29th of May, 2022.
The daylight wakes me up but I only get up when the sun shows up. It is warm inside my tent. Slowly I prepare all my things and wait for the bottom of my tent to dry.
I have decided to walk back a little, to a hotel I passed by yesterday, for two reasons: I will ask in the hotel if they can give me something from the breakfast so I can have it with my bread; and it is also a place where the cars can stop. Although, the cars have to drive so slowly in these road that I am sure it would not be a problem for me to just stand somewhere. So I come back basically because of the food.
Two lovely ladies are standing at the reception but they don’t speak English. I wait a few minutes until a young man come to talk with me. After I explain to him everything and ask for the food, he tells the ladies and they both leave somewhere. In a few minutes they come back with a small bag and inside they filled some disposable glasses with butter, cheese, jam, two boiled eggs and some bread. Amazing! How kind of them all!
I have my breakfast by the road. A few cars pass by me while I am eating. I feel slightly bad because there are only a few cars passing anyway, but I know that I have to eat now otherwise it will not be possible on the road.
When I finally start to hitchhike, in a few minutes Gotcha stop his car and tells me he is going only a bit further. For some reason I decide to get in. I think it is because he said he would drop me in an intersection. Intersections are always a better place to be.
The view it is again incredibly beautiful! Oh, dear Loki! What is it with this place that makes me like it so much?
The intersection where Gotcha drops me off is not really an intersection but just a place where the road is divided in two ways. We pass by a waterfall which ends right at the road. It is crazy! And the view here where I am waiting for my next lift is also great!
My next lift it could not have been more unexpected and wonderful! Another group of friends, just like in Turkey, but this time most of them are tour guides from Batumi and they have never been to the Svaneti region. They start to ask me questions about my life and travels and they get very surprised with my answers.
We stop by some nice view point for photographs, by the Ushpa mountain.
I get to talk with almost everybody in the van, even though they are a big group. There is this quiet and shy lady, called Lela, who asked me some interesting questions and it seemed also interested on my way of travelling. I gave them, for the first time, my Instagram account. I figure it is easier that way since they can check out my blog from the Instagram.
The road gets ridiculously dangerous at some point. And I was told the the road after Ushguli it is bad. I cannot imagined how it might look like if this one here can be so bad. It is way too risky, right by the edge of a canyon, leading to the river of death down there. Laugh. In one of the stops we make because of the road, I have a quick chat with a young girl who was sitting on the back of the van the whole time, and with whom I did not have the chance to talk before. Her name is Kate. Little I knew that we would talk much more and I would like her a lot.
When we arrive in Ushguli I am very surprised. But first things first: we have to stop the van right before the village because the road is not suitable for this van. I thought that only 4×4 cars could pass, but later I saw smaller vans also in the village. Anyway, so we walk. I have to take my backpack with me though. Even though they invited me to come all the way back with them, which means I would most likely get back to Zugididi today, I have decided to remain for the night in Ushguli and camp here for the night. The idea of having a lot of time to explore the village it fascinates me.
So we start walking and I get to talk more with Kate. She asks me only a few questions because she said I was already bombarded with questions on the bus. Laugh. She is very cute and smart. I also like her sense of humor. She and her friend Dima are friends with Tamara’s son, and that how they got into this trip. Tamara is a lovely elderly lady and I loved her since the moment I entered the bus. Later on I was told that they only stopped for me because she was the one who saw me and told them to stop. Owm!
We visit the former Queen’s Tamar summer house. Well, what is left of it at least.
OK, Ushguli surprises me for its size and authenticity. It is a very small village for the so big propaganda I have heard about it. How come this place has changed so little in face of some many tourist coming here and being such a beautiful place to visit? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am truly happy that it has changed so little. When I tell Kate and Dima that it might be because of the road, that as soon as they make a proper road to here this place will get a globalization quickly, they say that most likely it will not. Apparently, because Georgia can also be a very corrupt country, they don’t think that will happen any time soon.
The whole group stop to have some lunch in a local restaurant. Zizi and her husband Zaza (which looks like the spit image of Tom Hardy) invite me to try Kubdari, most likely the only Georgian dish I haven’t tried yet. It is very well seasoned and I taste a lot of garlic on it. So apart of the fact that it is with meat, I really liked.
From the restaurant we go to visit St Mary church, on the top of a hill and quite visible from all the village. Me, Kate and Dima get together and chatting all the rest of the tour. They are from Russia, by the way, but are staying in Georgia since last September.
We pass through the village on our way back. Everything it looks so old and as everybody was still leaving in the past. Even the restaurants, guest houses and cafes look like normal houses and in a traditional way.
Everybody from the van is already way ahead of us so I only get to say goodbye to Kate and Dima. Kate says she hope to see me again sometime. I hope so too!
I am back to the restaurant we ate and where I left my backpack. It was raining when I started coming up here and it carried on for a while. I decided to make my camp by the river, right in front of the village. There are many options of gorgeous places, one more pretty than another, it is hard to decide where to camp. Let’s hope I have chosen the best place!
