Digital Wanderer

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Crimea — 10, Grand Canyon of Crimea, part 2

2011-12-28

So, I left off at the point where nothing good awaited us ahead.

A girl in a red t-shirt and blue bandana squats on a rock by a mountain stream strewn with autumn leaves, touching the water with her hand. In the background, rocky slopes of the gorge and other tourists are visible.

Fortunately, not all at once

Before the complete, hopeless gloom — a magical oasis in the form of bathing pools. The temperature, admittedly, was probably around 10 degrees or less, so we didn't plunge in. I would have liked to, of course, but my neck was hurting more and more by that time.

Four tourists climbing up a rocky trail in a gorge, strewn with autumn leaves and exposed tree roots. A stream flows among the rocks, and cliffs and dense forests rise in the background.

Walking further gets harder and harder

 

A group of five tourists with backpacks walking along a rocky riverbed or gorge. Around them are numerous rocks, spots with a shallow stream, and fallen autumn leaves.

Boulders and snags everywhere

 

A narrow rocky gorge with a stream, completely covered with golden autumn leaves. A tourist with a backpack is standing on the slope on the left.

Interspersed with picturesque puddles

 

A female tourist in a red t-shirt, dark shorts, and with a backpack carefully descends a steep rocky slope strewn with yellow autumn leaves. Cliffs and sparse greenery are visible around.

Have to use our brains butts

 

A narrow mountain gorge with steep rocky walls overgrown with autumn trees with yellow-green foliage, and a dry rocky riverbed strewn with fallen leaves.

The walls are CLOSING IN!

 

Two tourists walking through a rocky gorge, framed by steep cliffs with autumn vegetation. The trail is strewn with fallen leaves and small stones, and large mossy boulders are visible on the ground.

My vision turned green from fear

 

Massive tangled tree roots protrude onto the surface of a rocky forest path strewn with fallen autumn leaves.

In places it's still alright, a little tree here, a bush there

 

A man in glasses and with a backpack scrambles through a narrow rocky gorge, leaning his hands on a rock. Behind him, deeper in the gorge, another person with a backpack follows.

But usually you have to clamber over slippery rocks. And then it started to drizzle

 

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There are already waves in my eyes

 

Three tourists advance along the rocky bottom of a narrow gorge covered with fallen autumn leaves. The tall walls of the gorge are overgrown with moss, and trees with yellowed foliage are visible in the distance.

I'd prefer to go a bit slower here, but people like jumping on wet little rocks like mountain goats

 

Three tourists in an autumn rocky gorge, strewn with fallen leaves and overgrown with moss. One person sits by a small pool of water on the left, the other two stand on a rocky trail on the right.

One even jumped too much

 

A man in a blue tank top wades through a shallow stream among mossy rocks and fallen leaves, while two other men watch him in the background.

And once more — an encore, so the photographer could catch a good shot

Pasha is cracking up like that because he almost fell in this very spot himself, since it's slippery. And Andrey already knew about it, but still took a bath up to his thighs — right up to the spot in his pocket where the camera was lying.

 

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Still not total gloom yet

 

A man in a red t-shirt and a backpack stands on a mossy rock next to a cascading stream. A mountain stream with small waterfalls flows down wet rocks strewn with autumn leaves against the background of a dense forest.

Little streams

 

Three tourists with backpacks rest in an autumn forest covered with fallen leaves and mossy logs. A man in an orange t-shirt sits in the foreground, while two others in red t-shirts, one of whom is holding a lemon, stand or sit slightly further up the slope.

Here Vova already has a premonition of bad things to come

 

A man with glasses and a backpack stands in a wooded gorge behind a fallen mossy log, looking away. He wears a black t-shirt with the word 'LIVESTRONG' and a neck gaiter.

As always, I couldn't care less, I'm ready to walk anywhere for however long, as long as we don't rush

 

A group of tourists with backpacks climbs a steep rocky slope covered with moss and autumn leaves.

You can clearly compare how ordinary people walk versus industrial climbers in the person of Pasha

 

A huge round boulder lies at the bottom of a rocky gorge surrounded by fallen branches. The surface of the rock and the ground around it are strewn with fallen yellow autumn leaves.

The giants from the last episode were playing bowling

 

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Nina elegantly demonstrates how to do lunges properly

 

A group of tourists with backpacks moves through a narrow rocky gorge. The trail is strewn with fallen yellow leaves, and trees with bright autumn foliage are visible on the sides.

The walls are squeezing in again

 

A person with a backpack in an orange t-shirt and gray pants climbs up a narrow rocky gorge, leaning on the trunk of a fallen tree. Above the rocky slopes, tree crowns with autumn leaves can be seen.

Now we are literally clinging on and climbing up

Fortunately, kind people before us took care of all sorts of useful wooden planks. Otherwise, we would have had to use the rope that Vova and Pasha had been dragging along.

 

A group of tourists overcomes a rocky section in the gorge. A woman with a backpack stands in the foreground, and other travelers scramble over wet rocks amidst autumn foliage.

The rock is so monstrously slippery that it's completely incomprehensible how one can stand on it

 

Winter sunset over a snow-covered field with dry grass, viewed from an asphalt road. The sun is low on the horizon, illuminating the landscape with golden light and creating a large reddish glare in the center of the frame.

The canyon is beautiful, but also dangerous

There are no more photos after this. And why is that? It started getting dark and began to rain. If you don't believe that clambering over rocks in the dark under pouring rain is very interesting, you urgently need to try it. You'll remember it for a long time, it's not Disneyland or McDonald's for you. Along the way, we met some pot-bellied local tourists in camouflage and with pushcarts. They marveled at our pace and offered us water collected from the roof of their shelter awning. We had plenty of water, so we waited out the rain a bit and moved on.

The last hour we walked in twilight, and at the end — in pitch darkness. Fortunately, there was already a familiar tourist trail there, but even on it, we couldn't avoid a minor argument about which way to turn. When we got back to the minivan, finding a place to sleep was already a bit tricky. Eventually, for a certain fee, we agreed with the owners of a local tavern to spend the night in sleeping bags on their veranda. The hosts were polite, brought us tea, and asked if we needed anything else. Naturally, we needed vodka and wine. By the way, there was no electricity, and we romantically sat by candlelight. Even when it came back on, and the owners rushed to turn on the light bulbs, we firmly said: "NO."

Six people gathered at a table on a dimly lit terrace or indoors. Bottles, glasses, and two burning candles are on the table, creating a relaxed atmosphere for socializing.

A group of people sits around a candlelit table on an open veranda at night. Bottles of drinks, glasses, and bread are on the table, and one of the men is pouring liquid into a glass.

Everyone enjoyed walking through the canyon. It was an excellent day, and excellent trekking, quite interesting and challenging, and not all that dangerous. True, I did take a tumble once, and now the index finger on my right hand is thicker than normal and aches a bit. Even now! And two months have already passed. Vova also whacked his hand pretty hard once, but didn't say anything, just pulled a savage face for a couple of minutes, and trudged on. Let's all follow his example.

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