Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

 Mestia, Svaneti, Geogia

I walked into the old centre but enroute, everywhere there was new buildings being constructed...

...one behind my hotel...

...another view of it...

...and numerous blocks of flats.

A monument in a public park in Zugdidi where we stopped for lunch.

Then the road climbed into the mountains.

We drove along a road high up above the reservoir formed by the Enduri Arch Dam.

There were many views of the reservoir.

The road to Mestia is the most scenic route that I have discovered in Georgia. It passes through wild and untamed mountain scenery...

...on a single road that weaves its way along the valley side. It is 134 kilometres from Jvari through the mountains to Mestia. And it would take us more than four hours.

There are great views for the passengers but the driver  must keep his wits about him on sharp turns, steep gradients and sometimes sheer drops at the side of the road without any crash barriers or bollards.

In places there are short tunnels but nothing like the major construction projects we had recently seen on busier main roads. 

The river flows out of the base of a glacier. It is cold but also choked with rock flour and is grey. It is constantly eroding the banks and deepening its course.

We could see the river for most of the route. In some places it was flowing in a deep and narrow channel and at other times it was wide and shallow. The surface was still a churning mass of cross currents but the changes in deep and breadth allowed bridges to be built to give access to the far side. 

We passed a former industrail site with huge concrete buildings and large former offices and dormortories for the workers. There were no windows left in any of the soaces in the concrete walls for windows. Everything was rusty with heaps of rubble piled up everywhere. It may have been a busy place once, but now it was an industrial wasteland.

There were several tunnel entrances into the valley sides on both sides of the river, visible from the road. There were some entrances that were partially submerged by the river. Someting had once been mined here in the Soviet era but there was no clue as to what it might have been.

The constant erosion also meant that the sides of the valley were undercut. With the loss of support, some sections of the road collapsed reducing traffic to a single carriageway. 

A view of the main river...

...and a view up a tributary...

...and a view of the road ahead. The white splodge is not a waterfall, it is a bank of snow.

Snow on the surrounding mountain tops...

...a view back down the valley...

...some of the snow covered mountain tops...

...and another view back down the valley.

We reached Mestia in the late afternoon. I have read claims that tere is an airport here but given the terrain, it can't be nearby or is only tiny for small aircaft to take off from a field shared with livestock. The settlement sits at an altitude of 1,400 metres. Most people seem to have an altitude app on their phones or watches, but the results differed between providers by up to ten metres. I was not going to  be pedantic. I am only writing a book, not planning a ten year deep space mission where being out by a few metres or seconds here and there would be a big disaster.

We had a few minutes in the centre of town. We couldn't find any public conveniences. The tourist information centre was closed, as were several hotels, bars and shops.SOme had to buy a coffee or beer to get access to a toilet. 

We left town and drove further up into the mountains to find a bush camp. It was another 100 metres elevation before we found a suitable spot. It was off a quiet road, had some flat spaces to pitch a tent, didn't seem too muddy and therefore not able to support the weight of the truck and had enough forest nearby to investigate and collect firewood to cook the evening meal. 

Several people have asked me about cook groups and bush campimg, so here are a few photos and some explanation. Two fo the cook group preparing vegetables...

...a general view of the truck with the cook group working at tables in front of it and as you come away from the central feature, there is a fire and a tent for two.

Thia is photo of the same scene but from further back to indicate the scattering of people's preferred tent pitches within sight of the truck but not necessarily near as some people snored. In more dangerous locations, the tents would be much nearer to each other.

Our evening meal cooking. A kettle for tea or coffee, some chicken in the frying pan and rice in the large pot.