Hiking in Kazbegi

We got up at a fairly reasonable time for our first full day in Kazbegi and had some delicious breakfast at our guest-house. Nazi's home cooking was awesome! We had really fluffy omelettes and there was lots of bread and cheese available. We also got to try Nazi's famous home-made apple jam which was very tasty. I put sugar on my omelette as I thought it tasted like eggy bread and I always put sugar on that. Everyone thought I was crazy but then what's new? We made some big sandwiches to take hiking with us for lunch and then emerged out into the fresh mountain air. 

It was cloudy but still quite sunny when we left the homestay to climb up the steep slope to the Gergeti Sameba (Trinity) Church. We hoped to also hike along the ridge line to the glacier beyond the church but, inevitably, the weather soon changed for the worse. Our short walk around the village the previous day had shown us how unfit we were (especially at that altitude where the air felt so thin) so we decided to take it easy on ourselves and take the longer but more gradual path up to the church. We walked through some woods past an interesting little cemetery with unusual headstones  that were life sized carved sculptures of the departed's head. By the time we got to the cemetery it had started raining. 

Our intended destination for the day, the Gergeti Sameba church, perched on top of the mountains above Kazbegi.

Rowan starting the 'ascent' with his backpack on. Always prepared!

Carved heads of the deceased on the headstones of the little cemetery in the woods.

We walked through these woods to get to the church.

The highest mountains still had snow on them in June. 

It was still a very tiring walk despite the more gradual way we took. It took us nearly two hours to reach the church which was far too long really! We met the Polish girl (I think her name was Alexandra) at the church, the same one we'd met in Tbilisi at the Bonney hostel so we looked round the church with her. Georgia is a small country and we soon found that it was common to keep bumping into the same people all the over the place. As we were humans of the female variety, Alexandra and I had to put on ridiculous looking 'skirts' and head scarves before we were allowed to enter the church. This was pretty standard for all churches in Georgia as its a very conservative religious culture. I chose an awesome leopard print scarf to make me more acceptable in the eyes of God. The church was nice enough, no more spectacular than your usual Georgian church but it was an impressive size considering how up and isolated it was. 

  After 2 hours of walking in the rain we finally made it to the church. 

It was originally built in the 14th century and perches atop a steep cliff at 2170m above sea level under Mount Kazbegi.

Rowan standing among the flowers near the church.

 I tried to recreate that bit in 'The Sound of Music' where she sings about the hills being alive while prancing around in front of the Alps.

Carving on the outside of the Sameba church. 

 More carving.

Women, dress appropriately for Christ's sake!

 In our 'skirts' and head scarves.

The view outside of the church was spectacular, even in the rain. There were a couple of horses up there too, a mother and her foal that spent most of the time licking the bottom of  toilet block that turned out to be the WORST toilets yet! They were not even squat down ones, they were just two plastic cabins with a hole filled with rubbish and sprayed with human excrement. Disgusting, but the horses obviously liked it.

View down onto Kazbegi and Gergeti villages from in front of the church.

 Close up of the main church building.

 Another church building.

Horses grazing up by the church.

Me in my super stylish purple waterproof jacket with the church behind.

The same horses hanging out by their favourite licking spot.

We thought about walking up the ridge to the glacier but the weather was really coming down so it didn't seem wise so we walked back to down to the homestay with Alexandra to dry off and try to get a taxi to take us to the Russian border and the two waterfalls located there. On the way down, we met a friendly Georgian farmer called Giorgi who insisted on sharing his lunch with us as he didn't want to eat alone. We had bread, tomatoes, chicken and his wife's home made cheese all washed down with lots of Giorgi's home made cha cha (Georgian fire water). He had a whole bottle with him and intended on drinking the lot with us for lunch. It certainly warmed us up as we stood in the drizzling rain and it was a lot smoother than other types we'd tried but it was still only lunch time and we didn't want to get too wasted that early on! Rowan was forced to drink the most as he was male (and still is I believe) and lots of toasts were made including one to God which Rowan had to repeat despite being an avowed atheist.

 Doing lunch with Giorgi, the friendly neighbourhood farmer.

Walking back down to Kazbegi.

View back up to the church.

 We saw this guy playing with some horses on our way down the mountain. He was clearly showing off in front of our cameras when the foal suddenly reared up and tried to kick him.

