Svaneti, Georgia

Svaneti

In a half-sleep, I sit in a half-empty minibus, passengers are chatting with the driver in the background, the bumpy road is gently rocking me, and I half-close my eyes, looking out the window at the peaks of the mountains, small roofs of houses. So, why are the roofs of the houses small? I wake up, see the minibus, but there's a pilot at the wheel, and it's not a window at all, but a porthole. I lean closer, and the altitude is 2 km, just level with the snowy peaks of the mountains. The field looks like a chessboard of all colors. You can even see a herd of cows, the view is simply stunning.

I'm flying by small aircraft, a plane for 19 passengers from Tbilisi to Svaneti, 50 minutes in flight. My backpack is lying in the damn nose of the plane, I was afraid that my 20 kg, instead of the allowed 15, would be too heavy or the лямка would get caught in the propeller.

As we approach the landing, the most amazing and authentic view I've ever seen opens up. Mount Ushba, a gorge, a mountain river, an ancient village with stone roofs and defensive towers. It's like a teleport to the Middle Ages.

Mestia is the largest and quite developed tourist village in Svaneti. In turn, Svaneti is the most beautiful region in Georgia. I highly recommend coming here and allocating maximum time for Svaneti. There are many options for one-day and multi-day hiking routes of easy and medium difficulty. The abundance of glaciers and lush nature has left a deep impression on my soul.

On the central square of Mestia, there is a Tourist Information center, staff speak Russian and English, you can get all the information you need about the hike, weather, water, and get a free route map with elevation changes and timing.

The nature is very friendly, probably the most welcoming place I've been to. There are lots of drinking streams, some taste like Borjomi, even seem to be carbonated. The trails are well-trodden and pass through gorges past ancient villages, meadows, forest areas, sometimes climbing to passes. There's plenty of dead wood, it's not a problem to make a fire, but I prefer to go with gas and make a fire only for aesthetics, where there's already a campsite.

One of the most powerful impressions is from the animals. In Georgia, there are no usual enclosures, everything is compact and the animals roam freely, so it's easy to meet cows, calves, horses, pigs, and dogs in the most unexpected places. They boldly come to be petted, this creates a feeling of unity with nature and fullness, as if you've entered a petting zoo.

There are few people on the route. At the end of August, beginning of September, we met no more than 5 people during the day, but what people... I became very friendly with some of them. Mostly from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Israel. The locals are very friendly and hospitable. They often invited me to visit, once I agreed and was fed young veal, given wine, drunk and barely managed to carry my backpack))). I traveled alone in Georgia for about 6 weeks, hitchhiking and spending the night in tents near villages, roads, gas stations, the coast, including the center of Batumi, only in Tbilisi I didn't set up a tent. I got the impression of complete safety, at the end of the trip I calmly set up a tent in the park and knew that no one would break in at night or show aggression. Even worried less than usual about my things. Let's thank the police reform, now they are everywhere, even in the smallest villages. They look well-provided with everything necessary and are very responsive. More than once they approached me to ask if everything was all right, gave me a ride or helped with hitchhiking.

There are many guesthouses and campsites for tents in the backyard, usually with a shower, Wi-Fi, there are hostels, price from 600 rubles per night for 1 person. With a tent, you can stay overnight right in the central park, but it's noisy and crowded. You can go down to the river or go outside the village.

By chance, I met a very kind person, he showed me the tower, we even climbed to the roof. Later, I stayed at his utility house, built in the 5th century, on prepared hay. Address: Teo Guesthouse and Camping in Mestia