Preface. Both my husband and I, returning from this breathtakingly beautiful trip, were disappointed by the photographs. Maybe this was due to my inability to frame the frame correctly, to find the right point for photographing, or maybe because photography is not able to convey the totality of sensations that you experience while in the mountains. The ears are filled with the sounds of nature - the creaking of centuries-old trees, the noise of a stormy mountain river; the eyes sometimes cannot believe what they see - the mountains are so beautiful and we are insignificant compared to them; At the same time, you inhale air filled to the brim with oxygen and the smell of fresh water, snow, fallen leaves, moisture...
But what happened was what happened. I hope you will enjoy.
1. Starting point. Hotel "Alex" in Gagra. Nice rooms, outdoor pool. The sauna and indoor small pool are very popular among local horsemen. Apparently there are no alternatives.
The downside is that the indoor pool smells of smoke and beer (although this can be attributed to my overly sensitive sense of smell :))
3. First stop on the way to the lake. On the opposite bank of the Bzyb there are wild horses. Zhenya says that after the war they divorced here in countless numbers.
4. It seems that they noticed me, despite the noise of the river :) While I was running after the TV, two of them galloped away.
PS. The color of the river is natural.
6. Much in Abkhazia can be called abandoned. Abandoned houses (there were a lot of them along the way), bridges that had not been used for a long time, hidden from human eyes behind dense thickets of bushes and trees.
7. Everything is covered with mold and gives the feeling of a catastrophe that happened a long time ago.
9. Stop. It seems that they sometimes use it, judging by the garbage bag carefully placed in the trash can.
10. Trees... You can look at them endlessly - huge, having lost their leaves, covered with ever-green moss, they sleep, waiting for spring.
11. There are also quite functional bridges.
A billboard near the road offers not only shooting from the bridge at living moving targets, but also crossing the river on a bungee.
It is not clear whether it is necessary to shoot at those who decided to try the bungee, or whether there is a specially trained “target” for these purposes.
12. These are either “girlish tears” or “manly tears”. There are two waterfalls, but I only photographed one. And I don’t remember which one :)
13. Blue Lake. I think there is no need to explain the name :)
14. No comments. As long as there are people taking pictures with exhausted and wounded wild animals and birds, this business will flourish. And the animals die.
17. The road to the lake becomes very narrow in places, almost single-lane. On one side of the road there is a towering mountain, on the other side there is a terrifying cliff with its depth.
18. First snow! (for us - the first)))
19. It took a lot of effort for us to persuade Nina to go further:)
20. A typical tourist photo. The goal is to capture yourself against the backdrop of the beauty of nature.
22. Observation deck, popularly nicknamed “Farewell, Motherland!”
I don't know exactly why. Maybe because there is a deep cliff underneath it. Or maybe not..
23. View from the observation deck on the right:
24. And if you look to the left, then far, far below you will see the road along which we were driving. You see whooooo there in the lower right corner:
25. Lake Ritsa.
In sunny weather, the photos would, of course, have turned out better... But there were almost no tourists - this is very pleasing:)
From Wikipedia:
Located at an altitude of 950 m above sea level in the Bzyb River basin, in the deeply forested gorge of the Lashpsa and Yupshara rivers, east of the Gagra ridge. The mountains surrounding the lake have a height of 2200-3200 meters. Area - 1.27 km², length - 2.5 km, width - from 270 to 870 meters. The average depth is 63 m, the greatest is 131 m.
26. And the lake was formed about 250 years ago. Very young.
27. Finally snow! A lot of snow!
28. I got it too :)
29. The most popular mountain transport. The older the year of manufacture, the more deafening the engine roars.
30. We climbed a small hill near the lake, where the heartbreaking sounds of pop music could not be heard.
The menus in the cafes are the same and lack variety.
The food is harsh, as is life.
Mamalyga (porridge made from corn flour with cheese), freshly caught trout cooked over a fire (delicious!!!), akud (a bean dish - I love it), strong tea with lemon and “mountain” (homemade, hard and salty) cheese.
