Georgian food, wine and mountains Pt3!

Hi - sorry, I am quite far behind with this now as I am now in Azerbaijan but I'll try and get as much of it done  tonight as I can - that may mean less photos though as that's what takes the longest.  I'd rather get it more up to date though.

So where did I leave you?  Ah yes, we had done 3 of our 5 night bushcamping and were starting to get a bit whiffy!  With the help of baby wipes and some dry shampoo we were semi presentable again and we were off back down that military highway -  perhaps even scarier on the way down.  Next stop was Telavi, the wine region in Georgia.  Georgia claims to be the home of wine, believing they were the first to make it. Not sure how true that it but hey, we were happy to try it out.  We had been sampling a lot of the local wines with mixed results - in Batumi it was nice, in Mestia and Kazbegi.  The main advantage was that it was definitely cheap!  Anyway, we got to Telavi around 5 and set up camp in a farmer's field.  The local farmer came to join us and his chainsaw came in handy for cutting firewood.  He also gifted us some mushrooms and goose eggs.  We were also a sight for a number of the local kids who joined us in the field and had arm wrestling and press up competitions with some of the guys...

Phil with the farmer

Alex arm wrestling

James with his press ups

Andy

Unfortunately it was a very wet camp and it was the first time we had to put up the 'party tent' which we can all fit in to stay dry - but only if we're all standing.  It was a happy camp despite the rain as the next day we were off wine tasting which was an included activity and one we were all looking forward to :-)

We set off the next morning to first stop at a local monastery then we were off  for lunch and wine tasting.  It all started well, with the monastery being nice and fairly easy to find.  Here are a few pics...

 

 

 (we had to put a skirt on to enter the monastery)

Funniest thing was though that someone noticed that there was wifi at the monastery - check out the name of the network (top one)

 

 

 

After that tings started to go wrong, as our local guide had no idea where he was going - we ended up driving about for hours trying to find the wine tasting places.  In the nick of time we found the first place as there were some grumpy and hungry travellers who were keen to sample the wine.  This place was fairly decent and we had some lunch then sampled the wine - the white was horrible but the wine was quite nice even though I don't drink red normally. 

 

 

A slightly happier and tipsier Odyssey lot got back on the truck to head to the next place.  We had high hopes for it as Teresa and Simon had been before and told us the wine was nice.  When we found it to say we were disappointed was a bit of an understatement!  Where the first place had been slightly rustic with the wines in the floor vats etc, this was more commercial.  We could have overlooked this if the wine had been nice but the first white we tasted was met with screwed up faces from everyone.  The second was slightly more palatable until someone pointed out that there was maggots in it - yuck!  Some red was tasted by some and after a while, we made our polite goodbyes and left - most of us slightly disappointed that the day had not turned out as expected.  One the plus side, the winery was run by a very lovely old couple who were really friendly and happy to see us!

 

Bex trying to give away her maggot wine (now fondly remembered as Magwine)

Bex with her magwine, Kelly cringing and David laughing!

Jo with her wine before the maggots were spotted!

 

The day wasn't a total washout, we did laugh about it all and had a bit of a singalong on the truck on the way back to the campsite - with Andy leading on guitar!

 

 

 

We were determined not to give up on the wine tasting and so Mary and Kelly found a local winery that also did Georgian cooking classes, we got our guide to give them a call and we were happy to get a trip there arranged for the next day for 16 of us :-)

 

This was a resounding success, with the family there teaching us how to make the local aubergine dish, as well as bread and Georgian Snickers.  Also, the wine was lovely - I even bought some to take away with me.

 

 

We then headed back to Telavi but we had happily moved on from our bushcamp to a lovely homestay where we were happy to get showered and cleaned up from our 5 days of dirt!

 

That's all for now, one final Georgia post to come before I head to Armenia and Azerbaijan!

 

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!

 

Georgian food, wine and mountains! Pt1

Sorry for the gap in between blogs, it's been a combination of lack of wifi and being too busy enjoying myself!

So what's been happening for the last 2 weeks - rather a lot.  Firstly, I want to say that Warren, the guy who fell, was given the all clear to continue travelling and is doing well:-)

After our extra night in Goreme we had a long drive day ahead to make up some time.  We had a spectacular drive through the mountains where we stopped for a brief photo stop and snow ball fight!

 

 

After that we had 2 final camps in Turkey before tackling our first border crossing into Georgia.  Our first stop there was Batumi where we met one of our local guides who asked if we wanted to have a Georgian feast for dinner.  The answer was a resounding yes and it was quickly arranged.  We checked into our hotel and Jo and I went for a wander round the town, a former Soviet resort town on the Black Sea.  It is our first taste of the former Soviet countries and the differences from Turkey are apparent almost immediately.  Batumi, and Georgia in general is very much a mix of the grandeur and dilapidation all within a few yards of each other.  You can see that there has been investment in restoring old buildings etc but there is still evidence of the former Soviet regime everywhere - be it communist housing blocks or abandoned buildings.  It will be interesting as we go along and see how other former Soviet countries have fared in the 22 years since the fall of the Soviet Union - my belief at the moment is that they have not done as well.

 

Anyway, back to the Georgian feast - a great night was had by all.  Great good, decent and very cheap wine and lots of dancing was the order of the evening, with one of the group even getting up on stage to sing with the band........

 

Our venue!

Feast laid out for us

Spike and Andy

Teresa and Andy

Little local girl dancing the night away

Mahala, Teresa, Louise, Becs, Fiona, Julie and Me

Pernille, Louise, Kelly and Alex

 Anna, Jo and Phil

Locals showing us how it's done

Hayden, Phil and Alex

 

Needless to say there were a few sore heads the next morning.  Georgia was off to a good start tho!  A trip to the Azerbaijan embassy was required for most of us the next morning as we had visas to sort out.  Once that was done we had a few hours to stock up on supplies before we were on the road again, this time heading for Mestia in the north for a few nights bushcamping and a homestay.  It was the quietest journey we've had as there were still a few hungover bods!

 

We arrived in Mestia quite late so we quickly set up camp and got dinner going and it was an early night for most.  The next morning we got full view of the mountains from the tent - stunning....

 

 Calypso, our faithful truck

 

Chilling round the campfire

My tent with sleeping bag being aired!

 

It's also worth showing some of the views we encountered on the drive up to Mestia....

 

 

 

 

Some of the more adventurous of the group headed of for a 7 hour hike to a glacier, some chilled around the camp.  Mary and I decided to walk into town, which was about 3km away.  It was a pleasant walk.  The town of Mestia can only be described as a work in progress. It is trying to establish itself as a ski resort and in a few years it will be great and still relatively cheap for skiing but it is not there yet!

 

 

Mary and I then headed back to camp for wine o'clock!  Once everyone returned we had a nice meal and a good night round the campfire.

 

The next morning, 9 of us went up to the highest village in Europe called Ushguli.  It was a very bumpy 3 hour 4 wheel drive up but it was worth it for the views.  Once we got there we headed to the café for lunch but they had no food so we asked where we could get something to eat and were directed to a guesthouse.  Thankfully he had our local guide with us and he spoke to some old woman who told us to come back in an hour.  So we wandered around a bit - this place is really remote and the only industry is farming and the odd tourist.  We really are off the beaten track now.  We went back for lunch and it was a great Georgian home made meal which we ate in the lady's kitchen.  It was a really lovely day.

 

 

After our day out we were dropped off at our homestay where we celebrated Fiona and Anna's birthday with cake and more local wine!

 

That's it for Georgia part one - more to follow as soon as I can!