2013_09_29 Sunday: David Gareji

After numerous attempts (each time we planned we either had insufficient time, or were too tired), we finally managed to do David Gareji. It's a monastery about 80km southeast of Tbilisi (nearly a 2-hour drive - we hopped on a taxi at 9:30 and arrived at 11:15), located right on the border with Azerbaijan. 

What makes the place interesting is not just the structure itself (partly carved into the rock), but rather the area where it is situated: A desertous area with various colors and extremely vast empty plains. Further, one can see snowy mountain tops beyond the desert (though these are difficult to notice in photos).

The monastery

The monastery

Aside for the monastery, the main highlight is a 1.5 hour hike (roundtrip) that goes up the mountain (yes, in Georgia there always seems to be a mountain involved). From the top one has a 360 degree vista of what appears to be an infinite desert. On one end (Azerbaijan) it is a red desert, while on the other (Georgia) it has multiple colors. The views were staggering.

Azerbaijan view

Georgian view

The noose is tightening

At 14:15 we met up with the taxi driver and headed back to Tbilisi, arriving a bit after 16:00. 

After a late lunch, there was some ice-cream for desert, and someone had two..

Yummy!

This is it. Tomorrow at 04:00 we're getting a cab to the airport. Flight leaves at 6:25. Bye bye Georgia..

2013_09_28 Saturday: Kazbegi - Truso Valley - Tbilisi

We started real early today. Woke up at 6:30, left at 8:20 with a jeep to a place called Truso Valley, which is some 15km south of Kazbegi (toward Tbilisi), and then a few more km's due west. There used to be a bridge there up until the last year, which broke. This is a problem since it requires hiking up and down a mountain to get around it - a 2.5 hour detour each way :(

The locals here don't seem to really know that much about the place, and they hand't told us the detour is drivable with the jeep. As we arrived at the drop off point, we insisted to be taken up (thanks go to Sharon). Typically, I wouldn't mind the extra walk, but time was short. So at 9:20 we were dropped off at the top (taxi was going to wait for us at 15:00 at the bottom from where we came). We headed down and toward the end got a ride with some type of a truck.

Beginning of valley (before hopping on truck)

Truck ride down

The valley itself is really nice. It has various colors due to its different minerals, and one can smell the sulfur as well. The weather, was far from perfect, with cloudy skies and a couple of drops. But it could have been much worse. 

Walks the walk

At 13:00 we were already back from the valley and started hiking up towards the pickup point. The hike up had nice views and wasn't too hard for some of us, yet more so for others..

Nice view

Tough time

At the top a three jeep convoy caught up with us heading our way. The first and last were EU. When we asked for a ride the guy told us they cannot give us a lift because they're not allowed. Then he asked if anyone was injured, and suggested the right answer would be "yes"… 

Sharon rode in the first jeep, I in the last. It was a very informative drive. The two guys I drove with were from Hungary and Poland (originally Georgia). I finally managed to get a proper explanation to the whole South Ossetia and Abhezia situation.

Go team Europe

At 14:30 we arrived to the randevouz point, and surprisingly the taxi driver (a young Georgian dude who spoke no English) was already there.The guy drove real quick - causing everyone to feel nauseous - yet we did enjoy some really nice views along this beautiful road.

At 17:20 we arrived in Tbilisi and, as usual, went to Ata Hotel to room 103 (for the third time…). 

2013_09_27 Friday: Kazbegi (Juta)

Today was an easy hike day. We left at 10:15 with a jeep driver to a place called Juta, southeast of Kazbegi. The road there passes through Sno valley, which is very impressive. It is said that the typical hike is about 3 hours. It is not circular, so one needs to track back the same way. I figured we might need more than 3 hours, so we told the driver we'd be back 4 hours later. We started to walk at 11:15.

Cow by the name of "Muuu"

Mr. Horse

This hike was special in that it was actually relatively properly marked. In Georgian standards it was exceptionally well marked.

Actual mark!

We bumped into an Israeli couple after 1:45 hours, who decided to proceed no further. Since Sharon was more than happy to head back, I suggested she join the couple and return with them, while I proceeded on my own. Further, I seized the opportunity and had her tell the driver I'd be back at 16:45 (instead of the original 15:15 plan), and if more $$ were needed for that then so be it. It's important to understand that the weather was fantastic (not something to be taken for granted in this area), and the views awesome. So I thought it would be a great pity not to hike some more. 

