Laurence Mitchell in the Republic of Georgia: Guest Post

It's a pleasure to continue with another guest post from author Laurence Mitchell, this one dateline Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (Read two reports from earlier on this trip, from Russia and Azerbaijan). Laurence is a photographer as well as an author, but since he's still out on the road, updating the Bradt Guide to Georgia, I'm augmenting his emailed remarks with photos from EarthPhotos.com.

Here's Laurence:

It is true to say that I have expereinced all four seasons on this trip. I arrived in Georgia at Lagodekhi, close to the borders with Daghestan (Russian Federation) and Azerbaijan, on a really hot day where the temperature was in the 30s (that's 80s for US readers). I spent only one night here but had time for a stroll in gorgeous hornbeam woodland that has deer, bears and all manner of woodland creatures - not that I saw any. Then I headed west to Telavi in to the heart of Kakheti, Georgia's wine region. The weather turned again here, becoming dull and grey.
 
Moving on to Tbilsi for a couple of days, I tried best to plan best my route around Georgia according to the most favourable weather, but it was not really great anywhere so I plumped for Borjomi (where the mineral water comes from) and spent a couple of days here staying in the spare room of a poor but friendly local family. On my second day here, I took a marshrutka up to Bakuriani, a nearby hill resort with slopes favoured by President Saakashvili. I returned by local train, which took nearly 3 hours to travel 45 kilometres down steep inclines through woods. Good value though - it cost just 2 Lari (£.0.60, $1) and one of the local lumberjacks gave me a bunch of grapes to eat. Now is vey much the season for eating grapes and every Georgian can be seen stuffing sweet purple fruit into their mouths in betwen cigarettes.
 
I backtracked slightly from here to Gori - Stalin's birthplace, whose massive statue has only recently (June this year, I think) been removed from the central square. Nevertheless, there seem to be plans to reinstall it in front of the Stalin Museum at some stage in the future. I visited the museum for the second time, having gone there previously in 2000, and once more marvelled at the many photos of the (apparently benign) dictator smiling at children and accepting gifts of flowers from Ukrainian girls. Not much sign of Trotsky or Krushchev it must be said. I passed on the opportunity to buy a bottle of Saperavi wine with his face on the label - it was tempting though.
 
The weather in Gori was foul - somehow fitting with its somewhat sinister - if airbrushed - history. I was the only diner in the Intourist Restaurant that night and made the mistake of ordering a pitcher of local Saperovi wine all for myself. It was so delicious that I drank it all, which was probably a bit of a miscalculation on my part. Georgians tell you that Georgian wine is so pure that it doesn't produce hangovers - yeah sure - and they probably think that Khachapuris don't make you fat either.

Next morning was beautiful so I climbed up to the citadel to take photos before attempting to move on to Kutaisi. I went to the railway station but there was no train until the evening and so took a bus back to the minibus station - no minbuses either as they all came from Tbilisi and bypassed the town. Only one solution: a taxi took me to the highway where I had to attempt to flag down a passing marshrutka - no easy task when they are going full pelt and you have to try to read the tiny destination board... in Georgian script. After half an hour of no luck an odd thing happened: a 4x4 stopped and asked where I was going, then the driver made a mobile telephone call before telling me that there would be a bus along in a minute that would stop for me. At least I Ihink this is what he said - my Georgian is mostly limited to things that you can eat. Lo and behold, a bus did soon come and stop for me - in fact, rather luxurious one going all the way to Istanbul.
 
In Kutaisi I stayed with Giorgi, whom I had stayed with earlier in the year in April. Here I spent a very interesting evening sipping cha cha and discussing Iran with Girogi, a very charming Iranian traveller (the first Iranian independent traveller I had ever met) and a Burmese-Indonesian Australian. Coincidentally, all four of us had actually been to Iran (well, maybe not such a coincidence for the Iranian!).
 
I thought it was time to get off the beaten track, not that many tracks in Georgia are very 'beaten'. I found a marshrutka going to Oni, in the region north of Kutasi known as Racha close to South Ossetia. I was lucky - I had a seat - but this was one of the most crowded minibuses I have ever been on, and I am including places like India in this. For most of the journey there were 32 adults on board including driver - I counted -  packed into a 16-seater Ford Transit. No-one actually sat on my lap but I couldn't move for the best part of the 5 hour journey over terrible roads.
 
Oni doesn't really get many visitors apart from the odd curious Israeli in search of the town's surviving synagogue. The town's 'hotel' was really just a family homestay but once they had got over the shock of having an uninvited guest I was welcomed and shared a lengthy evening meal with them with lots of toasts being made swilled down with their own home-made wine. The promise was that I would return one day and then make speech in Georgian. Please don't hold your breath, good people of Oni.
 
I went all the way back to Tbilisi the next day and then immediately onwards to Telavi once more, where I spent a couple more nights at the homestay of Eto, who I had stayed with the week before. While I was there II took a taxi out to visit some local monasteries but they all seemd to have the builders in and were indecorously covered with scaffolding. I was really waiting for a weather window to go up to Kazbegi along the Georgian Miltary Highway and after two nights iin Telavi I took a shared a taxi to take me the quick route across the high pass to Tbilisi then, once across the city on the metro, a marshrutka all the way to Kazbegi high in the Caucasus next to the Russian border.
 
For once, my timing was good. The mountain views at Kazbegi were stunning and Mount Kazbeg loomed large above the village like the great dead vocano that it is. Sunshine, blue skies, fluffy clouds - the only downside was that it was freezing cold and at my homestay (yet another Nino) I could only keep warm by lying in bed under piles of blankets. Out of bed I managed to keep reasonably warm by taking vigorous walks up and down the valley. It was very definitely 'end of the season' at Kazbegi, even in August it is not very warm here and after a couple of nights the cold really got to me. I got a lift back to Tbilisi with Bob, a retired gentleman farmer from the Welsh Borders who is researching for a book on indigenous horse games. Not a natural choice of travelling companion for me perhaps but a hardcore traveller who has been to Mongolia, Afghanistan, NE India, Pakistan in the course of his travels - Respect, as they say in da hood..
 
Tbilisi - back here now for the home stretch. Installed once more in my little rented apartment that I manage to find courtesy of another Nino (this time it is Nino from Mestia, Svaneti, whom I first met back in April). Naturally, once again it is raining.

*****

(Photos are: Top, the 14th century Trinity Church (Tsminda Sameba) near Mt. Kazbegi town in the high Caucasus mountains. Second, typical rural scene in the northern part of Georgia. Third, Mt. Kazbeg. Bottom: The capital, Tbilisi. Click 'em to make 'em bigger.)

Thanks so much to Laurance for sharing his journey with us all.