Dressing up for nuns in Soviet Chiatura, Georgia

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Day 12 Georgia. Weds 21st Sep

Dressing up for nuns in Soviet Chiatura, Georgia



Today’s trip was supposed to be yesterday and then tomorrow and was now today. After not getting home until nearly midnight last night (and then still having to upload blogs), the important thing was an early start today. So 7am it was.

Off to our usual office of Gamarjoba tours (the best) booked through Get Your Guide. Today’s guide has been Sally who has been great, full of excitement with interestings stories and always willing to listen and join in conversations. Our fellow travellers were a Dutch couple who have perfect English of course. Conversation was good and, as usual, we told the truth about our cruel and evil government. We do like to spread the truth but people abroad are sensible enough to know anyway.

So far we have made 12 stops today, only 2 of which have been for the toilet, which leaves TEN ‘tourist’ stops. Yes, we’ve been busy and seen a lot. Let’s try and approach this methodically.

Stop 1: the same services as yesterday. I asked for my usual but they didn’t have any so I had an apple instead.

Stop 2: An abandoned railway carriage. Behind a fence sadly but I do like abandoned things and places. The sun was in the wrong place…AGAIN….so hopefully the photos will be okay….

Stop 3: an abandoned cable car station in Chiatura..Chiatura’s main industry is mining manganese and features a network of cable cars that were mainly used to transport manganese but also the workers as well. As far as we could see only one line was running and that is relatively new. More on that later. The old mine buildings are still there but they work in new ones. They do still use some of the old machines though.

We walked across a rickety bridge to see the plant and noticed how black the river was due to the factory waste being dumped in it. The company keep getting fined but they don’t care. I guess they must be Tories.

Stop 4: it was time to climb a lot of steps in very hot weather again, how very Georgian. It was also time for me to get dressed up for some nuns, not something I do every day.

At the top of the steps is a nunnery where they are quite strict about the dress code. Women, as usual, must cover their heads and legs but men must cover their knees…..even if they have trousers on!! So I had to wrap some sort of poo-coloured cloth around my waist and cover my already covered knees. Claire got a glimpse of my trouser-covered knee and got a bit excited. Luckily she managed to control her urges. There were some small cave churches/chapels up there but I’m not sure it was worth the climb.

Oh and there was a Georgian guy up there…in jeans….with no covering…. Luckily his covered knees were nowhere near as attractive as mine so the nuns managed to contain themselves.

Stop 5: A theatre and an abandoned railway station. Normally guests are allowed in the theatre but there was a rehearsal on today so we missed out on that unfortunately. In the ironwork adorning the front of the theatre symbols of the hammer and sickle could clearly be seen. The train station had some people waiting on the platform but the trains don’t stop there. Maybe we should have told them….

An engine for a goods train came past and the driver was quite amused that we were photographing him.

Stop 6: we stopped in the town centre to photograph another abandoned cable car and station. The car is just above a roundabout and we walked across the rickety remaining bits of the station. It was a bit wobbly at the top…

Stop 7: lunch! Our guide told us we would be having a family lunch and that it would be 40lari, about. £13, which seemed quite expensive. We pulled into someone’s garden and sat at a table outside. There were many different dishes, which the lady kept refilling, as well as drinks including water, fresh cherry juice, wine and cha-cha. The food was lovely and really all-you-can-eat. She brought out some plums and peaches too, some biscuits and sweets and hot drinks were available as well. She even had a beetroot dish that didn’t taste of beetroot and was actually nice, weird I know! Claire ate her fill of aubergine with walnut paste and was so full she actually left one. We were stuffed. 40lari was a good price.

Stop 8: a quick stop off to photograph a huge war statue. I couldn’t really hear what she was saying about it so I’ll just include a picture.

Stop 9: a double peckerhead experience

We are at the Katski Pillar, a huge pillar of rock (45 metres bigh) which 22 monks live on top of. It’s a quiet, reclusive place…..until some numpty thinks it’s okay to fly his two drones around the top. I’d have shot them down if I’d been the monks. I’d read somewhere that the monks only come down twice a day but one of them was working in the shop/museum so maybe he gets special dispensation. Either way, the rickety ladder looks quite hard to ascend or descend.

Peckerhead 2. Our guide is paid for by us right. And should mainly be our guide right. Not according to some random Israeli guy who started, and then kept, asking Sally questions. She was very polite and us four walked away hoping he would get the hint. He didn’t. Finally we dragged her away. We hadn’t seen the last of him….

Stop 10: a Chiabura sign at the top of a hill, relatively new but still in a Soviet style.

Stop 11: we got to go on a cable car! This one was only built in the last few years and costs an extortionate 1/2 lari….about 15p…. It’s priced for the locals. The tourism industry is still some way off here. We didn’t even have to pay as this was included in the cost of the tour. That’s 60p we’ve saved!

A nice, smooth ride took us to the sanitorium. I hope to get Claire back one day. The rest of us couldn’t actually go in and walked across a building site to a Soviet palace of learning. The building wasn’t very old but was on the point of collapse, so naturally we went inside. It would have been quite fancy in its day but it just needs condemning now.

The building site alongside is for a new amusement park, built high on a hill of course. We could walk right across it while people were working which seemed a bit bizarre to us. There was a small ferris wheel already in place as well as a carousel but both were still in quite an old style, even before the park was finished. This is a poor area of the country but at least they have some money to spend to try and improve their lives.

Peckerhead 2 had found our guide and was asking her questions again. We walked away and she followed.

We could feel a bit of rain. On the way up our guide had told us they stop the cable cars if there is a thunderstorm. We got in the cable car. A thunderstorm started. We got out of the cable car.

The thunder and lightning were impressive, peckerhead 2 cornering our guide again wasn’t. We didn’t know how long the cable car would be out of action so Sally asked our driver to drive up to us and he found us despite not knowing the route. It was raining pretty heavy by the time he found us but we all ran to the car without getting too wet. Apart from the heat, we felt like we were at home now.

Stop 12: Claire had asked where the next toilet stop would be and Sally said the cable car station at the bottom but then with having to get the car, Sally forgot. We stopped at a garage. There was another dark hole in a dark room. It’s probably best not to talk about it.

We are now heading back to Tiblisi, having driven through the storm but it is dry here and I don’t think it has rained in Tiblisi. We should be back just after 9.

It’s been another great day with a great guide. This trip isn’t very popular yet but it should be as we’ve seen so much and it’s been really interesting. Our guide has been superb and as excited about everything as us. The Dutch couple have been really interesting and good company too. Oh and don’t forget the food!!

We managed to shake off peckerhead 2 by the way. I hope he is very wet somewhere.

We arrived back in Tiblisi just after 9 and I think our guide had had a good day too as she gave us all a hug. She also sent me 18 pictures on Whatsapp that she took throughout the day. Oh and she also said she likes my style…okay she used the word hipster….but that must mean something different here.

The temperature dipped to 22 degrees today but it is currently 26 at just after 10pm, thank goodness for aircon! My Mum says Claire will need a hot water bottle when we get back to England and, as we can’t afford the heating thanks to the Tories, I may need one too!

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