I continue my story about my trip to Crimea for regular readers.
Today I will tell you about one of the most memorable trips - to Mount Ai-Petri and descent by cable car.
We went to Yalta and up the mountain ourselves from Sudak, where we were resting.
We chose the old road leading along the coast to experience one of the most difficult serpentines and enjoy the beautiful views.
I will not describe the long journey and small stops, I will immediately tell you about Ai-Petri.
Having approached the lower station of the cable car, we met barkers who offered a car trip to the top of the mountain with a guided tour and several stops at which you can admire the opening views and make Photo.
Our plans were to climb the mountain by cable car, walk at the top and go down again by cable car.
But climbing the serpentine by car, and even with a small excursion at the price of a cable car ticket, seemed to us more exciting. And we decided to take a ride on the cable car on the way back.
And we did not regret at all agreeing to the excursion.
The road leading to the top of the mountain has 280 turns, some of which are 180 degrees! An extreme trip, considering how fearlessly the locals drive cars.
And our first stop was at the Uchan-Su (Flying Water) waterfall - this is the highest (390 m above sea level) waterfall in Crimea and Europe.
The waterfall did not appear before us in all its strength, because in summer it is not full of water.
The next stop was at Turtle Lake: nothing special - if you wait a long time, you can see turtles that sometimes show up from the water. The lake itself is green, it looks more like a swamp.
Nearby there is a mountain spring with clean drinking water.
Further along the serpentine road we reached the "silver pavilion", which was built, according to the stories of the guide, by Nicholas II. Height 850 meters above sea level. The views of Yalta are stunning.
And the next stop is on the plateau, in front of the upper station of the cable car. The driver-guide takes you to the cafes, which are numerous on the plateau. Here you are already offered to taste the national cuisine before you find yourself at the highest observation point and the upper station. After lunch, you will be taken to the cable car station for free. And those who are not hungry are sent directly to the upper station.
There are also wonderful views from the plateau, the sun is blinding, and the wind is trying to test for stability:
And now we are at the final point of the route, at the upper station of the cable car. We walked, admired the views, took a lot of photos:
And the ultimate goal of our trip to Mount Ai-Petri is the cable car. And now she crosses out all the impressions - or rather, waiting in line for landing for an hour and a half in a terrible wind. And when the sun is hiding, it seems that a cold autumn has come. We were freezing because we did not think to take our outerwear with us, like many others.
The cable car ride itself is not particularly impressive. Large glassed-in booth for about 30 people. Those who are lucky - he stood at the window and can admire the views. It was absolutely not scary to me! During the descent, a short excursion sounds from the booth speaker.
If we had not decided to climb the serpentine with the proposed excursion, our trip would not have been filled with impressions.
Descending from Ai-Petri, we reached the Vorontsov Palace. The palace itself did not impress me, but the park is beautiful. But unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to examine it, we still had to return from Yalta to Sudak.