Cycling Sevan Lake | curiouscycling

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.