The altitude, the lack of a path or map, the fog, the ash terrain, the steepness, the snow, the hail then the lightning made this one of the hardest one day walks of my life. Pretty flowers though.
A Summer Stroll up Mount Aragats November 7th 2011 It had been a tough walk. In fact it had been one of the most difficult one-day walks of my life. It began inauspiciously when our 5am taxi ran out of fuel halfway up the extinct volcano. For some reason he tried to chug the ancient Lada – the only car to be seen in in Armenia – up the rest of the steep winding road using the fumes in the carburettor. Finally we drew to a standstill, altho ... read more
Asia » Armenia » West » Mount Aragats Armenia prides itself on being the first nation to formally adopt Christianity (early 4th century). Despite periods of autonomy, over the centuries Armenia came under the sway of various empires including the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Otto... ... read more
When I started this blog in 2007, it was more of a highlights package of trips generally focusing on one place or aspect. My rule had been one blog per country unless I lived there, but I eventually realised that fewer blogs were appearing. Having got around quite a bit, I'm now revisiting many countries. It's getting trickier to get to completely new countries so I might break that rule on occasion. The PhD fortunately didn't curtail travelling with research in sub-Saharan Africa and India as well as the chance to attend conferences with a sneaky bit of travelling tacked on before or after th... full info