Week 5 - Siege Towers, snow and showers

Morning dawned in Mestia and a wonderful night's sleep had been had in a hammock like bed.  After breakfast some of us went with Kati, our young Georgian guide, to visit the museum and one of the siege towers.  The museum was really only one room but she provided the interesting history of how the room was used and told us about the region, her family and the siege towers. 

Cattle stalls inside house

The room consisted of the original furniture and there was also a little church were only the men were allowed to go.  As usual, men ruled supreme with them having the high chairs and the women having to sit below them.  There was a rule that no family could have more than five girls due to dowry issues so after that infanticide was practiced.  Mestia was one of those quirky little towns that rather got under your skin with its siege towers, cows in the street and beautiful mountains all round.  One day it will be a tourist destination but right now the roads are awful and the trip up a real bone rattling 8 hour slog.  In town you had to negotiate giant puddles, some with alarming bubbles coming out of them, uneven or non-existent pavements and cow pats.  After visiting the museum we climbed one of the siege towers belonging to Kati's family. This involved a few tortuous ladders and I gave up at the final hurdle so never saw the view from the top but the access was too tricky with my still hurting ankle. 

The cafe in town was interesting and at 12.00 men were indulging in huge beers. It seems to be a national pasttime but if I lived there I would probably be on the vodka at 10.00 a.m. The instant coffee, no milk, was delicious as was the meat filled dumpling. In the afternoon Kati took three of us to visit the 11th century church which had the most amazing frescoes and even more amazingly under this church was its 6th century predecessor where it was still possible to view frescoes.The road up was being worked on constantly and we had to wait on several occasions whilst a land slide was bulldozed off the road. I felt these poor guys working on the road were untaking a Herculeun task and it was rather like shifting deckchairs on the Titanic as once one emergency was rectified another piece of road collapsed into the valley below. There is an air strip but because of the mountains all round it is not always possible to land a plane.

The first part of journey back down the hill was magnificent with deep valleys, high mountains and tantilising churches but we had to make progress and eventually the swinging and bumping of the truck sent me off to sleep. 

Eventually we got to Zugdidi where we went to the market to buy food for that night. Fruit seems expensive although vegetables are cheap and the wine varies from gut rotting in huge bottles at very low prices to drinkable at Tesco's prices.  The old ladies in the market were pretty aggresive trying to get us to purchase various items, mainly spices which would be interesting to try if you were living there but it is hard to experiment too much when cooking for 24! At this point, Jim went off with Zazah to Tiblisi to try and sort out our Azerberjan visas and Richard and Andrea also went at Andrea had been unwell for a couple of days

Siege Towers



Looking down over Mestia

Our field for the night was at Senaki Fort complete with cows, dogs and a long drop!  Conversations on the truck tend to divide into two subjects - food and toilets - both of which are highly important in our lives!  Later the police arrived and took CJ away - were we worried - no.  We knew by then that he was well able to deal with them.  When they brought him back, they stayed and guarded us for the night and in the morning gave us a police escort to show us the road we needed.  What a service.



View from Senaki Fort

In Kutaisi, Denis and I walked up to Bagrati Cathedral which was being renovated but there was a nice little church outside the main Cathedral with lots of icons and we were able to wander round the fortifications.  After a delicious cheesy pastry, we drove to Gori where Stalin's statue seemed to have disappeared.  The Police stopped us again and gave us an escort to show us the road to Uplistsicki.  This place is a cave city which was founded in the Bronze Age about 1000 B.C.  We camped by the river and joy of joy there was clean working toilets even if they did shut the women's at 6.00 p.m.  Our dinner was particularly delicious with barbequed sausage, jacket potatoes and salad.

Fortifications at Bagrati Cathedral

A beast of burden in Mestia

Bircher muesli for breakfast - what a treat.  As we headed back to Gori, rain was threatening and by the time we got there it was steady.  We spent 3/4 hour at the Stalin museum.  The guide was very informative but she spoke so fast that it was hard to hear her and her general feeling was that Stalin was a really good guy, just misunderstood!  We saw the house that he grew up in and his railway carriage.  Apparently he did not like flying. 

