From the bright lights of Batumi, I headed north to the Caucasus Mountains. This was one of the places I’d been waiting to tick off my wish list. Bram had decided to come along too and so we’d arranged a bus to a village called Mestia which was the starting point for much of the hiking in the region of the Svaneti National Park.
Having organised a ticket with the lady from the Hostel we were told to wait outside on the road for a lift to the main bus station which was some way out of town. Eventually, what looked like a cross between the Scooby doo van and the A-team van came screeching around the corner and pulled up to the curb. We put our bags on the rear seats and off we went.
The driver was a young Georgian gentleman with a shaved head, sporting an inane grin. As we pulled away ‘Still Dre’ was blasting out of the speakers (https://youtu.be/x7yPhExdj3E – see here if you need to set the scene). The gangster rap was swiftly replaced with some traditional Georgian binky bonky ballads however. He clearly had an eclectic mix in music.
We purchased our bus tickets at the station and waited, expecting to be leaving on one of the many large coaches in the surrounding bays. Wishful thinking. An old mini bus pulled up. It was not in good condition. Myself, Bram and a few others piled in. Mercifully it wasn’t full up as the leg room was non existent. If you sat bolt upright you could just about get your knees in. I was able to sprawl out a bit though.
There aren’t many coaches running in Georgia because of the nature of the roads. It’s most common to take one of these minibuses. They can act like shared taxis where people hop on and off at various points in the journey. It’s just as well we weren’t on a coach in the end as the roads up in the mountains were narrow and very winding.
It wasn’t comfortable. The main issue was the lack of suspension. The smallest of bumps would cause the whole bus to shake and rattle. Larger bumps, of which there were many sent you flying about and smashing into the seating or side panels. We were under the impression the ride would take around 6 hours, but naturally it took 9. One of the least comfortable journeys I’ve done, but the scenery out of the windows was interesting throughout. Bruised and battered we arrived in Mestia around 10pm.
‘Mini Hike’
After a good rest, we went for breakfast and decided on an easy hike for the day. We tried to to take two chair lifts up the mountain for a walk along a ridge. The second chair lift was out of action however, so we had to do a fairly punchy 600m ascent to get up there. The scenery was incredible, and we had some cracking views of some of the bigger peaks and the glacier off in the distance.
Big Hike
The next day I was craving something a little mor challenging. Bram haD taken the early bus back to Tbilisi and so I set off to climb the Chkuti ridge. The hike would be about a 23-24km round trip, with around 2000m of ascent climbing up to some stone cairns at 3100m. With hindsight, perhaps a little ambitious given that I hadn’t done much serious hiking since the last summer.
Armed with some instructionS from the internet and primitive map on my phone I set off. The walk was incredible, but brutal. One huge solid uphill. It took a couple of hours to walk up onto the ridge and then another couple of hour to climb up to the cairns. It was hard. Really hard. I didn’t imagine actually making it until I was a few hundred metres from the top.
The ridge itself wasn’t too severe, although for someone with a fear of heights it was certainly thrilling and a little scary in parts. All the hard work was worth it because the views from the top were breathtaking. I didn’t linger at the top as I was conscious that the weather was closing in. The descent was equally challenging as it was punishing on my knees and I had to ration my water for the last couple of hours.
Wandering Henry 