31. Near the cafe in the snow, Zhenya saw a shell casing.
From AK (spelled correctly?), as a local boy said. He said that we could negotiate with the owner of the cafe and shoot.
Yes, little is changing in Abkhazia.
32. On the way back. The lower we went, the harder it rained.
Car tunnels, of course, are not illuminated. But the longest ones, as a rule, are those with cut holes through which the sun's rays enter. Or they don’t get there if the weather is cloudy :)
33. Ahead is the so-called “stone bag” - the road is sandwiched on both sides by the foothills of the mountains.
34. “Stone Bag”: the ride is both interesting and creepy.
35. Having gone down, in the downpour, we still looked at the ruins of the Bzyb temple of the 10th century. Cows grazed there, slowly crushing blooming daisies and dandelions with their hooves.
But that's another story - I'll show it in the next post.
I would like to hope that we will still see snow this winter...
The road to Ritsa is beautiful in itself, regardless of the presence of a lake at the end. It passes through a picturesque gorge along mountain rivers, and the landscapes encountered along the way forced us to stop many times for photographs. The road was built in 1936, otherwise we would have had to get to Ritsa along goat paths and shepherd crossings. Now the importance of this route for Abkhazia is difficult to overestimate - during the season tourists are taken to the lake in droves. And this is justified - there is something to look at, there is something to look up and there is someone to give unnecessary money to.
The first part of the path runs along the very pretty Bzyb River, through which there are many bridges and footbridges. This is the largest bridge. The photo was taken from the Bzyb fortress temple, where we are.
But we don't need to cross the bridge. We'll go on this side. Do you see how the mountains meet on the left? Here we go.
Having driven a little towards that very convergence of mountains, we stopped again. What we were unlucky with was the sky. It was cloudy gray, which did not have a good effect on the quality of the photographs.
This is still the same Bzyb River.
Then we stopped at the Maiden's Tears waterfall, ruined by a bunch of ribbons. Well, citizens, if you have an unbearable desire to tie ribbons somewhere, then tie it, for example, to your own ear. Will it be beautiful? Hardly. So why spoil nature?
It's not dripping much here. Really tears.
And again views of Bzyb.
There is also a neat bridge across the river.
A little later another bridge. Decorated like a Christmas tree.
About 5 minutes later I came across this tower, but I don’t know where it came from or why. If you know, please enter me too.
Next stop in 3 minutes. I went out to take pictures of the river.
Of course, I don’t remember how long after we stopped there. I'm just looking at the time of the photos. This one is in 3 more minutes.
A couple of minutes later we saw a bridge. The boards on it have already partially fallen off and there is a good prospect of falling into the river.
When the sky is not visible, the photos turn out normal)
This is the Yupshar Canyon. The gorge is narrower. At its narrowest point its width is only 20 meters. Once these rocks were a single whole, but they were split by an earthquake. To the delight of tourists who can now travel here.
The rocks are high and sometimes falls from them.
And this falls.
To better understand the size of the boulder, I drove my wife onto it. I’m not being cruel, on the other side, someone enterprisingly added steps and hung a sign “50 rubles per photo.” But we don’t know who should send the money.
This is probably the bottleneck.
Another waterfall. Probably someone else's tears too.
The bridge doesn't look very secure. In general, we are already not far from Ritsa.
It looks like there used to be another bridge nearby. But that's all that's left of him.
Well, I'll finish. I’ll tell you about Lake Ritsa itself separately.
We decided to go to Lake Ritsa. Initially, the trip was planned from Sochi with an excursion, but there were no trips there on Sunday, so we went to Gagra and decided to look for an excursion from there. She was found almost immediately; for 450 rubles we were offered an excursion to Lake Ritsa. I note that a similar excursion from Sochi costs 1200 rubles. and it is less interesting, since they stop only in 3 places, the excursion from Gagra included stops at the Male and Female Tears waterfalls, the Yushpar Canyon, the Blue Lake, the “Farewell Motherland” observation deck, and, directly, on the lake itself. Also, for an additional fee of 200 rubles, we were offered to go to the Bird’s Beak and Molochny waterfalls, as well as look at the lake from a bird’s eye view. All I mean is that an excursion from Abkhazia is not only more profitable, but also more interesting. There are quite a few very beautiful places along the way, so I decided to break my story into several parts to show more.
