Fortress!

I went on a hike with some other volunteers.  We had a goal, a ruined fortress on a river that they had seen from a previous hike.

We went in from a river, the opposite way from the previous hike, and instead of going on a road above the river we went right along the river, often having to cross it several times on rocks as one side of the river or the other would be impassable.

The water level was quite low, so we traveled upriver until we saw our eventual destination . . .

The fortress is on the other side, though I think you can see some of the ruined wall on the far left of the cliff.

The climb up to the first part was a bit rough, and my shirt had a forest of seeds sticking to it once we got to the lower fortress wall.

Inside some caves we found what I am going to call the dungeon, but really we have no idea what these were used for.

This is the view of a damn in the gorge below from the top of the fortress.

This is the view of the gorge and river we came along to the get to the fortress

These are my two hiking companions as we enjoy lunch at the top of the cave.

This is the view on the way down, probably at the most precarious part of the climb (See my knee there?  I'm sitting on a rock as we climbed back down)

We also realized we could see my friends village from the top of the fortress and on our way out trekked that way then down from the village, rather than trying to make it back through the gorge we came from.  It was a wonderful hike, and it was amazing all the different scenery we saw on our travels.