Stuck in the Mud

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.

Lali leads Gary onto the dance floor 

The streets of Signaghi

Knitted booties for sale

Pretty finials on the roofs of houses

Bodbe Monastery

The refectory at Bodbe

Bush whacking up through the forest

We may be a little lost, but we found a little chapel!

Maggie and Ross on the old city wall

Young spectators marvelling at our rubbish removal

Nana and her homely guest house

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. 

Gremi Citadel

Church of the Archangels

St George

An amusing description of King Alexander

What a good-looking man he was...

The stoic Queen Ketevan

Where to?

DHL enlist a new vehicle for Georgian deliveries

Tom and Dave stocking the bar

We don't look too stuck, but we are!

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”!

Wine tasting

Fantastic meal with the Petriashvili family

Mr Petriashvili and his mother

Jackie delighted at being brought a whole plate of cucumber!

Anita preparing to drink from the horn

Tom looking like he is really enjoying it...

And David

Cattle coming through camp

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

Tour of Temi

The carpentry workshop

Kvevris for making wine

Temi's longest resident in the green house

Sitting down to taste the wine

Temi Community wine

Removing the bikes from the truck

Let's get these bikes cleaned up!

Mari and Helen

A new Odyssey driver?

Young Davit, soon to be moving to Scotland

Sue and friend

Selfie!!

Byeeeee

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.

Stuck in the mud in Lagodekhi

Penelope costing up to the trees

That'll do!

Attempted catch of the Georgian puff adder

Lovely Lagodekhi

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 16^th century plane trees outside.

The Georgians kindly wishing us luck at the border

Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev

Arriving into Sheki

The Karavansaray Hotel

The Khan's summer palace

Photographs are not allowed inside, so here's a glimpse from an internet photo

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.

Enroute to the mud volcanoes - trains do cross at the tracks sometimes

Twice in one day!

Walking up to the mud volcanoes

Sue helping Tom test the muddy water

Anita, Tom, Hels & Rogs

Maggie atop the mud volcanoes

Curry and poppadum night

Jackie & Judy

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.

Tracking our favourite ship on Marine Traffic

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go!