So I went on my merry way for a while longer. It was well worth the walking. I got close to the snow and hiked off the trail (for just a bit). It was quite lovely indeed. Along the way I met a Polish guy who told me that three Pols died the day before yesterday somewhere in the Kazbegi region. Two fell down the mountain, while the third froze to death (yeap, it's pretty cold here, especially at night). This explained the helicopter we saw yesterday. 

Chilling

Anyway, the return was faster than I thought and so I made it back to the jeep at 16:00. Arrived to the hotel by 16:45 or so.  It should be pointed out that today cannot be considered a real hiking day. Since a real hike requires real difficulty, tired feet, and the occasional feeling of "why the hell am I doing this shit?!". So today would be better described as a nice walk in the park.

Where the jeep waited

In the evening after some picture taking, we headed to the town center for some overpriced, non-tasty food (the bottled water was fine though).

Hands up in the air 

Jump around

2013_09_26 Thursday: Tbilisi - Kazbegi

We left Tbilisi at 10:00 toward Stepantsminda(formerly known as Kazbegi), which is some 150km up north near the Russian border. This area is known for its mountains and valleys. As usual, we got a taxi driver with a Mercedes. It's quite funny that one gets long distance rides with the same taxi drivers that do city driving. 

Nice set of wheels

The driver was an older guy, who was nice at first, but less so after we had a longer than expected lunch break. The drive to Kazbegi can be broken into two parts:

1. The first, and less interesting part, runs until a place called Ananuri (about half the distance). Ananuri itself is real nice as it has a church that overlooks a beautiful lake in the form of two fingers.

Nice lake

Overlooking church

2. The second is a truly beautiful drive that has vistas of snowy mountains and valleys. It's all quite grand. 

Occasional cows as usual

Steak up close

We arrived at  Kazebgi at 14:00, to a hotel called Rooms, located in the upper part of town. It's a new hotel that has great views. We got lucky that we managed to get a room with a view to the mountains (the other side has no view), as we had been told there were none available. The strange thing about this hotel is that they provide no soap/shampoo for standard rooms, unless you ask them. We did and still got none...

Lobby

Lobby

from lobby balcony

from lobby balcony

At 15:30 or so we headed out with a jeep driver to do two things:

1. Go up to the famous Tsimnda Samba Church - a14th century church, second most important one in the country. It is situated at 2200m (the town is at 1800m), with fantastic views. These guys have a talent for placing churches in the oddest of places. Normally, we would have hiked this up (about 1.5 hours), but in light of time constraints and upcoming additional hikes, we drove up (hence the jeep).

Tsimnda Samba Church

from church area

2. Headed to the Russian border point. The main attraction here is the drive itself, which is quite nice and not long (15km). We did not cross the border… 

We returned to town at 18:30 or so. Stopped to buy a couple of things and Sharon stepped on some freshly made cow shit. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough with the camera :(

2013_09_25 Wednesday: Yerevan - Tbilisi

Today we spent over 5 hours on the road. We left Yerevan at 9:45 with a designated driver by the name of Misha. Misha is a chubby guy with a Mercedes that's not too old (maybe 10-15 y/o), well maintained, with dark windows (shame) that has good hold of the road (important). The drive is nearly 300km of which about 200 or so are on curvy mountainous roads.

The Mercedes! (guy is not Misha)

Misha has been to Tbilisi multiple times, as the evidence shows:

Along the way we stopped for gas (literally gas, not petrol) a couple of times. And I have found my next vehicle:

My next vehicle

We stopped along the way in two spots: 

1. Sevan Lake (2000m altitude, 105km circumference, cold weather)

Misha and Sharon

2. A small village by name of Dilijan that has a small pond and an interesting coffee place, with chambers whose floors are below water level. Pretty cool. 

Cool coffee place in Dilijan

The border crossing to Georgia struck me as somewhat strange due to the fact that there were barely any people crossing. One would have expected a lot more traffic from a country (Armenia) that has open borders just on two ends. I had found this strange when we drove to Armenia too.

Azerbaijan (where the water is)

Misha is an interesting driver. Typically, he drives at least 100kph in those curvy mountain roads, and passes cars with complete disregard to continuous white lines (as is the way of the land around here). Yet, he is extremely cautious in the presence of Police. For example, as we passed by a police car, he suddenly drove 40, the police overtook us, he continued to drive 40 until the police found some fish. Then he continued with his normal speed of 130…

Btw, Misha claimed that alone he does this in 3 hours. I doubt it, since all of our stops didn't amount to more than 1 hour. Still, we was an hour faster than the drive to Yerevan.

Anyway, we arrived in Tbilisi at 15:00 (Ata Hotel again), and didn't do much for the rest of the day, other then getting some food.