The Road to Kazbegi

From time to time TLG books excursions for the teachers, until now I have not had the opportunity to participate in one.  However, when I heard that Alex was taking a group to Kazbegi I leaped at the opportunity.  Kazbegi is located on the Georgian Military Highway, near the Russian boarder and mere a stone's throw away from Chechya.  Created in ancient times, this road has served as the primary route from Georgia to Russia for centuries.  It was only in the 19th century, when Russia took over Georgia and the rest of the region, that it was turned into a proper highway.  Kazbegi, and journeying along this highway, has been at the top of my list of places to visit in Georgia since I arrived.  The downside of this was that those interested in coming to Kazbegi had to be at the meet-up point in Tbilisi at 8am on Sunday morning.  Oy mey.

My steadfast travel buddy Netty and I looked diligently for a place to crash in Tbilisi on Saturday night.  Since our Tbilisi based friends were all occupied and hotels/ hostels were too expensive, we opted to stay with Netty's host father's aunt.  A very sweet lady who did not speak a word of English, but eagerly opened her home to two strangers.  There were two university students already boarding with her, so Netty and I spent the night with three other strangers in a two room flat.  Just a regular Saturday night in Georgia.

 The next morning we met up with Alex and about a dozen or so fellow teachers and sped off to Kazbegi in two minibuses.  Alex, our tour guide and TLG flight coordinator, has a HUGE job of arranging these excursions as well as booking all the flights for us in and out Georgia.  Until now, he had only been that mysterious person in charge of my ticket out of Georgia who was not responding to my emails.  However, after spending a day with him, he is one of my favorite people.  He quickly showed off his daredevil side by scaling fortress walls and jumping down rocks near fast moving rivers.  In his previous life he was a director at a British high school in Tbilisi.  All those years with teenagers has kept him young.

Our first stop was at Avanuri fortress where we scaled the walls and wandered around a bit.  I mentioned to Alex that a certain fortress wall we were climbing on seemed high and narrow.  he responded, "not seems, is."

Avanuri Fortress

We piled into the minibuses and headed for our next stop, the picnic lunch.  We naively thought that this meant we would either eat in the minibuses or perhaps at a restaurant.  Ara (No).  We drove further into the mountains and wove higher and higher and the weather got colder and colder and our surroundings got whiter and whiter.  I, of course, was being kept company by my ipod, highlights include Aracade Fire, The National, and Tom Petty.  Just outside of the ski town of Gudauri our minibuses came to a stop in spot that had large round concrete slab, which is presumably used as a viewpoint over the mountains.  This was our picnic spot.  We dined on bananas and sandwiches while taking in an incredible view.  At one point the wind shifted and the clouds completely surrounded us.  A dog, who clearly knew that this was the picnic spot, made his way over and shared a few sandwiches with us before disapearing into the snow again.

Picnic spot

The View

Standing in the Clouds

Picnic Pal

Once again we piled into the cars and slowly made our way down into the Terek valley.  We made another stop to sample some mineral water.  My friend Frankie summed it up as tasting like "rusty nails."

We stopped here for water?

Yummy Mineral Water

We took a quick trip up to the Georgia-Russia boarder.  We did not go very close, but we had a clear view of the Georgia side of the checkpoint.  Once again there was a dog there to greet us, and perhaps to keep us from getting any clever ideas.

Russian Boarder Dog

Boarder Checkpoint

After that the next stop was Kazbegi.  This is where I explain that the village of Kazbegi itself is not the destination point for people traveling to "Kazbegi."  The destination is in fact the Tsminda Sameda Church.  Images of this church are often what appear when you google "Georgia, Republic of" or "Kazbegi."  Its photo even graces the cover of the pre-war Lonely Planet.  To get to this church from the village it is about a 5 kilometer walk uphill.  We thought about having the minibuses take us all the way to the top, since it was rainy and muddy.  However, the rain and mud made it too tricky for the minibuses to make it up the hilly path.  So off we went on foot.  Eventually the crazier minibus driver decided to make the effort and took a few to the top in his vehicle. However, those of us who stayed behind to hoof it up there felt a bit more accomplished when we reached the top, if not completely and utterly exhausted.


Throughout the journey the church kept getting closer and closer and then finally, we just had to make it up and over a snowbank to get to the church.  Alex threw snowballs at us as we climbed up.  And suddenly, there we were.  It was worth every wet puddle, muddy tumble to the ground and snowball to the head.

Tsminda Sameda in the distance

Tsminda Sameda - we made it!

Tsminda Sameda

After roaming around the grounds for a bit it began to snow.  It was a perfect scene.  After watching the huge flakes fall from the sky we headed back down the hill, taking the shortcuts, also know as steep inclines down hill that ended with us in somebody's field.  After hopping a few fences and barely avoiding falling in some cowpies we were back at the minibuses.  We were all pretty wet, cold and tired and there was a two hour journey ahead of us back to Tbilisi.  So I took off my wet shoes and settled in with my ipod.  Highlights include more Arcade Fire, New Order and The Cure.  We once again wove through the mountains, over the hills and among many, many herds of sheep, cows, and occasionally pigs.

Sheep using the Georgian Military Highway