Greetings from Lake Sevan - about 60km from Yerevan and regarded as the "pearl of Armenia". We left Yerevan and drove out to Amberd Fortress - where the ruins of the castle and a church can be seen and visited. The Amberd Fortress is built on a promentary at the confluence of the Amberd and Arkashen rivers - and the views are just magnificent. The grassy slopes are covered in a multitude of brightly coloured wild flowers - red, yellow, purple, white - ...

Barev dzez from Yerevan - capital of Armenia! Now - i discovered on arrival that Armenia has its own alphabet - devised in 405ad by Mesrop Mashtots - initially with 36 characters but three additional ones were created in the 12th century, so they now have 39. Makes our 26 seem a bit meagre, doesn't it? The original 36 characters were also used as a numbering system but, luckily for us, the Armenians seem to have adopted Arabic numerals somewhere down the line....

Back in the UK after 98 days away. I actually arrived into Heathrow on Wednesday 13th - Jenny very kindly met me & brought me back to my flat. Bless her! The flight was ok - the route was interesting, though, as we flew over Russia - don't remember having done that before... Once at Heathrow i was interested to try out my new biodynamic passport - a bit of an anti-climax as the Border Control lady just looked at it blankly & i thought she was going to...

Well - the bit about Korkut was supposed to have been a clue as to the next destination - but i got a bit carrried away and Kazakhstan will have to wait for a while - it's Armenia next - unless Georgia wakes up, in which case it'll be Georgia next & then Armenia........ So - i got my new biorhythmic passport with its organic groove (it's taking me to funky town) (got the flares, the shades and the fluorescent shirt) - and can resume travelling........ I am ...

It quite clearly states in the bible: "give a man directions and he will be lost for a day - but give a man a map and he will be lost for life" - i'm not sure whereabouts in the bible it says this - but it does - i just get lost every time i try to find it.... Since entering the - ahem - "third age" - i have acquired the unerring knack of always turning in the wrong direction upon emerging from a station or a car park in a new town or city......