Feeling lucky in Kazbegi

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We are truly very lucky. We had decided to come to Kazbegi in the Caucasus for two nights and the day we had here was quite the best one could expect at this time of year. We woke to find not a cloud in the sky and the towering Mt Kazbegi (5047m) in front of us.



I was excited. The plan was to walk up to a shrine with views of a glacier coming off the mountain.





We had an excellent breakfast served by Diana (Guest House Diana [phone]). The Lonely Planet said she cooked excellent meals and they are right. Diana spoke a few words of English and her kids a few more. We had a large room with views of the mountain and shared a big modern bathroom. There were not many guests. We enjoyed the company of Heinz from Berlin who had come for some R&R having been working for a week in Tbilisi.





The amasing thing about Diana's guesthouse like most of the others in Kazbegi (or Stepantsminda as the town is actually called) is that it has no sign outside saying it is a guesthouse. Lonely Planet identified several guest houses on one street. I followed directions in the guidebook. There was no street name and no house numbers. It was like walking down a village street in England having to guess which houses were B&B's. The guidebook said Diana's was at the end of the street. When I got close to the end of what I thought was the right street I asked a workman by pointing to the address in the guidebook. He spoke to a colleague who said it was the house I was standing next to!





Actually Diana's was not the first guesthouse I had visited. The marshrutka driver had a simple sales technique. He just drove to the home stay he wanted you to stay at. It was successful and three couples took rooms there. We opted to test more. All were OK and Diana's was just that much better - more space, nicer bathroom, cheap meal option, balcony etc. We can recommend it.





The drive up was spectacular. Whilst it is called the Georgian Military Highway several chunks of it were not tarmaced although the marshrutka driver seemed oblivious to this as well as any oncoming traffic. The drive up was an extra 5 lari and this meant we stopped at a historic church at Ananuri and the main Jvari mountain pass (2379m) which was well worth it for the views at both. The journey ended at Kazbegi in the heart of the Caucasus 15km short of the Russian border.





We walked into town that morning with snowy Mt Kazbegi dominating our view. Our first stop was the local mini market for some lunch supplies. We climbed up to Tsminda Sameba church whilst many tourist elect to be driven in 4 wheel drive cars. This a hallowed shrine and a symbol of Georgian sovereignty being so close to the border. From the church you could look down on the town spread in the valley. It was now just after 10 am and wisps of cloud were starting to appear off the mountain peak. We knew the view would not last long so pressed on. There was good paths most of the way. The main issue was slipping on muddy eroded tracks. After a couple of false summits we were there. The last 100m of ascent had been between patches of snow. We mets some climbers coming down from a hut. They had crossed the Gergeti glacier we could see to do so. I walked on for another 500 m in the hope of a better view and was defeated by the increasing cloud.





We descended soon after as the wind was starting to penetrate the few layers we had. We came down the main ridge which gave us superb views of the glacier valley. We elected to walk down the back side of the church hill where we found a valley fortress at the end of a classic V shaped valley. It would be an amazing place for a geography field course!





My GPS recorded that we had done 22km and 1500m ascent. The next day when we awoke the cloud was so low you could not see the street. A reminder of just how lucky we had been.

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Photos

Mt Kazbegi from the town
Note Tsmina Sameba church on the left hand skyline

Kazbegi from church
It's 10am and clouds are starting to form

Kazbegi town with ridges to the West behind
Taken from the church

The Gergeti Glacier
mt Kazbegi is behind it in the cloud

At the shrine at 2950m
Note snow and you can not see the crisp wind

Comments

[Magdalena]

Great pictures
Great pictures from Kazbegi. Indeed we were all lucky that day. I must say our experince of finging LP recommended restaurants in Tibilisi is simlilar. The book needs some serious update...