Mestia

The ride started out in a chilly morning air with a warming sun rising fast. The Enguri river is roiling at the confluence with the Nenskra. Many confluences pour into the Enguri along the way up the valley.

Svaneti is something else, the sights are tremendous, walls of stone rise at 80° from the river in places and you wonder how they ever got a road in here, never mind how the population got around a thousand years ago. The forest is dense and steep. Peaks jut up to 4000m and behind them somewhere is Mt Elbrus at 5600m.

I'm finally burning up my large breakfast by 1pm and I stop for coffee and later an OJ, then snack on my leftover muesli. The roads are a challenge to maintain, but substantial sections that are safe from subsidence have been freshly repaved. I hang out for a bit with an enthusiastic crew of young guys working on a cave in. It will be all fixed in 5 days they say.

Mestia is a tourism oriented town, large busses arrive with foreign tourists toting large roller cases. Tomorrow they will be clad in their best hiking gear, walking through town and catching taxis to trailheads. In winter the ski area rises right out of town and I see skis all around, which is an interesting feeling for me coming from a ski town myself.Read more