Autumn in the Caucasus (Svaneti)

The hike was chosen because I wanted to go somewhere easy and for a short time in the mountains, and while I was on vacation.

Kutaisi-Hotel

My plane arrived at 2 am, the very last one, so when I got to the hotel I had to ask what room was reserved. But there was no one behind the counter, walking around among the doors, I found 2 open ones, in one of which I could see a sleeping man in shorts, and in the other, it seemed, a girl. Not daring to go either here or there, she went to bed in the hall. At 5 am the hostess came and, without asking for my documents, showed me the room.

1 day (29.9.15)

We got up at 7 am local time, at 11 we loaded into the car and went to the mountains to the village of Mazeri. After only 2.5 hours we entered the mountains and moved along the Inguri River, first along ridges on asphalt, and then along serpentines without asphalt.

After the dam (upstream), the Enguri takes on some unusual emerald color, and it acquires this color over the course of several kilometers. Cows and, less often, pigs calmly walk along the road, lazily moving away from honking cars.

At 17 o'clock we finally reached Mazeri, let go of the car, passed through the village, climbed onto the slope to spend the night and began to look for water, which was not in the stream, as we expected. The water was higher up the slope; since August, part of the stream had dried up.

From the slope we could see part of Ushba in the clouds, to which the next day we had a path ahead, the slope and valley, already touched by the golden autumn. On the Mazeri side, a road is being built in full swing, supposedly for new ski or mountain resorts - and all night long cars drove by with street lights, throwing something and rumbling.

It gets dark quickly and around 19:00. Unfortunately and unfortunately, we only took one flashlight.

Day 2 (30.9.15)

At 8:30 we leave in the direction of Ushba. On the road we meet horses and cows coming towards us, who are afraid of us, so we step aside to let them pass, and they rush past: horses along the road, cows through the bushes.

About 20 minutes after leaving we pass by a spring with mineral water. It is located in a barrel, dug into the ground almost to the very top, and all the earth around is wet, and the appearance of this land is completely nondescript, and even dirty. However, the water in the barrel is clean and tasty.

We walk as best we can, stopping periodically to take photographs.

At 10:30 we cross the bridge over the river and begin the ascent along the path to the waterfalls flowing from Ushba and to the glacier. The entire trail is marked with signs (the stripes on the stones are red and white and blue and white)

At 15-30 we reach the glacier, but the weather deteriorates, and Ushba, which we expected to see in all its glory, is covered with clouds, and during the entire time of our lunch it never appeared.

On the way back we meet a group from Lviv, which hopes to go through the mountains in a more sporty way than we do.

Day 3

Only at 10-30 we manage to agree on a car, and we go to Mestia. There we stay partly in a guesthouse, partly in a campsite (tent in the courtyard of the house). The view from the campsite is very picturesque: you can see the church on the opposite bank.

Mestia is being rebuilt in full force, buildings in the old style are being erected in the center, but until construction is completed, anyone can find shelter from the sun and rain in the buildings. In the center there is a monument erected to... I wouldn’t guess - to Queen Tamara - producing an ambivalent impression, like Shemyakinsky Peter the 1st in Peter and Paul Fortress.

In the central square there is an information center where they hand out very detailed maps of Svaneti with all the routes to local attractions (signatures in Georgian and English).

We have lunch in a cafe with khachapuri (is it leaning?) and discuss future plans. Because of the rain, drivers refuse to drive high and charge high prices. Therefore, since the day is already in full swing, and even evening is just around the corner, we have few options. Either we climb on foot to the bottom viewpoint, or we drive to the top viewpoint, from where we climb to the Koruldi lakes, or we don’t go anywhere to the mountains, but look at museums.

Around 14-45 we leave in the direction of the Koruldi lakes, to the viewpoint, not reaching the lakes (the maximum where the driver agreed to go due to bad weather), hoping to still reach the lakes, and that on the way back along the road we will not get lost even in the dark.

It's drizzling. The climb is steep enough for a car, there is no asphalt, and there are many scary turns. After another ride up a new hill, the driver hits the steering wheel with the exclamation “Oh, what a car!” And, indeed, despite the wet road, she overcomes all the climbs on the move.