The first attraction on the way to Lake Ritsa is the Women's Tears waterfall.
Legend says that a family of shepherds lived in this region. The beautiful daughter went to the river bank to graze goats and sing for her groom. The love of the young people was so strong, and the songs were so beautiful that the local mermaids were overcome with burning envy. They decided to kill the beauty. While the groom was minding his own business, the villains waylaid the girl, carried her to the top of the mountain and were about to throw her down. The shepherdess's bitter tears flowed down the rock and reached the river. The indignant god of water rose from there and struck such fear into the mermaids that they turned into stones from horror. And in memory of the miraculous deliverance, gentle, clean streams still flow down the rock.
Next, we were offered to taste different varieties of honey, they gave us a try of Apitonus, which, according to the beekeeper, is a very useful thing, Bortnik - honey that is made by wild bees and gets it exclusively from the hollow, there was also mead and various varieties of eucalyptus and chestnut honey. The beekeeper showed a very interesting thing, how to check the quality of honey - they pour honey into a plate and pour water on top, then everyone chats and at that moment honeycombs appear on the honey. As the beekeeper said, the information field of honey appears.
The next stop was the very beautiful Blue Lake. It is small, but they say it is very deep; no one has ever been able to reach the bottom. The water in the lake is about 10 degrees. I decided to splash my feet there, it turned out to be very cold, it was impossible to stay there for more than a minute. The legend about the origin of the lake is as follows:
“Where Blue Lake is now, in ancient times there was a cave in which a hundred-year-old old man lived - a priest. His snow-white beard hung almost to the ground, and his unusually blue eyes radiated wisdom and kindness. This man, wise from life experience, was a famous hunter in the past. As he grew old, he moved away from people to be closer to nature, and settled in a cave. Local hunters often came to him for advice, for his knowledge of mountain trails, the habits of animals and the possibilities of shooting them. For his useful advice, the hunters considered it their duty, when returning home, to leave him one skin of a killed animal and part of the meat.
One day, during inclement weather, strangers found themselves in these places and asked to spend the night in a cave with an old man. He received them hospitably. Having treated them, the hermit showed them a place to stay for the night, laying out the skins of killed animals for them. Having seen a large number of skins of bison, bears, deer, roe deer, and martens, the greedy guests decided to take possession of them. Having killed the owner, they hastily began to put the skins into bags. Almost all the skins had already been collected when an unexpectedly powerful stream of water blocked the exit from the cave. The attackers were trapped.
This is how the Blue Lake, or the Lake of the Abkhazian Elder, was formed, the waters of which resemble the blue eyes of the old man, whose body remained at the bottom, and his open eyes gave an unusual color to the waters of the lake.”
Also, according to popular belief, if you wash in the lake, you will become younger, but, most importantly, do not overdo it.
The next attraction on the way to Lake Ritsa is the Yupshar Canyon. I would also like to say that the entire road to Lake Ritsa runs along the very beautiful Bzyb River, into which its tributary, the Gega River, flows into in the Yupshar Canyon. The canyon lasts 8 kilometers. The narrowest place of the canyon is called the Yupshar Gate. Here two rocks practically converge, and between them only a narrow strip of sky is visible, and ribbons of moss and ivy branches hang down from high steep eaves. This natural wonder is located at an altitude of 400 m above sea level.
Here, near the road, lies a huge stone - the so-called Stone of Kisses. According to legends, you need to make a wish and kiss the stone, then it will definitely come true.
The next attraction is the Male Tears waterfall. According to legend, these are the tears of Adgur, Amra’s beloved.
Further, passing Lake Ritsa, we were taken to the Bird's Beak waterfall, there are observation platforms right there from which a magnificent view of Lake Ritsa opens from a bird's eye view, but I will tell about the lake in the next part of my story, but for now let me introduce the Bird's Beak waterfall.
And finally, Stalin’s profile in the rock.
P.S.
