To Mestia, Georgia, inspired by Moishe's Bagel's 'Salt to Svanetia' performance.

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Svaneti

Our rendezvous point is outside the Rusraveli McDonalds at 7.45am. We're being picked up by 'Vanilla Sky' a small travel firm. They've recently established routes to the Carpathian Mountains with a 15 seater Servis Air LET410-UVP twin prop plane. The booking was quite difficult because their website didn't work well, so we hope that it's all going to work out well.....

The blue Mercedes Sprinter didn't arrive until 7.55 and a dozen or so people, who must have been having the same thoughts, boarded the minibus hoping it to be the right one.

We arrived at Natakhtari airfield half an hour later and waited for some time before our bags were checked in. Finally, 45 minutes late, after a border police helicopter departed from the front of the terminal, we were taken to the plane. Everything seemed new, fuselage (A) well glued to wing right (B) and to wing left (C).......... soon we were revving up and taking off. The journey was spectacular, breathtaking.....

Initially we followed the Nuri River flying north to Mestia, our destination. The land changed from flat to rolling, from burnt ochres to green and soon the snow capped mountains came in view on the horizon.

There was very little turbulence throughout the whole trip and our two pilots, by now, had our confidence. We flew over tree covered foothills ever closer to the white peaks and eventually wheeled into the steep side valley that Mestia nestles within. Once down on the new air strip, the purpose of our trip were in clear view: the famous Svan stone towers of Svaneti.

On the 13th March 2016 a group frIends from our band, Side Café Orkestar, went to see 'Moishe's Bagel' at the Sage Gateshead. Their music was as good as ever, Klezmer, Tango and other influences compounding with fine musicianship to create a good night's listening. In the second half the Bagels played a brand new 40 minute composition commissioned by Pitlochry Film Festival. It was a new musical score to a 1925 Soviet silent film about the Svan Towers of Ushguli.

In black and white, shot from unusual angles to great effect, there was a narrative with a sting in its tail. First the Svan People were introduced: fine, strong farmers from ancient stock with tall towers of stone to protect themselves and their produce from marauders. The towers were each of the same dimensions and design with stone slab roofs and few apertures, a door that needed a ladder for entry and places for boiling oil at the very top. Living in the highest town in Europe, they provided for themselves in every way. A fine peasant people.

But gradually their portrayal changed from positive and romantic to primitive and cruel.....e.g. riding their horses to death, excluding a pregnant women from a funeral, sacrificing animals for feasts. And the strangest claim implied by the screenwriting and directing: they were driven to their strange behaviours because they had no salt. Yes, salt was unavailable and had to be brought from afar on epic journeys, only in the summer. Animals were shown licking the spot where a man had just had a piss.

So, to the bizarre climax: Soviet road builders arrive. Shirts off and pick axes hitting rock in time, the new invaders were building a mountain road for the Svans so that they might have salt and end their heathen ways.

The Bagel's music was truly epic and the film was extraordinary. The beauty of the towers and the scenery seduced us and we decided to include a visit in our current trip. The Svaneti region now boasts some UNESCO sites, chiefly because of the towers.



It's great to be in the countryside after our 25 days of City Life. Marina's Guesthouse has a garden full of tomatoes, herbs, beetroot, plum trees, and flowers. After a late breakfast laid on by Marina with porridge, pancakes, Khachapuri, honey, homemade jams and coffee we settled in by exploring Mestia.

As well as twenty or more towers there are museums, guesthouses, municipal buildings and farms. Cows with cowbells roam about the place picking out Latin American rhythms as they strut.

Situated on the southern slopes of the central Caucasus Mountains and surrounded by 3,000–5,000 metre peaks, Svaneti is the highest inhabited area in the Caucasus. The highest mountain in Georgia, Mount Shkhara at 5,201 meters (17,059 feet), is located in the province. We're in the Upper Svaneti on the Ingura River.

Svaneti has two parts corresponding to two inhabited valleys:

Writing in 1848, historian Bodenstedt said that Upper Svaneti could only be reached by a difficult footpath which was closed in winter, as stated in the film.

The marauding Mongols never reached Svanetia and, for a time, the region became a cultural safe house. But following the final disintegration of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 1460s, fighting broke out for the control of the province. Facing serious internal conflict, Prince Tsioq’ Dadeshkeliani of Svanetia signed a treaty of protectorate with the Russian Empire on November 26, 1833. Difficult to access, the region retained significant autonomy until 1857, when Russia took advantage of the dynastic feud in Svanetia and effectively abolished the principality’s autonomy. In 1875, the Russians toughened their rule by imposing additional taxes. Protests ensued, and Russia deployed troops against the province. Despite having suffered heavy losses, the Russian army units eventually crushed the rebels burning their stronghold Khalde to the ground in 1876.

