Lifting off the ground

This was the first “wild” vacation in my life. And probably the most extreme. The body only had time to be surprised))) Every time the guide set a new goal for us, I wanted to ask, “Lyosha, are you kidding me? This is impossible!" But what’s funny is that, on the whole, we overcame the descents and ascents without titanic efforts. Although the first climb to the lower plateau surprised us greatly))

I never thought that I could walk up a mountain with a 20 kg backpack for 2 hours. But when we finally reached our first height, we shouted with joy.

And yet, these difficulties also had their advantage: they brought us together, and in general it seemed that we had known each other for a long time. The wonderful mountains (I saw them for the first time in my life) compensated for the fatigue with their beauty. And in general, throughout the first day we communicated more and more with some interjections “ah!”, “wow!”, “wow!” and “wow!”

Our small group consisted only of beginners: no one had hiking experience. But our guide Lyosha, calm as a tank, inspired us to new “feats” and encouraged us every time. In general, already on the second day we began to get comfortable and walked more cheerfully, forgetting about the unnecessary conventions of civilization. For the first few days, it was simply impossible to think about home: the new environment and unusual difficulties completely occupied my head. But we slept like the dead.

I can never forget the second day of the hike, when we climbed to the upper plateau of Chatyr-Dag, having previously been caught in a downpour. It is about 1500 meters above sea level. We stood in the clouds. They stretched low in a ragged fog over the plateau. It was very beautiful. A dog suddenly ran out of the fog towards us, followed by another group of pedestrians. There was a rather cold wind on the plateau, but none of us caught a cold during the entire hike, despite the fact that we got wet more than once.

Then we climbed Demerdzhi. Mentally, I still stand on that path, at the very edge, and look around. It's raining lightly. The fog plays hide and seek with us: sometimes we stand on the edge of the ocean of milk, sometimes distant settlements open up to us. Beautiful!

On the penultimate day we were already briskly, almost skipping, walking towards Karabi. To be honest, we were glad that the guide Lesha, having calculated our strength, did not take us to the plateau itself, and we stayed overnight on its slope. The evening remained free, there was time to sit and think about the hike, watching the sunset. Night Alushta was burning with multi-colored lights.

On our last morning we quickly got ready and hurried to the sea. On the way, we joyfully imagined how we would run into it. That day the sea turned out to be cold, so we ran out of it at the same speed as we ran in)))) But it was very refreshing after so many days without a shower.

I didn’t want to part with the mountains. I wanted to wash off and sleep in the city and return to another hike in a couple of days. And now I’m still tempted to go somewhere, and it’s best to go uphill))) Crimea, we’ll be back)))