We all felt warm and drunk by the time we made it to the homestay. A group of hikers from Hong Kong who were also staying there had just arrived back from their early morning trek to the glacier already. They told us that they had got really close to it but that the last river was too swollen with water to cross. The husband of the guesthouse owner offered to drive us to the Russian border and the two waterfalls in his 4x4 Lada for 40 lari which was a fair price so Rowan, Alexandra, the Russian extreme sports guy and I all decided to go. Before we left, I was pushed into giving an impromptu ukulele performance in front of the homestay to all the guests and the host family . Panicking and still befuddled with cha cha I fell back on the first song I'd ever learned to play on the ukulele "I'm a believer" by The Monkees. I'm sure it was awful but people clapped enthusiastically anyway! 

 Strumming some tunes outside the guesthouse with Nazi's husband standing beside me.

Nazi watching us from the porch of her guesthouse.

Th road to the waterfalls was extremely bumpy and we were glad we'd taken the 4x4 and not just tried to go in a normal taxi. We saw the largest waterfall first and had to climb up a lot of big, slippery rocks to get there whilst it was still raining but it was worth it. The waterfall was beautiful! The Russian guy obviously thought so too as he stripped off totally naked and went for a swim in the pool at the foot of the waterfall but the water was very cold so he didn't stay in there for long. Then we walked up to the small waterfall which was easier to get to but which was a bit of an anticlimax compared to the first one. We should have seen them the other way around! Then we headed over to the Russian border. Borders between countries always fascinate me, maybe because I come from an island nation with no real land borders. They're never usually much to look at though I'm not really sure what I expect to see each time. The nearest Russian city over the border was Vladikavkaz which translates to "Rule over the Caucasus" - gotta love those charming Russian place names! As usual the border wan't that exciting and we weren't supposed to take any pictures. We did see a very new Georgian church that was still being built and had a quick look around inside then it was all back to the homestay to try to dry off. 

Stream coming from the large waterfall.

The beautiful but hard to reach big waterfall.

Rowan enjoying the spray.

Extreme Russian guy stripping off for a short lived swim.

The not so impressive smaller waterfall.

The road just by the Russian border. This was a sneaky forbidden picture!

The new church that was still being built.

Our trusty little 4x4 Lada.

 Cloud covered mountains by the border.

Our clothes and our travelling dog Fawkes were so soaked after the day's rain we had to hang them out to dry on the porch when the sun finally came out in the late afternoon.

The thick, cottony clouds looked pretty draped around Kazbegi's mountains.

Rowan posing with the uke on the porch.

We had another nice home cooked dinner courtesy of the wonderful Nazi and her family then we spent the evening drinking beer with the Russian guy while I taught him how to play the ukulele. Rowan and i both slept very badly that night as we started suffering from food poisoning. We never worked out what caused us to be ill but nobody else at the homestay was sick so we figured that perhaps Giorgi's lunch wasn't as fresh as it could have been. 

Teaching extreme Russian guy how to play the uke.

The next day we both felt pretty awful and the weather was still bad so we decided to head back down to Tbilisi. After paying up and thanking our lovely hosts, we hauled our bags down to the main town square and found a marshrutka to Tbilisi. We were the only people in the marshrutka so were worried that we'd have to wait ages for it to fill up but we were in luck and set off pretty quickly. We had a really kind driver who gave free lifts to several local people on the way. We stopped at some little roadside stalls on the way down the mountain and the driver bought us some peanuts and Georgian grape and nut candy which I didn't dare eat as I felt too dodgy. 

 

We spotted this local guy riding his horse down the mountain road on the way back to Tbilisi.

Roadside stalls on way to Tbilisi. 

Rowan bought this silly hat for his mum as she likes silly hats.

It was much sunnier once we got down out of the mountains.

A free-wheeling cow in front of our marshrutka. Cows roam around everywhere in Georgia.

We made it back to Tbilisi without incident and took the metro back to the Bonney hostel. it felt good to be back there, like coming home! Our old beds were free so we were able to stay in the same room as before. We just lazed around the rest of the day sleeping and doing a bit of laundry. A few beers wit the other guests in the evening helped me to feel vaguely human again but unfortunately for me, the misery had just started, and would continue for over a month!