Part of the Russian governorate of Kutais, Svanetia was divided into two raions (districts) — Mestia (former Sethi) and Lentekhi — under the Soviet rule. The unsuccessful anti-Soviet Svanetian Uprising took place in the region in 1921 protesting about taxes. This is, of course all tied up with the Russian Revolution 1921, and changes there.

The area was Christianized in the 4th-6th centuries. However, some remnants of old paganism have been maintained. Saint George (known as Jgëræg to the locals), a patron saint of Georgia, is the most respected saint. The Svans have retained many of their old traditions, including blood revenge. As our the museum owner noted today the families used to communicate with each other ...... with guns. Typically, twenty five people lived as an extended family in the Margiana property and the husband was the head of his family, and dealt with butchering of animals and cooking meat. The Svan really respect the older women in families and all the guest houses are run by women in the 21st century.

Typically bilingual, they use both Georgian and their own, unwritten Svan language, which together with the Georgian, Mingrelian, and Laz languages constitute the South Caucasianor Kartvelian language family. The Svan language is endangered and is being largely replaced by Georgian. Most seem to speak Russian as well and English is widely heard in restaurants etc as well.

Svanetia is known for their architectural treasures and picturesque landscapes. The botany of Svanetia is legendary among travelers. The famous Svanetian towers erected mainly in the 9th-12th centuries, make the region’s villages attractive.

Svan culture survives most wonderfully in its songs and dances. Svanetia boasts arguably the most archaic three-part polyphonic singing. Most of their songs are connected to round dances, are performed very loud and are full of dissonant chords.

Where I come from, between Scotland and England, there was the tradition of a Border Reivers raiding farms and households (hence 'bastles' fortified farms in Northumberland). In Svaneti it was the northern Caucasian tribes on the other side of the mountains (now Russia) and with the Ossetians to the east. The towers also protected families against these foes but there is said to be blood-feuds that often took place in these communities' and between families.

The towers usually have from three to five storeys and the thickness of the walls decreases, giving the towers a slender, tapering profile.

For protection, the entrance to a tower is some twelve feet above the ground, with a ladder or staircase below that could be destroyed in the event of an attack. Inside, large, flat rocks lay beside the ladder holes, ready to be employed as seals.

Each tower is attached to a machubi, a big two-storey house with hay attic above that. The ground floor is a single hall with an open hearth and accommodation for both people and domestic animals (for twenty cows and ten calves in the one we saw), each beast having its own head hole through the wooden partition to a communal trough, which was lavishly decorated. There was a 'fridge' in the corner of the main room in the machubi we visited today, a corner larder beautifully carved and shelved for cheese, meat and other milk products. There was no chimney hole, and the smoke basically hung around the roof beams, disinfecting them, as our curator described it. A corridor annex helped the thermal insulation of the building. There were various hangers from the ceiling, one a candelabra, another a dried meat hanger and lastly an incense burner to mask the smell of the animals in the winter. The upper floor, called a darbazi, was used by the family in the summer, and also served as a store for fodder and tools. A door at this level provided access to the tower, which was also connected with the corridor that protected the entrance.

We visited two towers one with internal dimensions of 4m x 4m, the other 3m X 3m. The Margiana family who still own the museum tower were / are rich and owned eight towers the number and height of the towers denoting status.

Tourism, the new invasion.

So Marion and I are part of the current invasion of Svaneti. There is now the light aircraft service from Tiblisi and Kutaisi. A lively marshutki Ford Transit -based mini bus transport industry brings the majority of hikers and skiers to Mestia daily. And from Mestia to Ushgulli a 2.5 hour journey along a knackered road, there is an aggressively competitive and difficult to understand force of Mitsubishi 4x4 six seater marshutkis. The drivers each work in loose association with shops who advertise ticket sales. Whoever was the Mitsubishi agent for the area must have got the HP finance and service deal just right. As the Mestia information office man put it, I can't tell you when the vans go or come back, or how much it will be but you should be alright getting back 'cos it's like a Mitsubishi car factory up there.

Tourism can regenerate a region, and Svanetia is a glorious place to be in mid September! As huge numbers of guest houses run by locals as being built, I hope that the character of the place doesn't change too much in the gold rush.

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