Georgian food, wine and mountains! Pt2

After leaving Mestia we had a really long drive day and made it to Kutaisi where we stayed in a guest house/homestay. On the way we stopped off to go to the Prometheus caves.  They were impressive but we arrived pretty late in the day and the guide practically ran us through!

Although we had the next morning there, it was mostly spent by everyone either helping to stock up the truck bar or going to the market to stock up the food as we were off on 5 nights bush camping! We had been given the news the night before that we had the 5 nights bushcamping and it was met with more than a few groans. Our itinerary in Georgia is flexible and has been designed by our guide around visa applications, best times to visit certain places etc so we just have to go with it.

After the shopping was loaded and bar was stocked we were on our way to Gori, the birthplace of Stalin and our first of 5 consecutive bushcamps. We stopped en route at the Stalin museum and I can only describe it as a very surreal experience. Now, before I say too much more I want to mention that I was not looking for something that rewrote history. Stalin is very much part of Georgian recent history and that should not be erased - it's important to learn from the past. However, this was something else. The first bit we stopped at was the museum shop whilst the tickets were bought.  In the shop they were selling Stalin tshirts, matches, mugs, postcards etc - very weird.  We had a guide who took us round this large grand building telling us a load of factual information about Stalin, his childhood, his exiles and escapes to Siberia and rise to prominence, all of which was fine and interesting.  However, there was a tiny room called the room of repression which basically skipped over the fact that there were millions 'taken' or killed under his regime - not particuarly balanced!

After that we set up bushcamp for the night before heading of to Kazbegi in the north of Georgia, very near to the border with Chechnya.  To get there we had to drive along the Georgian Military Highway through the mountains - scariest road yet!  It didn't help that one of the girls had watched a programme on the world's most dangerous roads that had featured that road, yikes.

We spent 2 nights bushcamping in Kazbegi and whilst it was pretty, there wasn't too much there so not much to say!

Will continue with Pt3 later!