Hiking in the Khevsureti region of Georgia near the Chechnya border.

The weather was perfect for all three days. We drove 3.5 hours on rough roads to the "end of the road" literally. Erekle, the friend of a friend and my guide, and I first had to climb over a pass in the mountains. The pass was over 9000' elevation and they've had a lot of early snow so the 2000' foot climb was difficult. On the other side there was less snow thankfully.

We then hit the valley on the other side and followed a stream (river eventually) from its head waters for many miles. Mostly we stuck to the stream bed except when the canyon narrowed and we either had to climb up and around the narrow spot or climb/hug the canyon wall to get by. Well...on one such occasion I slipped and fell flat right in up to my torso in about 1-2 feet of freezing, fast moving water. After trying to right myself to no avail, remember I'm carrying a 25lb backpack, instinct took over and I crawled out of there fast with Erekle's help (and the help of many many expletives). The air temp was about 60 but I was instantly shaking with cold. I had to quickly undress and put on some dry clothes and was ok within a few minutes. (Memo to self: the extra clothes may be heavy but they may save your life too.) Btw, after this point, I have no more photos because, you guessed it, the camera was in my pocket and was kaput for the rest of the trip. (The good news is that after 10 minutes under the hair dryer back at the hotel, it seems to be working perfectly now.)

We had to keep crossing from one side of the stream to the other and I can tell you I was extra careful now that I was out of dry clothes! Anyway, no more problems. Finally we saw a "village" -- one farm actually. Cows, pigs, chickens. No sheep. No electricity, phone, road, nothing. Erekle talked to the mother and I gave a couple Capital baseball caps to the little kids. I made their day. (I gave away Capital caps all along the route and the kids loved them!) The only way in is by horse or foot up the trail from downsteam. Anyway, at least for us we now had a decent trail to follow and we started to make better time and we needed to because it was getting low on daylight.

Finally just as darkness hit we see a small light up on a side valley hillside. This is the two family "village" of Ardoti, the home of Nico, Marina and their three darling children, Tiya (6 yr old girl), Georgi (5 yr old boy), Levan (2 year old boy). 6.5 hours of hard hiking and this place looked to me like the Hilton! Also we met our driver who drove around to Ardoti from the other direction up the valley--this is the end of the road up the valley. We cleaned up, hung up my clothes to dry above the stove, ate wonderful food (especially Khinkali!!!) and drank lots of vodka with Georgian traditional toasts. (By the end of this trip I will become a good "tamada", toast master, myself.) Finally we went to bed in an extra room. Woke to beautiful day and amazing views (wish camera worked!) from their homestead. More food and vodka/toasts (yes even for breakfast!). Nico is a poet and the local teacher for grades 1-3 and is richer than most in the area. Still he has no phone or power. He has a solar panel to provide enough for a single small light bulb. We would say he's very very poor, but I have to say he lives a richer life than many. We also fired a shot across the valley from his old bolt action rifle. That was cool.

About 11 we hit the road again. We dumped a lot of gear with the driver and told him to meet us later. We hiked down the road through the canyon which is now at least 1000' deep with mountains going higher beyond (probably 10-14k' elevations). Saw the medievil castle of Muso and climbed up to it. Very cool. (Wish I had camera again!). Next was to stop at Marina's brother's house. He is Antos. Ate more food, drank more vodka...Walked to Shantili, the very famous medievil fortess near the border with Chechnya (Russia). Shantili has power and a new (German-provided) school. Found friends in newer part of Shantili to stay with. Big party ensued and before long all the village men are there. Much food provided by the women (the sexual revolution has not hit Georgia yet) and a local homemade spirit that tasted like moonshine, and the most formal "supra" (i.e., Georgia toasting) yet. After a bit, the local army general and his top officer arrived with big steaming pot of stewed mountain sheep. He had just shot this sheep in the very high mountains at "great distance" he bragged. This is a big deal to the locals. Many more toasts ensued. Songs. Children dancing. Some political arguments erupted -- all of this in Georgian with Erekle occasionally trying to translate (his English is only so-so). I gave up around midnight, but they kept at it for a long long time.

Next morning, breakfast with the men. More toasts, this time using the general's homemade grappa. Erekle was feeling pretty sore from the hiking so we decided to drive the rest of the way home. It is a long way back to Tbilisi and he wanted to stop to see some friends in different villages (yes, more food, toasts, vodka!) Our driver (along with Marina and her kids) got us back to Tbilisi about 9 pm.

Good trip. I wished we had hiked a bit more, but the cultural trip was worth the tradeoff.