After our last night in Armenia, we got the chance to do a good deed, by helping fellow travellers out of a ditch. We had spent the night above the valley of the river Debed near Chochkan, just 15 km from the border. The evening before we had our PCR test done and we will …
We left our caravanserai, to drive down to the big Sewan lake and explore its western shore, where many traces of the Armenian history can be found. The weather had changed and we were not sure to believe the weather forecast: 5-10 cm of snow? South of Noratus, we noticed a tiny chapel at the …
From the main road we took the turn off into the Arpa valley to get to the Gndevaz Monastery. It was a 17 km bumpy ride. We considered ourselves lucky to get there and back without being hit by a landslide. Later we took a walk to a medieval bridge over the same river. After …
We were looking forward to glide over the valley in a gondola to reach the Tatev Monastry on the other side. What we didn’t know, the “Aerial Tramway” doesn’t run on a Monday. My guide book said, that there is a good road down into the valley to the Devils Bridge, but the steep way …
After a refill of the water tank, we drove past Goris, which also has an old cave town, to Khndzoresk, where a suspension bridge takes you over the valley and to the old settlement. Khndzoresk is famous for its canyon with picturesque rock formations and ancient cave settlement. The artificial caves, some of which are …
We had spent the night in Jermuk, in front of the Gladzor hotel, which we wanted to explore more. It was a sunny day, so we walked to the “giant deer” and took the “rope way” up the mountain. We had spotted the deer from the town, and as it reminded us of the giant …
As we check every day our tires in the morning, we recognised a loss of preasure on one of our rear tires. With the on board compressor we filled up, but we lost about 50% every day, so we decided to fix the problem. A “tubeless tire repair set” with rubber stoppers which we carry …
We made our way to Jermuk, where we went to explore the spa town which is known for its hot springs and mineral water which is also bottled in town under the brand Jermuk. Many hotels are waiting for tourists, others are not in use anymore, as we found some abandoned Soviet time buildings. We …
We had discovered a volcano, where a road leads up. The question was, how far we would be able to drive, and how much we would have to walk. Even as the day had started very sunny, in the afternoon clouds came again, but that didn’t stop us from executing our plan. The road starts …
We had waited half a day near the monastery of Khor Virap, in the hope the clouds would disappear, so that we could see Mount Ararat, but no luck. The monastery lies close to the border to Turkey, and the mountain, which is so important to the Armenians that a lot of things are named …
