As I had planned, I reached the meadow by lunchtime, looked around, and found a place to rest. During lunch, I noticed a small cave on the eastern slope of the mountain and decided to climb up and take a look. The cave was almost directly above the meadow and looked close by. However, it would be difficult to climb up directly, as the steep slope was made up of loose stones. At the foot of the slope were huge boulders, and as I climbed higher, the stones became smaller, sometimes turning into sand. I started to climb towards the right to avoid the crumbling slope and get closer to the cliffs. It took me about an hour to climb, and the higher I got, the harder it became. On the final stretch towards the cave, I had to climb straight up the scree slope, which was steep and unstable, and my feet kept slipping, and there was nothing to hold onto.
When I was only about ten meters away from the cave, something strange began to happen. My breathing became labored, and a strong feeling of exhaustion washed over me, which was unusual. I hike in the mountains quite often and know that I could climb such a slope for several hours without much difficulty. Of course, I would get tired, but not as quickly as this. Usually, fatigue creeps up slowly, accumulating over time, but this time it hit all at once. There were also emotions, a sense of unease. Thoughts and images crawled up, not directly, but on the border of consciousness, like approaching a cave and finding a bear hiding from the heat, or a mother bear with cubs who would surely attack. Brr...what am I thinking, I shook myself, bringing up bears when there might even be mountain lions around.
I stopped to catch my breath, and the "brr" feeling seemed significant. Someone, or something, must inhabit that cave and not want me to enter. Suddenly, a scene from the comedy "Gentlemen of Fortune" and the words of the fake professor to his accomplices when he was breaking into his own apartment came to mind, "Politeness is the main weapon of a thief." On instinct, I thought distinctly as if addressing someone, "I just want to take a look, I'm not planning anything bad, I'll take a few photos and leave." I stood there for a couple more minutes, perhaps just catching my breath and resting a bit, remembering the old comedy, or maybe the phrase I spoke had acted as a sort of self-suggestion. But I immediately felt better, the fatigue receding, and it was suddenly calm and even joyful that I had almost made it to the cave. If earlier my feet were slipping and sliding, now I calmly climbed the last few meters to the cave.
What had seemed like a small cave from below, about one and a half meters in diameter, turned out to be a huge arch about 4-5 meters wide. The arch led to a stone bag about 6-7 meters deep and high in circumference. In the depths of the cave was a small spring barely oozing out of the rock. Someone had carefully built a small dam out of stones to collect the water. Next to the spring, I came across a pile of stones, indicating that people had been here. The cave extended into the thickness of the rock through a small crevice. Outside, the rock and arch had a reddish, or rather orange tint, but inside the cave, the walls were sometimes reddish, sometimes dirty gray with white veins. The slope continued to rise into the cave, straight to the far wall. The crevice, spring, and pile of stones were in the left corner of the cave, and to the right was a wall, ready to collapse at any moment, covered in cracks and barely holding onto the rocky layers.
After inspecting the entire cave and taking several pictures, I finally sat down to rest and admire the view from the depths of the cave through the archway. The view was breathtaking and the archway only enhanced it. Directly in front of me was Mount Arkh, while to the left loomed the massif of Dudandona, although the summit was not visible. The meadow below was fully visible and would be an ideal spot for anyone looking for an observation point. I remember that the interior of the cave was not visible from the bottom, due to the distance and the bushes and trees growing at the entrance. On the contrary, everything inside the cave was visible in detail, and the archway created the effect of watching everything on a screen. I wonder who is watching this movie now.
After sitting for a couple of minutes, I thought it was time to start descending, but I decided to sit a bit longer. Suddenly, there was a loud rumble that sounded like rocks falling. I was squatting and fell backward in surprise, instinctively covering my head with my hands. For a moment, a whirlwind of images flashed before my eyes – it seemed like the vault had collapsed, or a layer of rock had fallen from the right wall. There was something else, but I didn't have time to register it all. As it turned out, it was birds nesting at the top of the archway. In the first second, I thought they were huge eagles, but they were just two crows. Perhaps they were telling me in their own way that it was time to leave.
I didn't want to delay any longer and left the cave. Just in case, I mentally thanked for the hospitality again, you never know. And I started my descent, going straight down the scree slope. It was easy to walk down it. If it took me about an hour to climb up, I descended in ten to fifteen minutes. My mountaineering boots with reinforced ankles helped a lot. I just kicked my heels into the scree, taking big steps, and even slid a few times as if I were skiing. I enjoyed it a lot, but closer to the foot of the slope, the rocks became larger. On the other hand, there was a reliable grip, and I calmly descended. I wandered around the glade for a little longer, set up camp, and headed back home.
I could attribute what happened in the cave to my overactive imagination or maybe to the conversations and thoughts about the place, like "The Meadow of Power" and all that. But still, this level of interactivity, whether with myself or with some unknown entity, was a little puzzling. On the other hand, I thought, you never know what might happen. The conclusion I drew for myself was about politeness, or rather, respect for the surrounding world. Respect is vital, especially in unfamiliar places with unknown inhabitants, be they humans, animals, or something else entirely.
P.S. The story is based on a hiking trip, and there is a photo review available:
Hike in the Arg gorge, near Lake Iskanderkul, Fann Mountains, Tajikistan
