Post date 23 Oct 2026 (original LinkedIn date)
Original LinkedIn version· 820 words
I honestly believe that there is a particular kind of clarity that only comes after a long day on your feet - if you haven’t tried it, you’re going to need to trust me on this!
Before the serious business of CBD COP17 got under way in Yerevan, a few friends and I spent four days walking sections of the Transcaucasian Trail through Tavush and Dilijan National Park in northern Armenia. We managed to cover about 80 km of forest, ridgeline, river and village, and 3,500m of climbing. Four days of mud on our boots and good conversation. Honestly, I could not be happier!
The trail
The Transcaucasian Trail is an ambitious project. When it’s finished it will be a 3,000 km long-distance route across Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and nearly 1,900 km of it can already be walked. It’s built largely by volunteers and local trail crews (amazing people all), and the aim is that hiking tourism brings money and pride into rural communities rather than past them. Walking it, you can absolutely feel that intent. The waymarks lead you through villages and past family guesthouses, not round them.
Four days, four very different landscapes
Day 1: Yenokavan – Lastiver – Okon – Yenokavan (~17 km). We went down into the gorge at Lastiver to see the waterfall and the old cave dwellings cut into the cliffs. It was a gentle introduction, but it set the tone straight away: wild, green and surprisingly empty.
Day 2: Hovk – Mount Dimats – Haghartsin Monastery (~25 km). This was the longest day. We climbed over Dimats and came down through the forest to Haghartsin, whose medieval stone churches sit tucked into the trees. After hours of walking, arriving at a monastery on foot felt pilgrimage-esque.
Day 3: Dilijan – Parz Lake – Gosh (~21 km). This took us through what is known as the haunted forest above Dilijan. It was dark and mossy, and every gust of wind brought a shower of autumn leaves down on us like rain. We crossed to Parz Lake and then dropped down to Gosh and the monastery of Goshavank. The whole way we were accompanied by the magnificent Doggo, our aptly named stray
Day 4: Gosh – Gosh Lake – Khachardzan (~16 km). This was a quieter final day to a hidden forest lake, with legs that were weary by now - oh for Doggo’s four legs, they seemed much more steady and lively! The sun came out for us and we were able to see the beauty of the Armenian wilderness. My personal highlight was the abandoned village in the most stunning of locations
Mist came and went the whole way, sometimes hiding the ridges and sometimes lifting to show valleys of beech and oak turning gold. It was a lovely, humbling reminder of the ecosystems we are all in Yerevan to talk about.
The welcome
The guesthouses were fabulous the whole route. Every evening we were welcomed in out of the mist and fed the very best of Armenian home cooking: fresh bread, herbs and cheeses, rich stews, homemade preserves, and usually something poured from an unlabelled bottle. Armenian hospitality is genuinely remarkable, and it’s the guesthouse families who turn a good walk into an unforgettable one.
We also picked up a few unofficial guides. Stray dogs adopted us along the way, padding alongside for miles at a time before peeling off at some invisible village boundary. They were loyal companions, with no expectations beyond the odd crust. Doggo adopted us for our final two stages - it was heartbreaking to say farewell to him
Why this matters
We’d always planned to take some time out - it would have been easy to fly in, go straight from airport to conference centre, and see Armenia only through meeting-room windows. But COP is about biodiversity, landscapes and the communities who live in them. I can’t think of a better way to prepare than walking through those landscapes, eating food grown in them and staying with the people who look after them. Nor can I think of a better way to digest a change to circumstances
There’s a human side too. Long days on a trail with friends leave space that’s hard to find anywhere else. That means time to talk properly, to disagree and to put the world to rights, without an agenda or a clock. Some of the most useful thinking I’ve done this year happened somewhere between a monastery and a muddy forest track. So we come back to Yerevan weary but with our souls replenished, and ready for the serious work of the COP.
If you’re heading to Armenia, whether for COP17 or for any other reason, find a few days to walk a section of the Transcaucasian Trail. Stay in the guesthouses and say yes to the second helping. Let the dogs come along too - they’ll look after you!