When we reached the viewpoint, it became very obvious that there was not much time left. We get ready, put on rain capes, move the necessary things closer, and then the driver Vakhtang says: “I can’t look at you, sit down, I’ll take you to the lakes, I won’t take a penny!”

On the way we catch up with an English-speaking couple. Vakhtang slows down and asks: “Where are you going?” - “To the lakes” - answers the wet, joyful girl - “You are crazy!” - the driver is perplexed. “Why?” “You are more crazy then them!” - and points at us*.

(* “Where are you going?” - “To the lakes.” - “You are crazy!” - “Why?” - “You are even crazier than them!”)

At 15-30 we reach the lakes. Lakes, of course, are a strong word, but the very fact of their presence at such a height is remarkable, and, of course, they give a special shade to the treeless slopes. They say that they even tried to breed fish there, but they only survived one winter.

After admiring the lakes, we begin to climb the slope: to see what’s behind the slope in the neighboring valley. There is a catastrophic lack of time, it is raining. It becomes especially exciting when looking down at the valley where we have to return, preferably before dark.

Several times we came across some huge (15 centimeters) slugs that came out to enjoy the rain.

We never reached the neighboring valley, but we walked through several bends and admired the Koruldi lakes from afar, and our valley from above. The slope shows for the first time that hiking poles are not a luxury, but a means of transportation. (Afterwards, a worker at the Georgian airport, who promised to take care of my stick, said that she had recently gone to the mountains, and the stick was what she had been dreaming about the whole trip.)

19-30 We approach the lunch place (viewing platform) when it is almost dark, and then we descend in complete darkness and with only one flashlight. The descent took 2 hours, and some more time to the guesthouse/camping.

4 day

We agree on transport for the further journey and go to see the towers of Mestia and the house-museum at one of the towers. The towers in Mestia are protected by UNESCO; at one time they were used for observation, security and protective purposes, and also as protection against avalanches.

The house next to one of the towers was given by the owner to create a museum at the end of the 20th century; almost until that time it was used for its intended purpose. The museum tour is quick and comprehensive, so we have time to explore the museum and leave early enough. There are also museums in Mestia, so if anyone is planning to spend a few days there, they can take that into account.

Upon disembarking from the car, we discover that along the entire road, as far as we can see, a ditch one and a half meters wide has been dug for construction purposes. Before we have time to get upset about this, national Georgian ingenuity comes to the rescue: the builders offer us to use an excavator bucket as a bridge, which we happily do.

This is our first hike with all the equipment.

Towers were built throughout Svaneti, but not everywhere they are maintained in good condition; some of the towers are destroyed.

Cows are walking all over the lowlands, Vlad is trying to photograph them face-to-face, while the cows believe that he wants to gore them.

5 day

We get up at 7 (and the always-on-duty Kirill even earlier), since we agreed with the locals about a horse crossing. True, they didn’t look at the river, but in vain: the water there is just above the ankle, so you could easily cross. (well, not easily, the water is, of course, cold).

It seems that horse breeders have the same fatalistic attitude towards safety when traveling on horses as they do when traveling by car. Having thrown my leg onto the horse, I suddenly discovered that somehow everything was slipping away from under my arms and legs, and I was flying upside down (I had time to think about all the possible injuries and how they would transport me from there), but the landing was successful, my side hurt a little, that’s all. It turned out that the horse’s girths were not tightened at all and there was only one stirrup.

I ask the owner where the stirrup is (he didn’t speak Russian, but he understood what we were talking about) - he shows: it’s there somewhere (in the distance on the road and grass), but he tightened the girths, and there were no more incidents.

We climb the path (there are plenty of paths along all the slopes of the glaciers) and admire the opening glacier. From time to time there is a powerful, continuous roar, it feels like an avalanche or rockfall. Taking a closer look, we discover its source: a small stream of snow on the glacier, falling from a cliff several meters away. It feels like “Well, hare, wait a minute” will lead to a complete collapse.

The slope is overgrown with rhododendron. At the end of July and beginning of August, it is most likely also very beautiful here: rhododendron beauty.

