I’m writing this post from a rural guesthouse near the city of Sisian in southern Armenia, where I’ve just finished a lovely breakfast of freshly-picked raspberries, cheese curds, sour cream, new season honey, and gata (a type of regional sweet pastry). Yum.
This guesthouse, run by Mher Azoyan and his family on the site of a former Soviet pig farm, was recommended to me last year by a thru-hiker on the Transcaucasian Trail, which stretches around 850km (530 miles) the length of the country and beyond into Georgia – one of dozens of small businesses on the route.
And the Transcaucasian Trail itself emerged in 2015 as a crazy idea I had while trying (and failing) to hike the length of Armenia, a dream I’d had since I first began exploring the country back in 2008.
So much for the reverse backstory! The reason for today’s post is to ask for your help in finishing what I started all those years ago.
Because today is the launch of a two-week fundraising campaign to raise $30,000 to complete the blazing of the Transcaucasian Trail through Armenia, and Georgia, for roughly ~1,500km of waymarked hiking through the Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountains.
I’d like to ask you to donate $15 (the equivalent of about £12/€14) to help make this happen.
Because for me, this represents the closing pages of a chapter of my life that began almost a decade ago. It was in many ways thanks to the support of my readers that the Transcaucasian Trail got off the ground, and it would be fitting for that same community to help finish what I started.
Ultimately, the Transcaucasian Trail is not about me, and never has been.
It’s about people like Mher Azoyan and his family, who live in an embattled part of the world, with minimal opportunities to improve their lot, but will try their best all the same.
It’s about Fabian, the German backpacker I met here last night who might never have bothered travelling this far south if it wasn’t for the newly created prospect of exploring the region on foot. (He’d just hiked to Karahunj, the “Armenian stonehenge”; got caught in a thunderstorm; and hitch-hiked back in the dark – all part of the adventure.)
And it’s about the coming together of people from opposite ends of the privilege spectrum, to break bread, share stories, create memories, and make the world just that little bit more equitable in the process.
Who’d have thought a simple hiking trail could be capable of such a thing?
I almost never make asks like this. When I do, it’s because I truly believe in the cause. I hope you’ll join me in support.
Leave a Reply