The rain continued so lunch was taken in a semi-built building where we lunched under the verandah.  After lunch the rain continued and we climbed and climbed up into the mountains again.  Soon we were above the snowline and I was getting seriously worried as a night in the snow did not fill me with delight but fortunately having reached the summit we started to go down again and although it was cold and windy we were no longer in snow.  Having reached the little town of Kazbegi nearly on the Russian border, we found our camp which was rather windswept but tents were soon in place, a loo tent erected and dinner on the go.  It was Red, Red day to celebrate being in Georgia and everyone dressed up in something red and my nails were painted a bright red.  We drank mulled wine, ate curried chicken and chatted late into the night in the truck.  Far too cold to be outside.

Friday morning came and most of the group set out to climb up to the monastery but I knew I would not make it even if my ankle was not still giving me grief so spent a very pleasant morning writing diary and blog in anticipated of publishing blog tomorrow in Tiblisi.


On reaching each camp we are joined by an assortment of dogs which just hang around looking mournfully at you. They don’t beg, unlike the people in the towns, but just seem to want to be with you. At this site we had a particularly scenic bush toilet (loo with a view or poo palace as it was christened) and after a short sharp rain storm I went up there to find two dogs sheltering in there. They had no intention of moving but as Ben said “I wish they wouldn’t watch you!”




View from the campsite



View from the loo



 So another day and another pack up. Melissa and I are getting quite expert at both putting up and putting down the tent although the muddle inside the tent doesn’t seem to decrease. The burning question of the day is ‘if it all came out of that bag, why won’t it fit in again’. It was a very quiet truck that descended down the mountain and I was so fast asleep that I didn’t even wake up when we reached Ananuri Fortress. We had lunch there which for me consisted of a peanut butter sandwich. I am rather over the pink scary looking meat that seems to be all that is available at the moment. The fortress dates from the 13th century and is in the most beautiful location on what looks like an estuary but is probably a river. Colin and CJ climbed the tower but terra ferma for me. We then went on to the Cathedral at Svetitskhoveli which is one of the most important religious buildings in Georgia. Some of the group thought we had seen enough churches but I for one was very happy to see the wonderful icons and paintings and to feel the intense atmosphere of the place. I guess on a trip like this there is always going to be conflicts on what we want to do but I feel there has been a good balance so far.



Statue at bottom of campsite



Calypso taken from town






Downtown Kazbegi



Evening mist over the mountains







Denis and Steve with new hats



 As we approached Tblisi, it appeared to be a modern, clean looking town and our hotel was good with lovely hot water and comfy beds which we were really appreciated after four nights of bush camping and two nights at a homestay in the mountains.  Most of the group went off to watch the rugby at the local Irish Bar.  How is it the Irish get everywhere!  A few just went for a meal and I stayed at the hotel and luxuriated in the silence and peace. 

The following morning I headed off to do the Lonely Planet walking tour.  However, there was one big problem with it - no street names and any signs were all in Georgian script.  However, I managed to see Parliament, the Theatre, the Cathedral and other important buildings, ate a wonderful blackcurrant icecream and wandered through the Old Town.  At one point I was in a pretty slummy looking area but never left uncomfortable.  I definitely like Tblisi and in fact all I have seen of Georgia has impressed me greatly.  The people don't smile a lot but when you talk to them and use the only word I know "thank you", they open up.  This afternoon I had one of the strangest experiences of my life.  I wanted to go to the sulphur baths.  The first one "the Royal Bath" was going to charge 50 lev for one hour, the second 30 lev for an hour so I went in the public bath which was 2 lev.  Some scary looking woman told me to take off all my clothes and sent me in the general direction.  I walked into this room full of women all in the buff and it was rather like Dante's 7th circle of hell!  I will never again say that I am too fat!  Having got this far I thought I should stay and at least have a shower.  I waited and waited as people pushed in front of me.  Eventually an old lady grabbed me and pushed me into a shower that her friend was getting out of.  She was most concerned that I had not washed my back so she scrubbed me with soap and massaged me and it did not cost me an extra penny!







Ananuri

Due to intense irritation with blog not behaving itself, this is all until next week by when hopefullly we will have been through Azerbeycan.  Off to Embassy tomorrow to look mournful like all the camp dogs - maybe that will do the trick.



Cows wandering home at night





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Coming down from Mestia

Coming down from Mestia