October has its own charm: both the beauty of golden autumn and the sweetness of blueberries wedged into the rhododendron, very sweet, most likely due to the abundance of sun.

At the pass, while we were going to see what was there in the neighboring valley, the first local businessman came to us: a small dog, who climbs to the pass every day at the time of the probable lunch of the groups - came and lay down in the middle of the backpacks, saying, “that’s how it happened.” Seeing that there was no lunch, he went down to the stream, where, in his opinion, there should definitely be lunch. But the wrong tourists began to dine later, when the dog got desperate and went downstairs.

After lunch it rains, and we go down and meet “our” dog among a dilapidated house with preserved Soviet symbols, and in the guesthouse we drink the last local wine left by the owners.

We didn’t have time to go down to Iprali only a few kilometers because of rain and darkness, we spend the night with the permission of the owners at the fence of the house, with whom we agreed on a car for tomorrow to Ushguli and who wanted a soul. There is a heavy rainfall, the awning has to be drained every few minutes.

Day 6

We move to Ushguli, the farthest point of our route.

Here, as well as everywhere else in Svaneti, towers were built, one of them is even used as a church, services are held in it and bells ring.

In the distance we can see a glacier, where we will soon head.

We stay with a very colorful grandmother, who holds her entire family, cows, calves and household together with a cafe-hotel in her fist.

In Ushguli, dogs are in full swing: there are a lot of them, and right from the morning they start “herding” tourists, petting them, asking for treats, and even keeping company on the routes. Around 12-40 we go to see the Shkhara glacier up close.

The weather is gloomy and threatens to not show us the peaks. On the way we meet a car so loaded with hay that it’s unclear how the driver sees anything there. True, the driver has a co-driver riding in front of the car just like a caryatid rostra. Also, for the purpose of transporting hay, oxen are used, harnessed to, as hard as it may be to believe, sleighs made of logs, which are also practically invisible under the hay.

The road to Shkhara is as crowded as Nevsky Prospekt: ​​groups and even horseback tourists, accompanied by local guides, are constantly meeting. A lot (and, as the locals say, most tourists) - where from? I would never have guessed it - from Israel.

At 17-15, we finally climb onto the moraine of the glacier and try unsuccessfully to make out the peaks through the gaps in the clouds. It starts to rain, so we don't linger any longer.

Day 7

We leave early, around 9 am.

Now our plans are to climb the opposite slope from Shkhara to open up (as we hoped) a view of the entire ridge.

The owner's dog left the house with us, and immediately at the exit from Ushguli three more dogs joined us, among them was a small skinny girl dog who ate everything, including grasshoppers, but had an easy-going disposition, and the boys tried to start a showdown because of her.

The whole big group of us climbed the ridge in the wind and drizzling rain. We didn’t see the ridge because of the clouds, but we admired the colorful mountain golden autumn.

On the way back, a huge dog’s face looked out from the loophole of one of the towers and barked loudly at us.

Day 8

In the morning you can see how snow has fallen on the slopes, which were green yesterday. Today is departure day. Of course, there is not a cloud in the sky: if you want, go to the glacier, or if you want, go to the survey. My calls to run once again to the ridge were not supported, and we are leaving back to Kutaisi.

On the way, the driver stops at a treasured place near a hazel tree, where we feast on nuts. And I found a certain plant there that looked like golden root (as I thought that was what it was). that the root was not branched and not very thick, at that moment it bothered me a little, but just in case, I licked it.

It was, well... in vain. Nothing happened until the evening, and in the evening, it seemed like nothing special, I just felt a burning sensation on my face. At night, my face swelled into a pillow, I had to take antibiotics (it fell off for a couple of days).

Sights of Kutaisi

The next day, Vlad and Yana leave for Tbilisi on a plane, and Kirill and I and my swollen face take a car (yesterday’s driver) and go to see the beauties of Kutaisi: Sataplia, Prometheus Cave, waterfall, Mortvili Monastery.

Sataplia (honey rock) is a reserve with real dinosaur footprints, miraculously preserved, and equipped with karst caves. After the reserve we go to the Prometheus Cave - also a karst cave, longer and with a water section through which you can sail by boat.

