Meet Georgia

Review of the campaign in Georgia 07.15.2018

After watching the melodramas about Georgia, I was madly dreaming to go there and plunge into all this cinematic atmosphere. I cannot say that I am an experienced traveler, but I love the mountains with all my heart and, of course, I wanted to start exploring Georgia. There were many illusions about this, and how I was surprised that they all came true and even beyond that:)

So, in order. In July 2018, I was hiking in Upper Svaneti with a guide Denis pavlovsky. Miracles accompanied us from the beginning to the end of the hike. First, they moved my flight, so I was late for the meeting, and the group and the guide waited patiently for me. While we were driving from Kutaisi to Mestia, we had a wheel punched through, the reserve didn’t fit for some reason and we stood and waited on the side of a miracle. Say it is naive? Yes, but not in Georgia. Everybody stopped, their wheels also didn’t fit for some reason, they offered to take us to some intermediate point, bring us the right wheel, but in the end, after half an hour, we still found what we were looking for, complete strangers just Gave us a wheel , exchanged contacts and left.

On the first day we traveled a lot, visited the Inguri reservoir, the guide distributed us to the most delicious and satisfying khachapuri and in anticipation we arrived in Mestia - the starting point of the route. You can see the schema in the description , and I’m better off impressions.

< p> Just want to say that the hike program was built very smoothly: you go the first day, you camp at the campsite, you can still go to the Hergiani museum (for 3 lari, it seems definitely worth it), the second day , and then the load varies (then camping, then savage), which helps to gradually integrate into the desired rhythm. Another very cool thing is that you can leave things unnecessary for a hike with the driver, and then he will bring them back and you can go on driving around Georgia. I went with my equipment, not counting the tents, but it can also be rented, as some guys from the group did, the equipment was comfortable and at an affordable price. With the tent everything was ok, warm, dry, not hard.

Regarding personal items , you must clearly follow the list of equipment (waterproof socks are sooooo important thing !!) and there will be no problems either. Mountainous Georgia is not an easy thing, during the day it is quite hot and the Masthev sunblock, otherwise you can go crazy, and at night or during the rain / wind thermal underwear, a Goretex windbreaker, fleece, hat, gloves are very important things. And yes, shoes, if you really want to go to the mountains, then with special shoes, you can buy them relatively inexpensively and this will be the best solution. And trekking sticks will be very useful! Thanks to the guide, he taught us how to walk with them, for those who did not have, cut down strong and thin sticks, without them I don’t know what we would do. previously, I was very mediocre about the choice of equipment and thought, why is it so difficult for me to hike. It was worth a responsible approach to the issue - and half of the difficulties from the shoulders.

As for campgrounds. Unprecedented comfort in the mountains for me, I even felt that I was spoiled: hot water, toilet, electricity, once we even watched football with them at home and They served us coffee, others had a wonderful courtyard with a swing and funny kids. But the campsites are 3 or 4 days out of 9, so portable charging will not be superfluous and the savage will also have time :) Everyone is very kind, friendly, mostly speak Russian. And it costs only 5-10 GEL \ day.

More about the track itself . It was my 4th trip, I was fully equipped, so basically I ran ahead of everyone. But the track is quite complicated and if you want to have fun, then you need to go prepared and having some sort of trekking experience.

On the first day we went to the radial, got to the snow and rode there on the podzhopnik. An incredible feeling of riding in the snow in the middle of summer:)

For me, the most difficult was to ford the river. The water is icy, it cuts my legs, it's terrible to horror, it's good that we are going holding hands, and the guide is insured from the back (the technique was carried separately across the river so that we would not drown it). That was the moment where I was ready to howl, but the group was very cool, everyone supported, in the end, they managed and walked, proud to have overcome this.

By the way, the track can be finished a little earlier, but we were ready to fight to the end and climb the highest point of the 3100 m track and did not regret it, but if you get tired, you can go to Ushguli. On the last day I injured my leg, but the guys helped, unloaded me, the guide gave me an anesthesia, compression bandage, in general, everyone took care, everyone is very attentive and goes to the meeting. The taxi driver drove a little further, so I had less to go. In addition, to our request to take us to a cafe, brought me to my house and fed us for the day ahead :)

In general, Georgia is a paradise! :)

What I want to say separately: this is an incredible, indescribable beauty! Waterfalls, glacier, mountain rivers, lakes, ancient temples, snow-capped peaks in the distance, beautiful flowers, magical sunsets, mountain villages, stone towers and cows, cows, cows - they are everywhere, and thanks to them there is where to step). I could not let the camera out of my hands, I want to shoot every step. In general, it is difficult to explain these feelings as if you were in a fairy tale. Look at the photo - everything is clear)

people on the track at times and nowhere to go, and in some places even complete isolation. On the way, there are shops, spoiled themselves with ice cream, Georgian cuisine, but there, of course, is more expensive in comparison with the capital or Batumi. & Nbsp;

General impression: a very cool, varied, rich hike, super democratic in price (you get tired and very tasty, the guide does everything himself, how many she tried to help - refused :)), it’s not the easiest, so you have to prepare responsibly, the weather is pretty beautiful, the weather is terribly changeable, but that’s just more interesting:)

Thanks to Outdoor Ukraine, it was great!

Elizaveta Zhivchenko