Northern Armenia, Lori Province

After a two hour drive there appears to be a problem with the car. Most Armenian cars run both on gas and on gasoline. Our car is driven by gas, which makes it difficult to push-start when it stalls. During the ride our car stalls three times and we have to push it several times until it starts working again. 

We are very lucky that each time the car stops, we happen to be on a downward slope.It still proves difficult to get the car going each time. Once, the driver fumbles around with a cable which runs down from the cab sign on the roof along the side of the front shield into the hood to the battery. He reconnects the cable in a different way and magically the car starts again.

Inbetween our forced stops we drive through beautiful scenery full of mountains and rivers, passing the train line leading to Tbilisi. The Lori Province is dotted with factories, some deserted, others still in use. Some factories are so large that they seem like entire cities. We pass cement and copper factories which blow dense smoke out of their chimneys. Smoke coming out of mountain tops just looks surreal.