Armenian border crossing was relatively quick, one and a half hours. But then there was no others in queue. We have now become five cars after another Swedish car has joined. But with so many cars there are also many opinions about where to go and where to stay. So we drive two different routes to Armenia to meet in the evening. The first planned location is a lake that turns out to have dried in. Then we find another lake in an Armenian national park called Arpi. On the way to the park on probably the world’s most bumpy road, we are surprised by a fierce storm, heavy rain and roaring thunder. The landscape is now savanna-like, without trees, so the wind is very strong. We do not look forward to stay the night over in the roof tent in this storm.
After a little exploration we find a possible place all the way down to the sea, in the shelter of a ruin. Around us there is a mix of farm ruins and impecunious farms. Cows walk freely and we need to carefully watch our steps to avoid dragging their leftovers into the tent. Just after we hit camp, an old Lada shows up with a policeman who says a lot we do not understand. But Elin comes to clarify the situation. Everything is much easier when you speak Russian. Because we are in a national park, we must register at the office. We jump into a car, joins the man and get registered. No information about this is to see anywhere, but that’s the way it is.
Luckily the wind calms down so we erect the tent without any problems. During the night, we wake up to the sound of what we think is rushing motorcycles, but the sound fortunately turns out to be just the wind raging with the roof tents.
Next day, 3 cars will go to Yerevan and two to Ararat, on the Armenian side. And then our fan belt came apart more than 10 miles from civilization and with a miserable road to drive. Of course, we have spares, and tools so it is to start mending. But it appears that the tightening mechanism is rusted, so it is difficult to fix. Two Armenian cars stop and we get help. The Armenians from the National Park quickly take over the show and we become bystanders. This is about nothing less than the honor of the nation. After a while, one of the helpers pulls of the tightening bolt, and maybe it’s just OK. We must be towed to the nearest workshop. Normally it’s easy, but not when the road is as bad as here. The tow car must constantly slow down to avoid huge holes, and it goes up and down in slopes with an increase of over 10%. That is tiring when the brake servo don’t work.
In the end Otto is quite sweaty. The workshop fixes it all in an hour, price 12 USD. At the workshop there was a skilled mechanic who worked, one who was a boss and five who watched.
Yerevan
Yerevan is one of the oldest cities in the world with continuous settlement. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see that today. The city is characterized by high-rise buildings, semi-finished buildings and cranes all over the place. The traffic is intense, our taxi was doing 100 through the city streets one evening, at the same time as the driver was using two mobiles. The center is characterized by a uniform architecture, perhaps post-Soviet with a certain oriental character. Same colors, same style everywhere. But there is a lot of life with restaurants and street life. Certainly an exciting city for party-party. We are not quite there anymore and left after an overnight stay.
But fortunately, we found some ancient churches and a monastery on our way back to Georgia. Armenia was the first Christian country in the world with churches dating back to the 400’s. They are cross-shaped, usually quite small with very little decoration. But they have a unique atmosphere and are quite spectacularly laid on tops and heights. We visited the Gerghardt monastery, built in the mountains. A fascinating atmosphere inside the monastery area and in the churches.
