Arkhyz, Karachay-Cherkessia, Russian Federation
MIR Trip Notes: Day 7 - Mezmay, Drive to Arkhiz via Maykop
Drive to Maykop this morning.
Maykop, a small city north of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, began in ancient times as a settlement of aboriginal people called Circassians. There language, Adyge, is distantly related to Georgian with closer ties to several obscure languages in this northern Caucasus region. In Adygey, Maykop means "valley of the apple trees." Maykop borders the Belaya, or "White" River, whose valley produces fragrant Crimean roses and lavender, melons, hemp, tobacco, and sunflowers. Maykop is a center for the study of the Adyge people and language, as well as an oil and gas repository.
Visit musical instrument maker and music teacher and explore his house museum.
Drive through the valley, passing through Cossack villages, to the town of Zelenchukskaya, to got a look at the largest raddo-telescope in the world, the RATAN-600. Its name is an acronym for the "Academy of Sciences Radio Telescope-600." The telescope dish has a diameter of nearly 2,000 feet and is used to sweep the skies for radio frequenceis.
On the way to Arkhyz, make a stop at a powerful 10th Century Alanian stone church. The Alans converted to Christianity in the 9th century and built these small churches on hills and mountaintops.
Continue to Arkhyz, a village of some 600 souls located in the North Caucasus, abut 45 miles inland from the Black Sea. Founded in 1923, it's particularly famed for its proximity to the ruins of Maghas, capital of the medieval kingdom of Alania and an important way station on the Silk Road.
Dinner, and overnight at the ski resort: Romantik Hotel, Arkhyz Russia, Phone: 8-800-550-1650
Driving time today win total will be 6-7 hours.
Well, it would certainly be nice to get more than 5-6 hrs of sleep tonight ... if I push myself to be efficient and get today's blog down before 11 pm. Now it is 10 pm and I should have been farther along since we had an earlier arrival and dinner.
I woke up around 5:30 am again but managed to stay in bed until 10 of 6 when I got up, packed up and went for a short walk after asking Olga if I could help her in the kitchen. She said no. I took a few photos around the village but nothing spectacular. Came back to Olga's wonderful breakfast - blini with smetana (sour cream), egg and sausage, and tea once I figured out that the hot water and tea bags were on the table.
We were supposed to leave at 8 am but everyone was ready ahead of time so we decided to leave early. Today was a long day of driving. I had discovered that our rooms led off to a long balcony.
..and I wished I had taken advantage of it .
We drove off on the bumpy road, got out of the van so our driver could drive across the rickety planks on the bridge and then went off to begin our day's journey. Our first stop was in Maykop at the home and workshop of a man who plays and mak.es traditional Circassian musical instruments. With him were his grandson and a student who also played the traditional stringed instrument - Shishashik or something like that. The grandson seemed very talented and the young woman student was both talented (she had won competitions) and very beautiful. Circassian women have this reputation. Maykop is the capital of the Adygea Autonomous Republic where one of the Circassian 12 tribes is concentrated after their previous exodus from this area.
It was amazing to learn that Zamudin Guchef, the musician and musical
instrument maker, used dried out stems to make flute instruments - very
long ones. He uses ash or pear for the outsides of his stringed
instruments and soft pine or fir for the cover. He made small ones for
children to use and learn on so that playing music would appeal to
them. He also makes traditional reed mats on looms and demonstrated
that for us.
We made an impromptu stop at a new mosque and the imam was very happy to see tourists from the US and made a speech telling us how his people welcomed Americans and loved us and that it is our governments that cause problems and not their peoples.
We had to put o gowns and head scarves to enter the mosque. It was nice to exchange good will.
I can't remember where we went next and when, but when we went to have lunch in a shopping mall in Moskovskoy, the cafe had disappeared so instead we all picked up lunch in the supermarket. I got some really good yogurt, some crackers - not quite so good, 2 small nectarines that I saved for later and a chocolate bar that I ate immediately. I went in search of the restroom. Then Jim joined me in the quest. We got instructions to go outside the building and across the street. Jim went ahead and I went back to tell Michel or Olga where we were going. Michel then helped me to find the restroom. By then Jim had found and rejected it, so he guarded the area while I hit the bushes. Right after that, we joined the others who had gone into the abandoned restaurant, ignoring the do not enter signs and used that bathroom. There was a quick stop for Betty to get some medciation for her cough and we were off again.
I think our next stops were the sunflower fields where we took photos of the gorgeous sunflowers. People were trying to guess how many acres or hectares of land they covered. Lots. I saw some crop with white flowers in several fields and was told that it was buckwheat. We also saw corn and hay. Oh, yes and lots of hogweed - the poisonous plant that looks like cow parsley. There was tons of it along the road and in the fields.
After lunch, we visited the largest radio-telescope in the world. It was hard to tell it was a telescope. It looks kind of like solar panels standing up in a very large circle. Was it 600 feet in diameter? Maybe not. We had a scientist from the project telling us about it. There are only 20 scientists working on it and it is underfunded. They got donations from some Russian man. Some scientists from the US tried to help them with something but were not able to do so. Then they read an article from a US publication and figured out that they could use a guitar to tune the apparatus to reduce the tension by getting the right frewuency.
Or something like that. We got to climb up a tower and get a topside view. It was fun. Our scientist guide did not have much use for those useless American advisors.
Our final visit was to three Alani churches - the oldest built originally in 10th c bc when the Alani - origin of Ossetian peoples - converted to Christianity. The first church was small but had icons and candles and a gift shop. Betty bought an Easter egg. The next two churches were later with more Byzantine influenced structure and empty. They were larger. The hogweed was growning around here as well.
Our ski lodge hotel was only another 30-45 minutes away so off we sped and we got there before 7 pm - a whole hour ahead of schedule. We went down to dinner at 7:15 pm without changing or much other preparation. These are long days and most of us are beat....maybe because we are also getting on in years. I sat across from Jerry next to the end with Paul and Kay next to us. Today we had a Lebanese style dinner. We had some khatchapuri and a plate of vegetbles grilled with zucchini and eggplant and roasted peppers at our end of the table. A small plate. We were not sure whether there was going to be a second plate of meat and mushrooms coming down to our end of the table. There wasn't. Kay and Jerry got us the plate and took some meat and I teased Jerry about taking the last mushroom. Then Paul went up to get some meat. Finally I went up and whinged a bit about not getting any mushrooms. The chef left at 7 so we couldn't get any more mushrooms. I think we need to change how the food is distributed at meals because this is the second time that I ended up with the dregs at dinner. We did have a chance to order dessert but nothing appealed to me that much and I had already eaten a candy bar. I was eating more than I should anyway.
I followed Kay out - both of us with the rest of our beers in hand - and we vented a bit about our various issues.
So when I got back to my room, I sent off some photos to facebook and family and then started on this blog. I will copy yesterday's blog into TravelArk and then get ready for bed and leave everything else for tomorrow. I will have to leave a little extra time. I have been waking up earlier than my alarm so hopefully it will work out.
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2025-05-22