Caucasus

It took us most of the next day using various means of transport to get to Kazbegi, a town in the Caucasus mountains. We stayed at a homestay with a very nice couple. We did catch glimpses of children and a grandmother but it seemed they were all instructed to stay away from us tourists. They served us a delicious although not extravagant dinner consisting of a vegetable soup, a salad and a typicial Georgian dish, grilled eggplant with walnut sauce. After a good night’s sleep we got up early to go hiking but before that it was breakfast time. I nearly broke down laughing when our hostess brought chicken stew for breakfast. Thinking back to our first morning in Baku when I was sure that we had chicken because we couldn’t explain that we wanted breakfast, I now wondered whether the guy in Baku did understand breakfast after all as chicken is what they typically eat for breakfast? I probably will never know. Anyway, we had a whole day of hiking ahead of us so I just ate the chicken and the rice that came with it.

The hiking route that I chose first passed a church on top of a hill. After traveling in Georgia for some time one notices that there are churches everywhere and the people seem very religious as they cross themselves whenever, wherever they see a church or a cross. There were occasional tourists like us hiking up there but since it was a Sunday there were hordes of local people going up there for religious service. Some of them carried food with them, mostly loaves of bread in plastic grocery bags. I guess it wasn't their lunch but rather something to do with the service.

After reaching the church we continued on the trail that led to a ridge from where we could see the Gergeti glacier and that was our final destination at 2940m altitude. The trail continues on to a hut from where it would be possible to climb mount Kazbek (5047m) but we were not equipped for high altitude climbing and anyway I tend to like to stay away from snow and ice. We had beautiful views of the Caucasus and eventually returned on the trail back to the village. 

We met a couple of tourists on our way down who were still going up and they asked us how much longer to go and what is there to see up there and is it worth it. Marko answered them with a very cryptic “Well, you can see a glacier”. Now, knowing Marko, I will venture into providing some subtitles for that statement. In translation it could mean “Well, if you are the kind of person who enjoys huffing and puffing uphill for hours just so that you get somewhere from where you can see a pile of snow then you will probably like it up there. But if you are like me then don’t bother, I only went because my wife who is a hiking maniac dragged me up there.” I have no further comment.

The next day I managed to persuade Marko to go on a shorter hike but only after I absolutely promised that we wouldn’t go see any more glaciers. I chose a shorter hike that led to a view of the multi-peaked mountain Chaukhi (with a little snow visible – but that doesn’t really count as a glacier, does it?). Anyway, the clouds covered the multi-peaks so there were no views but it was just a nice hike up a valley with some jumping over streams and it was beautiful.

For the rest of the day we hung around our homestay reading. I finally got around to reading a novel I bought in Baku, Ali and Nino. It gives an interesting perspective on a mixed marriage between a Muslim Azerbaijani man and a Christian Georgian woman. Appropriate reading for our trip, to get some more impressions of the local culture.

Our trip was winding down and our last destination was Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia. We planned to stay there for several days and take day trips to some other sights in the vicinity. So the next morning we packed our stuff to go to the minibus but our host offered to drive us along with another English tourist to Tbilisi.