August 6 - Howling winds

It was a beautiful morning, the storm had long passed and I enjoyed the views of the Noravank monastery and it's surroundings. On the way back to the gorge, I stopped at the creek that was responsible for carving out the gorge itself and took a refreshing plunge into the cool water.

Tent, bike, monestery

More canyon

Continuing eastwards, I got to the town of Yeghegnadzor, where - and this is a spoiler - I discovered a camping, where I was to stay a few days later. I also exchanged some money, got my cell phone set up and had some tasty, but rather fetty food. Little didid I know how badly I was going to need it, as there was a pass of 2344 meters ahead of me. The first part was easy, gradual incline next to a river.

Then, quite suddenly, the landscape opened up and it was the lonely biker against the might of the winds blowing right at me. It was a slow, very slow, going, the only exception were the switchbacks, where I was literally blown uphill. II thought my perilscwould never end, the wind was playing with me, it would throw me left, then right, I was trying not to end up under the wheels of a lorry, much less to fall off a cliff. It was quite late by the time I had reached the summit, where I bought an inconsumable corn (got my money back after some complaining).

Mountains everywhere

A switchback

I dressed up in warm clothes, thinking the road would drop sharply after the pass, which it did for a few minutes; but then it was level, no, even going up. There was a large lake and I found a dirt road leading to the shore. There I set up my tent and retired for the night - under zillions of stars.

My campsite