After walking through the cave, we go to the canyon. But, unfortunately, the canyon (the official passage) was closed on this very day, and we drove higher, to its source and waterfall. Not reaching 800 meters our car stops, and we continue on foot. The construction of the further section of the road is in full swing, so it is possible that next summer it will be possible to climb almost to the waterfall. On some not very marked section of the road we turn left and go through the gate, meadow and trees to the waterfall. By the way, local people have adapted to dry hay in an elegant way: hanging it on a tree:

Having walked 100 meters away from the road, we find ourselves at the beginning of the waterfall. The waterfall consists of several parts: narrow streams falling from about 50 meters in height. But it's not about the waterfall at all. He formed bizarre shapes from the rock, looking amazing and even somehow unearthly. I saw a similar thing (in a wider version and deeper internal rock passages) on the Kazakh Uba River. There a pair of small dogs (puppies) track us again and wait for our lunch. One of the puppies played very funny with a donkey, unfortunately, it was not possible to catch it in the frame.

And almost by evening we reach the ancient monastery of Mortvili. The monastery is active, but you can enter the church for both tourist and pilgrimage purposes. The servants speak Russian, even the young girls.

Recommendations

For those who are planning trips to Svaneti in general and at this time in particular.

Weather

During the day in the mountains at the beginning of October it was quite warm, you can walk in a windbreaker at most.

In the evening after sunset it gets cold quickly, down to +5, we dress in sweaters, warm jackets and hats. At this time, it is better to take a warm sleeping bag, with a comfort temperature at minus.

It is often cloudy and the peaks we expected to see are not visible.

Rain in the Caucasus is not uncommon in the summer, and even more so in the fall.

Hiking with a dog

(if anyone is interested)

With the availability of air/rail transport this is unrealistic.

According to new Russian rules (since 2014), when traveling on a train, small dogs weighing less than 20 kg must be transported in the vestibule of one specific carriage and buy a dog ticket. If the dog weighs more than 20 kg, you need to buy a whole compartment to transport it.

When transporting dogs weighing more than 8 kg on an airplane, the dog travels in the cargo compartment, in a crate and with certificates - everything needs to be taken care of in advance. But payment is required for overloading luggage (that is, for a dog 35 kg + cage the cost is two to four times the cost of a ticket for an adult).

If there is air transit through another country, then nothing will work out at all, since the dog must undergo a 3-day quarantine in that country. In addition, on some flights the luggage compartment is not heated, and there is no cargo terminal in Kutaisi.

So my dog, who was planning to go, stayed home.

Airplane

Planes to/from Kutaisi do not fly every day, so you can use the option of flying to Tbilisi, and then from Tbilisi get to Kutaisi (or vice versa) (6 hours for everything).

Airline bankruptcy

Some airlines may, for example, go bankrupt... as happened with ours. Although the airline’s pilots kept their face to the last, fed passengers more thoroughly than others, wished for new meetings, etc., but in Moscow the airline dropped off all transit passengers with wishes of good luck and to receive money for canceled flights at the place where tickets were purchased or an urgent trip to another god-knows-where airport and attempts to fly out from there in case, again, of luck.

There were 3 exits:

1. Have money enough for another plane ticket (didn’t happen) and then someday get the money back for a canceled flight.
2. Have money enough for a train ticket (didn’t happen)
3. Meet other victims and use collective wisdom and knowledge/use the Internet.

This gave the following information:

• There are always traffic jams in Moscow, and counting on being able to get to another airport by car in 2 hours is quite naive.
• Some train runs from one airport to another - faster than motor transport in possible traffic jams.
• Satisfying the requirement to change a ticket and fly one passenger out of the same airport makes airport workers quite flexible to issue tickets for the same plane for other passengers. (although the flight is delayed by 5 hours)

Cars

• If you drive/get around Georgia by car, it turns out to be quite expensive.
• They ask for the most money from those who have just arrived/arrived.
• Bargaining is always appropriate.
• In the end there was practically no money left, so only budget ones were considered options.
• There are a lot of right-hand drive cars.
• Drivers take safety... calmly: seat belts are decoration, thrown on when entering large populated areas and thrown off when leaving

Minibuses in Kutaisi

From the center of Kutaisi to the bus station (from where you can get to Tbilisi, for example), minibuses run number 1 and 200. The cost is 0.4 lari (the rate is about 2 lari for 1 dollar), payment upon exit.

