Walk under the clouds. Ai-Petri Plateau in Crimea

Crimean photoblogger Sergey Anashkevich aka aquatek-filips says: “Only mountains can be better than mountains. And even if the mountains in the Crimea are low, they are still mountains. Demerdzhi, Karadag, Chatyrdag, Karabi, Babugan, Echkidag and, of course, Ai-Petri. I love being there. Each place is interesting in its own way at different times of the year. Somewhere autumn is incredible, somewhere summer forbs, and somewhere spring awakening.

On Ai-Petri, you are almost guaranteed to encounter frequent fogs in the spring. Actually, it's not really fog. These are clouds that creep onto the plateau from the sea. And then during the day you can go under the clouds, above the clouds, inside the clouds or watch the clouds break against the rocky walls of the mountains... Backpack, water, tea, camera... The rest is superfluous. To leave more room for emotions.”

(Total 24 photos)

Source: Journal/aquatek-philips

1. Early April morning on the Ai-Petri Yayla, as the plateau is called. Nice sunny weather. Locator balls can be seen in the distance on Bedene-Kyr.

2. Southern slopes. Ai-Petri Yayla itself is a plateau stretching for more than 20 kilometers from west to east, gradually narrowing towards the east. And in the place where it passes into the Yalta Yayla, the distance between the southern and northern slopes is a little more than a kilometer, which allows you to observe two completely different landscapes for a short time. On the one hand - the sea, steep rocky walls and coniferous forests, and on the other, which can be quickly reached in 15 minutes - mountain peaks to the horizon, covered with beech forest, lakes, villages and Sevastopol 40 kilometers away on the very line of the horizon.

3. On the plateau itself, wooded areas are found in the western part, turning to the east mainly into the steppe. True, even here there are small islands with coniferous, as well as the most bizarre species of gnarled birches.

4. There are even birch groves. They were planted by hand in the 60s.

5. The road to the Ai-Petri Yaila.

6. Taraktash rocks on the southern slope of the plateau. The Taraktash trail winds down along them, along which you can get from Ai-Petri to the Uchan-Su waterfall and further to Yalta

7. The famous "window" in the form of a cross in the rock

8. One of the countless scree gorges descending towards Yalta.

9. The eastern side of the Ai-Petrinsky yayla stretches, passing into the Yalta, then Gurzuf and Babugan-yayla.

10. We descend to the northern slopes of the plateau. Hence a completely different view. In the distance - the Boyka massif

11. This is how Sevastopol looks from the Ai-Petri plateau. Due to the distance of 40 km and haze, I had to apply a rather harsh photo processing. Otherwise, we would only be able to see the blurry outline of the city in the distance.

12. There are no longer such gorges as on the southern slopes. These are much more gentle beams descending into a beech forest.

13. View of the foothills. Beneath lies the Belbek valley.

14. While we were watching the Kachinsky valley, dense clouds began to descend on the plateau. We return to the southern slopes, because it is there that you can fully observe both the movement of clouds above and below your feet, and their formation when air masses break against these steep rocky walls

15. Clouds cover the sun and fall lower and lower

16. From them, in the literal sense of the word, the wind tears off pieces and “drops” on the rocky slopes

17. The cloud just sweeps along the wall right under your feet.

18. I turn my head back, and everything is completely different there. The sky literally fell down

19. The clouds break on the rocks, not being able to rise higher, swirl downwards, creeping lower and lower towards Yalta. This is how the sky in Yalta is suddenly covered when you walk there, for example, along the embankment

20. But ... Nothing is permanent, and the sky begins to rise upwards, filling the entire space on the slope of the yayla with a thick fog of clouds

21. Another moment of collision of clouds with rocks

22. And under your feet ... Like boiling jelly

23. Trees are buried in the clouds

23. And then ... And then almost nothing is visible ...