Hiking in Birtvisi

As soon as Autumn has come, me and my friends went on our journey, and the first spot was Birtvisi. It was 8 AM in the morning, when we started the trip, and it was about 9 o’clock, when we reached the destination. As the landscape is rocky and crooked, we left the cars at the beginning of the mountain, and continued by foot. The closer we were to the main point of the trip, the harder it was to hide the admiration we felt in nature. Before we reached Birtvisi gorge, we walked through the mountain, which seemed not to be hard and big. At every step, we were just stopping to feel the beauty of these picturesque nature. The views were dazzling, the rock- really impressive, and characterising only for Birtvisi, but most of all, suddenly coloured Autumn trees and fallen leaves were unbelievably beautiful. Later, we come across a little downhill. There was a very narrow path, which was surrounded by giant rocks from both sides. From here we get to the most beautiful camping zone, the gorge has incredible canyons all around it. Too many climbing mountains were here too. There was little cave, where we left our unnecessary luggage, and went on hiking the highest point of the ravine- Birtvisi fortress- called “Sheupovari”, which means “Persisted” in Georgian.

I must mention, that the weather “helped” us during the journey. Maybe the sun “felt” not to come out during the walking, and it was only at the peak of the mountain, that it shone warmly. So, also the place was wonderful for taking pictures and videos, but the sun made it even more brilliant. And then, it disappeared. The only problem was that our journey had started just after the rain, so in some places we were sliding on the ground, but I must also mention, that the smell in the air was just wonderful. Also, climbing on the wet rock slopes was kind of hard, but we had good equipment. As for the road itself, Birtvisi is not in the list of hard ones, but anyway, in some places it was not easy. In some very stretching downhill we use climbing ropes, for safety. This was kind of a funny, as it was our first experience, and an adrenaline made its “job”, we were feeling high. So, we defeated the fear of high places lake that, and the rocks didn’t seem to be frightening anymore.

Also, the higher we went, the enthusiasm was increasing more and more, so, the curiosity of what was there, in the peak, was also very big. So, the fact, that we were not experienced in such hiking, didn’t affect us, and almost in half an hour, we were there. The first thing, what we did, was that we snatched cameras and video-cameras to take pictures, and catch the time, but soon we understood, that it was impossible to reflect the beauty of the nature, which was in front of our eyes. Standing on the peak of the hill, the only thing we were thinking about was to capture everything, looking around that majestic nature, euphoria was all around us, we wanted, to be as sweetened as possible, as the views were unbelievably beautiful… clouds were very close, sometimes I even thought, I could touch them. So, as it wasn’t able to capture that beauty in cameras, the only thing was to capture it in our minds, and so we did.

We spent almost half an hour in Birtvisi fortress and if not hunger and tiredness, we wouldn’t mention going back to the town. Walking down slowly, almost crawling down, on the “place of safety” we eat shashlyk and drink cold and clean mountain water, then rest for a while and started mountain climbing.

The situation turned out to be very comic, as we had hardly ever climbed a mountain, so previous expectations about climbing turned into disappointment, as none of us manage to climb higher, than one meter. I should also mention, that the problem wasn’t just in us, the route is really very hard, as there is nothing to hold on. This fact, naturally gave us motivation to work hard on mountain climbing.

While we had fulfilled everything as planned, the day turned into night. It’s true, that we felt every muscle, and it was kind of painful, we managed to get back to our car, and I should mention, that we did it without stopping or resting. We felt proud of it.

To sum up, visiting Birtvisi became one of the hiking places, when you get home tired, exhausted, but at the same time, happy, full of joy in the body …. