We had a lovely couple of nights in Sighnaghi,
split between the homely Nana & Lali’s guesthouses. It was interesting to step inside a real
Georgian’s home. Lali lived up to her
reputation and turned the music up once we’d finished eating and encouraged us
out of our seats for a dance. A few of
us went for a wander to the Bodbe monastery the next day, which is in fact a
convent, a couple of kilometres away.
Deciding to take a different route back to the town we turned explorer
and off the road, up through a muddy forest track that disappeared at times,
hacking away nettles. It turned into a
serious hill hike and at last we popped out at the top to find we were two
ridges with deep valleys away from the town.
Back down again we went and then the preferred option of hitching up the
road, a local taxi stopping and then not accepting any money for the journey.
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Lali leads Gary onto the dance floor |
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The streets of Signaghi |
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Knitted booties for sale |
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Pretty finials on the roofs of houses |
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Bodbe Monastery |
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The refectory at Bodbe |
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Bush whacking up through the forest |
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We may be a little lost, but we found a little chapel! |
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Maggie and Ross on the old city wall |
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Young spectators marvelling at our rubbish removal |
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Nana and her homely guest house |
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Low cloud over Signaghi |
After a visit to Gremi Citadel and
excellent small museum the next morning we set off to find a camp near Telavi. After winding our way through a village and
narrow lanes with low trees our arrival into a field came to an abrupt halt as
we sank into the mud, an unusual amount of rain had water logged the field. Strategic placing of the sand mats and a bit
of man power and we were out of the rut and parked up on a track.
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Gremi Citadel |
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Church of the Archangels |
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St George |
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An amusing description of King Alexander |
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What a good-looking man he was... |
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The stoic Queen Ketevan |
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Where to? |
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DHL enlist a new vehicle for Georgian deliveries |
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Tom and Dave stocking the bar |
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We don't look too stuck, but we are! |
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Little church in the corner of camp |
For the evening we had a short wander down
through the field, past an ancient graveyard and small chapel, for wine tasting
at Petriashvili wine cellar, a small home operation. Our final Georgian feast of a dinner was
prepared by our host’s 79 year old mother.
It was a fitting final spread, we had a lot to compare it to having
spent nearly three weeks in Georgia, this really was the best. The ceremonial horn came out and lengthy
toasts were made. The jugs of wine
flowed once again until some lost track of time and then forgot the way home in
the pitch black and pouring rain. A walk
that should have taken no more than ten minutes took closer to an hour. Nearly
returning to the winery to beg for shelter for the night or resorting to a bush,
they eventually found their way back to the field and their tents calling out
“coo eee”!
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Wine tasting |
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Fantastic meal with the Petriashvili family |
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Mr Petriashvili and his mother |
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Jackie delighted at being brought a whole plate of cucumber! |
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Anita preparing to drink from the horn |
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Tom looking like he is really enjoying it... |
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And David |
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Cattle coming through camp |
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Bee train |
The next morning we made a head-clearing
visit to a charity called Temi. The
reason for our visit was that after Hels’ accident last year a family friend in
Scotland contacted her friend in Georgia, the director of Temi, Nika Kvashali,
who without hesitation came straight to the hospital in Tbilisi offering any
assistance we could need, offering their own doctor, Irma, and a lady called
Mari to translate, as well as paying for Rogan to stay the night at the
hospital and not accepting any money in return.
It was a hugely kind gesture and we wanted to find out more about the
community they run and say thank you in person.
70 people live at Temi and range from 2
years old upwards, a community of predominantly orphans, the physically and
mentally disabled, the poor, the homeless and other vulnerable individuals. They are pretty much self sufficient with a
bakery, organic farm, greenhouses and a carpentry workshop spread around the
sizeable site and even produce their own organic wine. Their generosity continued as we sat down to
taste the wine, with snacks of home baked bread, cheese and freshly picked
cucumbers.
Two mountain bikes we’d had attached to the
back of the truck from the start of the trip have now found a good home. On hearing that we wanted to leave the
bicycles for the community to enjoy, a crowd rapidly assembled and people
started to climb on the back of the truck to release the bikes and get a better
look at them. Once off they were
instantly cleaned up and carted off with replacement inner tubes we’d bought
but not yet fitted. The community was an
extremely happy place, where people feel no different from anyone else. There was barely a dry eye in the house when
we left, it was a very humbling experience and interesting to see yet another
side to Georgia. There’s so much more we
could say as well as tell the story of young Davit who was brought to Scotland
for life saving spinal surgery and the happy outcome of his subsequent adoption
by a Scottish family, if you’d like to read more about Temi their website is: www.temi-community.org
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Tour of Temi |
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The carpentry workshop |
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Kvevris for making wine |
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Temi's longest resident in the green house |
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Sitting down to taste the wine |
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Temi Community wine |
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Removing the bikes from the truck |
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Let's get these bikes cleaned up! |
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Mari and Helen |
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A new Odyssey driver? |
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Young Davit, soon to be moving to Scotland |
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Sue and friend |
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Selfie!! |
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Byeeeee |
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A quick weld for the table, it was on its last legs |
We then headed on to the lovely Lagodekhi
nature reserve. A stone’s throw from the
Azerbaijan border we would cross the next morning. We spent a good hour deciding where to park
up and camp for the night, with the help of sand mats. Two days running the mud got the better of
Penelope. Trying to go back the way we
came after sinking into a muddy ditch we managed to back ourselves in between
some large trees, a bit of a puzzle to get out of. The sun came out to reward us for our efforts
and broke through the trees casting dappled sunlight through the forest. The group then turned lumberjack (on fallen
trees) and went out into the forest with axes and saws to fill the wood rack.
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Stuck in the mud in Lagodekhi |
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Penelope costing up to the trees |
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That'll do! |
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Attempted catch of the Georgian puff adder |
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Lovely Lagodekhi |
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One well-stocked wood rack |
We had a good speedy border crossing the
next day, saying a fond farewell to Sophie on the Georgia side. Azerbaijan welcomed us through in record
time. Our first stop in Azerbaijan was Sheki,
at a hotel converted from a traditional caravanserai with cosy rooms featuring
arched brickwork ceilings. No rest for
the wicked, up the road for a quick tour of the Khan’s summer palace. A beautifully decorated ornate palace with
Italian coloured glass in the windows and 16th century plane trees
outside.
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The Georgians kindly wishing us luck at the border |
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Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev |
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Arriving into Sheki |
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The Karavansaray Hotel |
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The Khan's summer palace |
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Photographs are not allowed inside, so here's a glimpse from an internet photo |
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A fun taxi ride back to the hotel (what you can't see is Rogs is in the boot) |
Onto better roads the next day, in a south
easterly direction, towards the Caspian Sea at Gobustan where we found the
gurgling, bubbling mud volcanoes.
Managing to camp right next to them we saw the sun set behind the mini
volcanic peaks.
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Enroute to the mud volcanoes - trains do cross at the tracks sometimes |
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Twice in one day! |
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Walking up to the mud volcanoes |
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Sue helping Tom test the muddy water |
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Anita, Tom, Hels & Rogs |
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Maggie atop the mud volcanoes |
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Curry and poppadum night |
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Jackie & Judy |
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Jo-Ann and Gary having a dance |
It’s now time for the most uncertain and perhaps
one of the most exciting parts of our journey, crossing the Caspian Sea. With no regular passenger ferry service or
timetable we are at the mercy of the train cargo travelling between Azerbaijan
and Turkmenistan. When space allows,
we’ll squeeze on, how long it will take, who knows. Our inbox is regularly pinging with alerts,
after registering on the Marine Traffic website, of arrivals and departures of
the ships travelling on our route, particularly our old friend Professor Gul
who we consider to be the finest on the sea.
Will we be lucky enough to join the professor for a third time? Inshallah.
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Tracking our favourite ship on Marine Traffic |
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Our bags are packed and we are ready to go! |
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