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| A monastery on the Georgian Military Highway, Caucasus, Georgia. Photo by Simon Raven |
After half an hour of negotiating switchback corners and hairpin bends, we cross the Tergi Bridge and arrive in the northeastern Georgian settlement of Kazbegi (1,797m). In the distance, the 14th century Holy Trinity Tsminda Sameba Church is perched on the adjacent hilltop. The setting sun kisses the jagged horizon and silhouettes a group of hikers making their way up the mountain. In the main square we are immediately surrounded by a group of hard-faced local men touting rooms. A guy appears at my window. He has flecks of grey in his wiry bushy hair and deep lines embedded in his face. Wearing a brown woollen tank top over a checked shirt, he has the manner of a mountain warrior and despite his age he looks as strong as an ox. His teeth are yellow and decaying and his lips are dry and cracked. The smell of tobacco drifts inside the car.
‘You want room?’ he asks, the corner of his mouth curling upwards in a slight smirk.
I shake my head. ‘We go to Tbilisi. Can we buy car insurance here?’
He drops his smile and raises his bushy, out of control eyebrows. ‘What?’ he growls, fixing his stare.
‘We need to buy insurance, for the car,’ Si adds, knocking his fists together to demonstrate a collision.
The tout mutters something under his breath to the sun-dried gentlemen standing around him.
‘No room?’
‘No,’ I smile.
Exhaling a deep sigh, he turns sharply away and marches over to a young traveller struggling up the hill with his rucksack. Si swings the Volvo over to a nearby petrol station. I ask the guy working the pump about car insurance, but we are both distracted by the surreal sight of a camel walking along the road. A man with long white hair barks orders at its backside. I turn back to the petrol pump attendant, who looks equally puzzled. He shrugs his shoulders and suggests we try in the capital city of Tbilisi.
We glide through the green mountains on a smooth tarmac road with the menacing 5,047m Mt Kazbek looming above us. A turn off for Sno Valley zips by as we approach the small settlements of Sioni and Kobi in the Tergi Valley. Rocks stained red by the sweet mineral waters interrupts the alpine meadows. We head towards the 2,379m Jvari Ughelt “Cross Pass”, the highest section of the GMH. Driving through deep water in an unlit tunnel, I grip the seat with my Gluteus maximus when two large trucks narrowly squeeze past. Sweeping from left to right, we observe crosses on sharp bends that suggest not all those who have driven this scenic highway have survived. In the winter months this section of the road is notorious for avalanches, and I try to imagine how beautiful it must look up here with the mountains covered in a thick blanket of snow. Devil’s Valley glows in the evening light, and we make a pit stop at a scenic viewpoint balanced on a cliff edge. An unfriendly local guy wearing a big floppy hat sells honey and handcrafted souvenirs. Si photographs the enormous colourful abstract mural above the stone arches, depicting a medieval scene of a princess with a small redheaded boy at her feet and white royal battle horses. Since crossing the border we have been zapped to a region of eastern Georgia in the Southern Caucasus, known in Greco-Roman times as the kingdom of Iberia, home of the Caucasian Iberians. During Classical Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Iberia was a major state in the Caucasus. It later united with Colchis to its west, forming the nucleus of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia. Soft rays of sunlight creep slowly across the mountains and reveal our dramatic location, as Si sets to work at driving the remainder of the Georgian Military Highway. Traversing the Tetri Aragvi River, a warm westerly wind massages my freshly shaven skin. Losing myself in the drive, Si powers the Volvo through sweeping corners as we descend 500 metres to the deserted village of Kvesheti in the green Khada valley. We follow the Mtiuleti Aragvi River for 40 kilometres, from Pasanauri to the Ananuri fort that is located on a hill above the turquoise Zhinvali Reservoir. Joining Si on the battlements, we look out towards the Pankisi Gorge. This region is home to the Kists, an ethnic group described by the 19th century Georgian poet Vasha Pshavela as “a vengeful yet honorable people, who were locked in blood feuds with their neighbours but would respect the laws of hospitality, even unto death.” Feeling in high spirits after traveling this awe-inspiring route through the Caucasus Mountains, I begin to feel excited about the prospect of arriving in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, the beating heart of the southern Caucasus where East meets West.
by The Raven Brothers
UK travel writers go on a quest to drive full circle around the Black Sea in a twenty year old Volvo.
Order your copy online from Amazon and all major book retailers. ISBN 9780954884284.
UK travel writers go on a quest to drive full circle around the Black Sea in a twenty year old Volvo.
Order your copy online from Amazon and all major book retailers. ISBN 9780954884284.
More books by The Raven Brothers
By The Raven Brothers
Out of shape and unprepared, The Raven Brothers return to the road in a collection of ten quests to travel to their dream destinations against all odds! After two decades pioneering new routes across the globe, you would expect the authors of 'Driving the Trans-Siberian' to be hotshot explorers, with a sixth sense and an ability to survive in almost any situation. Think again! With virtually zero knowledge of the workings of the internal combustion engine and very limited skills of wilderness survival, Simon and Chris struggle into their hiking boots and power across three continents by river, tarmac and trail.
Venture to the top of Norway, cruise the road to Damascus, hike the Camino trail into Spain’s Wild West, row the Ganges, explore Frida Kahlo’s world in Mexico City, hangout with the dead in Sicily’s eerie catacombs, crawl deep inside Bolivia’s notorious silver mine, seek lions in Gujarat, wellness in Berlin and journey into the Naga Hills where tribal kings still rule.
Noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”, 'Hike, Drive, Stayin’ Alive!' signals a return to the duo writing “buttock clenching” travel comedy with the first in a series of candid stories of adventure by The Raven Brothers.