always on guard

Just woke up from the synchronized singing of several bird species, jackal howling, and roosters crowing. The forest must have decided to put on a little musical performance in my honor. Only, why did the roosters start crowing so early? It's still a long way till dawn – a full three hours. And that smell of hydrogen sulfide in the tent… It was an eventful night. ))

ALWAYS ON GUARD = Day 5 =

In the morning I rode out to Khosta. The plan for today was to visit the Vorontsov Caves, located 20 km from Khosta up the road. This is the first anomalous place on my list, and given yesterday's experience, I brought a 5-liter bottle of water with me. Hope it's enough.

For most of the road I had to ride uphill at a 50-60 degree grade; there were almost no descents. And in one of the upper mountain settlements I ran into a local Adyghe man who said that if I kept going forward on that road, I wouldn't get through – even an off-road vehicle would barely manage it. He advised me to take a different road – a detour. For that I had to go back 10 km and continue via Kalinovoye Lake. I didn't make it to the caves by the end of today. I just can't get used to the fact that it gets dark early here in the South – pitch black sets in by 8 PM already. I had to urgently find a place to spend the night. That took quite a while – only two hours after dark did I manage to find a quiet spot to set up camp. Along the way I kept running into

suspicious people, from whom I felt I needed to keep my distance if I didn't want to get into trouble. I pitched the tent 20 meters from the road, separated from the roadway by a few large blackberry bushes. I had to set up the tent in the dark. I turned off my flashlight as soon as I noticed the headlights of approaching cars, so as not to attract uninvited guests. Over the course of the trip, I've developed the habit of keeping a knife, pepper spray, and a stun gun near me while I sleep. It was a long and hard day. Time to sleep…