Going off road with bats and monks in Georgia

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Day 7 Georgia. Friday 16th Sept.

Going off road with bats and monks in Georgia



A veritable lie in until 7am this morning but I was still awake before the alarm went off. We then wandered down to Europe Square to meet our guide and driver for the day. An 8-seater normal-looking car was waiting for us and we were going off-road so I presumed we were changing to another vehicle later. But no, the car has been adapted and so the six intrepid tourists piled in. Today we were joined by a German couple, a chap from Italy and a chappess from Switzerland. There are lots of solo travellers here which reflects how safe the country is.

We headed off out of Tiblisi and stopped after a while, at 9am, for our last toilet stop until 2pm. Yep, this is it folks, no loo till two so best squeeze out all you can. To be honest it puts a bit of pressure on your psyche as your mind starts telling you that you’re not gonna make it, and hope the other guests won’t mind sitting with you after you’ve had an accident.

As it turned out there were bushes available later and Claire treated herself by going behind an abandoned building. She’s had quite the day!

So, after you’ve wrung yourself out….let’s stop for food and drink…. I’m not too sure about the logic on that one but we stopped at a Georgian Greggs and had something to eat each. The tour included a free bottle of water each so we stuck with that.

Our guide is vey good and very knowledgable but, when he is talking in the front of the vehicle, it can be difficult to hear him at the back. He is actually from Belorussia and only been here five years so has learnt a lot in that time.

We stopped off briefly to photograph a building that is reminiscent of buildings in another part of Georgia. I’ll try and remember to compare and contrast when we get there but don’t hold your breath. We were also told that some scenes from the last Fast and Furious film were filmed round here and, given our driver yesterday, it’s not surprising.

Today’s driver was much more sedate and I haven’t resorted to praying to whichever god will listen even once. As a lot of the driving was off-road I am very glad we had sedate guy today.

And so off-road we went and I thought it was just going to be crap roads but we’ve been through river beds, across grass and up some slopes that would be impossible if it was wet. Luckily the weather has been sunny all day (yes Mum I wore my hat) but rather warm for climbing. This is Georgia after all.

First stop was by a lake that one old guy has been doing his best to clear of garbage. It looked pretty clean to me so he’s obviously doing a good job. We were pretty much out in the wilderness by now and, yay, there were no other tourists.

We had been told to prepare for some walking today and we should have known this would be verrging on vertical at times. The ground was dry and a bit slippery but the view at the top made it worthwhile as we’d arrived at the rainbow mountains.

Okay so they’re not the colours of the rainbow but they are striped different colours, something to do with when this area was underwater. The colours change throughout the year depending on how wet they are but striped they certainly were today. We climbed up some more to get more photos of this spectacular sight before traversing our way right round the lake.

We stopped by a little offshoot of the lake to see if we could see any of the turtles that live in there. We saw the shell of a dead turtle and then some fish floundering in the shallowing waters. Dying basically. As it was so muddy and we had norhing to scoop them into the big lake with we left them to be bird food according to our guide. Such is nature I suppose.

Next stop St George’s monastery which is, of course, on top of a hill. And then we climbed up to the tower. And then climbed the tower. We had met one of the five monks that still live here on the way up and been led past some dilapidated parts. There used to be 2000 monks who lived here so quite a contrast to now.

The entrance to the tower had to be crawled through and it was quite dark on some of the stairs inside. There is no way Health and Safety would let this be accessible back home! On the way up I met a couple of bats, one of which bumped into my leg….what a day!! Bats!! Our guide didn’t know what type they were but they were definitely bigger than the pipistrelles in our back garden.

We also had to do some squeezing and climb a chicken ladder to get to the top but it felt like an achievement to get up there. And down! Okay so I banged my head on the way down but that’s pretty par for the course.

We then went into the church which smelt either of wee or damp….or both…. Considering the monks spend many hours praying each day in there I’m guessing they must have no sense of smell, or it’s something they think god has done to test them maybe?

A lot of the frescoes were destroyed many years ago so it was pretty pitiful inside really. As well as smelly. But it was actually a cave so maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. Or should I….?

Back down the hill we headed next to David Gareji monastery which I’m sure we were told was abandonded and then apparently did have about 20 monks living there. One was serving in the shop but he could have been shipped in.

The monastery was better preserved than the previous one, only slightly uphill and the church didn’t smell of wee. They were also more relaxed about the dress code so those with shorts on didn’t have to put random clothes from a basket on. I’m so glad I left my shorts behind in England!

Alex regaled us with some stories about the pictures inside and no doubt Claire will remember some of what he said. She’s dead organised and takes notes you know.

We were also allowed to go to the toilet here although, for about 37p, you’d expect toilet roll and something to dry your hands on. I just weed on the floor to get my money’s worth.

Not really!

A bit more driving and it was finally lunch time. Well more a mixture of lunch and dinner as it was about 14:30 and everyone was starving. I have no idea of the town we were in or the name of the restaurant but I do know it is run by a Polish family. They had vegan items on the board noted and I had a lovely veg stew, some salad and then some watermelon to follow.

Our last stop was at a wine ‘factory’ for a free wine tasting. I walked round with the drinkers but the smell was bad enough let alone having to drink the stuff. The wine was stored in massive metal tanks, each at a different ambient temperature and five wines and some cognac were sampled. There was no pressure to buy and only Claire bought anything. Some places would lock you in until you’d bought something! Sadly there was nothing for the sensible people who don’t drink but I’m used to that at weddings never mind at a wine merchants.

And so back to town, ariving at 18:25 so quite an early night. We have a lie-in until 7 again tomorrow! We are sat outside our accommodation writing blogs as usual as there wasn’t much chance to write them on the journey today. It was a tad bumpy for most of it!

It’s been another great day. Our guide was great and, again, it was booked through getyourguide.com. I’d never heard of them before this trip but I’ll definitely be using them again.

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