Hiking

There is a beautiful little spot in the Khosrov Nature Reserve called Havuts Tar (literally - Chicken Roost) with a half-ruined monastery/fortress and a church called Amenaprkich (All-Savior). This complex was built in 11-13 centuries and later destroyed by an earthquake. It is located in the most picturesque surrounding you can possibly imagine (see the little arrow on the picture above? That's where the monastery is), with rolling hills on one side, a deep gorge with a river on the bottom - on the other. The village of Garni can be seen across the gorge, and lush greenery surrounds the buildings on all sides. It was to this pretty place we decided to walk last Sunday. To get there, you first need to take a bus to Garni (45 min), then shoulder your backpack and walk down a winding path down to the gorge. From there, you climb up a rocky slope, cross a flat meadow and arrive at a ranger's post. Greeted by a friendly ranger, you rest after the climb, drink ice-cold water from the spring and enter the nature reserve, where a 3-4 mile dirt path takes you to the monastery.

The hike turned out to be full of surprises, which, I am sure, Roxy will soon describe to you in detail. I will just post some pics and hope that I can share at least one percent of the beauty we saw that day.

Here we go - down, down, until we reach the river.

And here is the river, overflowing and muddy, just as it should be in the spring. Usually, it's much more mellow.

Down in the gorge, Roxy and her friend Helen are admiring a small cave.

Then, after crossing over that 11th century bridge down there - a steep climb, and we are already on the other side of the gorge.

There it is, the pagan temple that stands on the outskirts of the village. See how far we came?

The elderly ranger, who really cares about the nature he protects. He lives in this little shack year-round, guarding the gates to the reserve.

This khachkar (cross-stone) is half way between the ranger's shack and the monastery. Can you see the church way back there? That's how far we still have to go :)

There is the village, now seen on the other side of the gorge.

Finally, the monastery.

It's pretty ruined, but there are a lot of interesting details preserved, like this underground chamber.


While we were admiring the sights and having our lunch, the weather changed, it got dark and windy...

and down came hail, followed by a torrential rain...

from which we tried to hide in the only part of the church that still has a roof.

When the hail stopped, we tried to make it back quick, but it was raining cats and dogs, and by the time we made it to the village, you could have squeezed a bucket of water out of our clothes.

Still, I stopped to take this last picture before hopping into a car back to the city. Beautiful, isn't it?