Day 11

At 9 am, we embarked on a tour to northern Georgia and the Caucasus region. There were 6 tourists – us, a married couple of chemical engineers from Teheran, and an Indian couple from Delhi now living in Dubai + guide and driver. The weather was definitely not good – rainy and misty – but we hoped it would get better along the way. The drive to Kazbek, a mountain town on the border between Georgia and Russia, is the legendary Georgian military highway, which was built by the Russian empire between 1817 and 1863. It is still the main road connecting Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and even Iran with Russia. Once we got into the mountains, the fog outside got very thick and the inside windshield also became fogged. It was impossible to see the road ahead. We were yelling “open a window” as apparently the driver did not know how to direct heat to the windshield. The road was steep and windy and the driver must have been a racecar driver previously. On this two lane road, with almost no visibility, lots of heavy trucks traveling in both directions and many cars driving without lights on, he pulled out to pass everyone. AND the car was right hand drive and they drive on the right. When we got to the highest point, the Jvari Pass and the fog was so thick that we couldn’t see anything around us, both Bo and I thought the end was near. Bo tried to convince everyone that we should turn back, but the other passengers thought we’d be just fine and the driver laughed and said “nye perezhivay”, which roughly means “not a big deal”. When we finally got out of the fog about 30 km before Kazbegi, we saw a long line of trucks (big trucks) along the side of the road. We were told they are waiting to cross into Russia which only allows trucks to cross after 8 pm. On the way back I counted the trucks, there were 113. We reached a village and saw the famous Gergeti Sameba Trinity church way up the hill. Driving up that one lane dirt road which has water running down it for at least 100 years was a rollercoaster ride. Our driver called it a Georgian massage. The van would tilt 30 degrees to the right then 30 degrees to the left. Everybody got thrown around, but we survived. When we got up to the church, it was freezing cold and drizzling so it was really hard to enjoy the spectacular views of Mt. Kazbegi in the background. Taking pictures was also hard from the top. After the same joyride down to the village of Kazbegi (now called Stepandsminda), we stopped at a local restaurant for a very tasty Georgian lunch, and then back the same mountainous road to Tbilisi. We really enjoyed talking to our co-travelers who were interesting and fun people. We should also mention that on the way, we also stopped at a very pretty Zhinvali water reservoir, which provides water to the city of Tbilisi and at the Ananuri fortress.