Walking starts around 7-20 am. In order for the minibus to stop (at least at 7 am), you have to almost throw yourself under it, waving your arms in every possible way.

There are 2 bus stations, at one minibuses leave when they are full, at the other (at McDonald's) on a schedule, once every half hour. The cost of a ticket (purchased at the box office) to Tbilisi is 10 GEL.

City transport in Tbilisi

Backpacks may not be allowed on minibuses in Tbilisi.

To get to the airport from the place where the bus from Kutaisi arrives, you need to get to the bus station, from where bus 37 goes to the airport. The bus goes through the entire city, and you can have time to admire the city. And in general, you need to go to Tbilisi separately, IMHO.

You can get to the bus station by metro or by bus 20 (you then need to walk 300 meters) or 27. The bus fare is 0.5 GEL, payment is at the cash registers inside the bus: you put a coin in and a ticket comes out.

At bus stops there are boards with information: which bus is arriving when - very convenient.

Housing

Guesthouses throughout Svaneti cost the same: they start asking for 20 GEL per person, but then you can bargain.

Agriculture

When traveling, I always had the feeling that I was missing something, something was missing. Finally, I realized: there are no sheep. And accompanying lines of grandmothers and aunties with socks, sweaters, shawls and blouses, like in the Northern Caucasus. One resident said there used to be sheep, but they disappeared because of wolves.

In Georgia in the Caucasus, cows are mainly raised. They are practically full participants in the road traffic and cars take them into account when driving on the roads.

Music

Information about music is limited, gleaned from what drivers listen to.

They listen to different things: from pop music both in Georgian and Russian (and, obviously and wonderfully, locally performed), some kind of thieves (“Ah, Sonechka the thief, your lips are your lips”) to something amazing (either religious chants, or legends) in Georgian.

I remember some kind of pop performance performed by a woman:
“God, what a man!” I want syyyyy from him.
I want a daughter from him, and a dot! And dotchka!

People in Kutaisi-Svaneti-Tbilisi

• The people are very friendly (at least those many with whom we communicated: taxi drivers and city transport drivers, residents of settlements near the mountains, sellers, information center and hotel workers, passengers and just passers-by).
• For the entire time, we came across only one not very friendly ticket taker in one museum, but this has little effect on the statistics.
• Familiar men kiss when they meet.
• Many women in black - they say that the custom of wearing mourning for all deceased relatives is highly developed.

Politics - conversations

Most of those with whom we spoke readily talk about Saakashvili, mostly praise him and expect him to return, or predict a great future in world politics, but there are also those who are sharply dissatisfied.

Russian language in Georgia

Young people (small sample) do not speak. In any case, at the currency exchange office at Kutaisi airport the cashier did not speak at all. Therefore, if they wanted to know something, they turned to older residents - there was not a single person who did not understand and did not answer.

Conflict between Russians and Ukrainians

There is no conflict. In any case, I didn’t notice him, although during this time we somehow crossed paths with about a dozen Ukrainian tourists.

There were, by and large, two discoveries for me:

1. Everyone is very friendly, welcoming and politically correct. (Or tried to be politically correct). The absence of which, to be honest, I was somewhat afraid of when I was getting ready to go on a hike.
2. We don’t always identify each other’s jokes as jokes.

For example, when the idea suddenly came up “shouldn’t we sing something” - I thought: what can we be guaranteed to know together? I didn’t come up with anything and joked: “The union is indestructible,” but I immediately felt that this was somehow not perceived by my Ukrainian companions as a joke - whereas the Russians, I think, would have laughed or grinned.

Or, on the contrary, the phrase of a member of the group I met “we don’t eat Muscovites” is not at all identified by me as a joke, although I saw that everyone was having fun.

Group

Half (if not more) of the success of a trip is a good group. The group was excellent, intelligent and in a good mood. Thank you, Kirill, Yana and Vlad!

Anya Smirnova, St. Petersburg.