In the next part of my story, I will show you Lake Ritsa itself, the Milky Waterfall, the “Farewell to the Motherland” observation deck and many other interesting things...The road to Ritsa is beautiful in itself, regardless of the presence of a lake at the end. It passes through a picturesque gorge along mountain rivers, and the landscapes encountered along the way forced us to stop many times for photographs. The road was built in 1936, otherwise we would have had to get to Ritsa along goat paths and shepherd crossings. Now the importance of this route for Abkhazia is difficult to overestimate - during the season tourists are taken to the lake in droves. And this is justified - there is something to look at, there is something to look up and there is someone to give unnecessary money to.
The first part of the path runs along the very pretty Bzyb River, through which there are many bridges and footbridges. This is the largest bridge. The photo was taken from the Bzyb fortress temple, where we are.
But we don't need to cross the bridge. We'll go on this side. Do you see how the mountains meet on the left? Here we go.
Having driven a little towards that very convergence of mountains, we stopped again. What we were unlucky with was the sky. It was cloudy gray, which did not have a good effect on the quality of the photographs.
This is still the same Bzyb River.
Then we stopped at the Maiden's Tears waterfall, ruined by a bunch of ribbons. Well, citizens, if you have an unbearable desire to tie ribbons somewhere, then tie it, for example, to your own ear. Will it be beautiful? Hardly. So why spoil nature?
It's not dripping much here. Really tears.
There is also a neat bridge across the river.
A little later another bridge. Decorated like a Christmas tree.
About 5 minutes later I came across this tower, but I don’t know where it came from or why. If you know, please enter me too.
Next stop in 3 minutes. I went out to take pictures of the river.
Of course, I don’t remember how long after we stopped there. I'm just looking at the time of the photos. This one is in 3 more minutes.
A couple of minutes later we saw a bridge. The boards on it have already partially fallen off and there is a good prospect of falling into the river.
When the sky is not visible, the photos turn out normal)
This is the Yupshar Canyon. The gorge is narrower. At its narrowest point its width is only 20 meters. Once these rocks were a single whole, but they were split by an earthquake. To the delight of tourists who can now travel here.
The rocks are high and sometimes falls from them.
And this falls.
To better understand the size of the boulder, I drove my wife onto it. I’m not being cruel, on the other side, someone enterprisingly added steps and hung a sign “50 rubles per photo.” But we don’t know who should send the money.
23.
This is probably the bottleneck.
Another waterfall. Probably someone else's tears too.
The bridge doesn't look very secure. In general, we are already not far from Ritsa.
It looks like there used to be another bridge nearby. But that's all that's left of him.
Well, I'll finish. I’ll tell you about Lake Ritsa itself
I need to update my impressions of Abkhazia. And I’m increasingly inclined to go on an excursion with a feast. Great option! They will tell you, show you and feed you while singing and dancing - what else do you need for relaxation? You can also go by car, but I don’t know how it is now. Previously, tourist buses passed quickly, and independent travelers were completely harassed by transport, precisely on the Russian part of the border.
The fact that Abkhazia has not raised its infrastructure to the required level does not scare me. I felt the “scoop” both in Belarus and in Crimea.
Commercial stops, what can you do, let people buy souvenirs, wine, spices, honey.
To get to know the country and want to return there, everything is organized perfectly.
I liked that the country is developing, I won’t say that they live by the principle “if we don’t do anything, tourists will come anyway.”
There is no improvement, work is being done. Only 6 years have passed between the photographs, I see and remember what happened near the Blue Lake... there were boards for the same peacocks, and now the bridges are lined with stones. Even if the photographers did it for their own pockets, it is there and anyone can use it. Before, they simply jumped from stone to stone, pushing each other. And the peacocks, by the way, were tied by the leg.
They put ladders on the stones; they used to break their legs trying to climb. Parking lots, comfortable buses, cafes, observation decks, signs, fences, nice souvenir stalls. There was none of this. Here's the coolest tour bus with a broken air conditioner. But the difference is only 6 years... 
Ritsa...Ritsa...was a beauty, now she is even more well-groomed.
Thank you, Galochka, for your desire to return to Abkhazia!
