Uzbekistan, we could use internet with some freedom, but it was so slow we gave up to post anything. In Tajikistan, some parasites kept us busy and you can forget decent internet in the Pamir. In Kyrgyzstan, Fall arrived with consistent temperature & daylight drop and as we are now leaving as chicken, as soon as it was dark and cold, we were sleeping. In Kazakhstan, we were just cycling quickly to catch our plane.

That’s it for the spoilers. Now we left the beautiful mountains, the cold, Central Asia and autumn behind us. With an airplane, we joined Bangkok – Thailand, were we drink as much coconut water as our bodies can absorb (yes, our plan changed, we won’t have time to see much in SE Asia as initially planned). And guess what? We got a cold HERE because of the AC. Not at 4000m lost in the Pamir, not in the frozen steppes of Central Asia. Here, Bangkok, Thailand, tropical country. Well, we cannot complain…

So finally, we take the time to write a post here. It’s always a pleasure to read our notes, see the pictures and remember all the way that we have done. And even cooler to share all of those stories with you. The following posts we’ll be smaller than the others (as we have some delay), with pictures and quick information. Hope you’ll like it! Take care and big sweaty hugs to all of you:)

On our last day on the surroundings of the lake, we visited Sevan city and it’s famous monastery.

We camped close to the lake and could see the other side of the post card… The water of the lake is rising, and many constructions are getting flooded by the water. The day after, we met locals fishing just in front of their houses, so close to the water. We exchange some words with them and understood they were quite desperate, as they know their house will be flooded soon – just a matter of time – and the government won’t do anything to help them.

We went downhill from Sevan lake to Armenian’s capital, Yerevan. As we were going on lower altitude, the landscape changed quickly. Basically, the vegetation was going from green to yellow, showing a much dryer ambiant down there. Our daily storms were left behind. Also, the mosquitoes seem to be happier in Sevan lake than in the capital.

In Yerevan, once again, we were lucky to be hosted by a local, Tigran. Tigran hosted us for 2 days. We could discover the city, the armenian food, enjoy a folk concert and have some pleasant moments together. Thanks Tigran for your hospitality and kindness!

As our package from France with some spare parts was lost in the wonderful world of the international logistic, we decided to rent a small appartment to wait decently. Everyday, we called the Fedex customer service to check if our package arrived. Everyday, the answer was the same: not yet, please contact us again tomorrow. It was like this for 11 days.

We enjoyed this waiting period to visit the city, get some fat again after 3 months of camping food, maintain the bikes, wait again, plan the itinerary. After a while and as our money was flying, we were just tired of the city. So we took our bikes and went camping in the mountains, relatively close to the city so we could come back easily once this damn package will arrive. We needed to see something else.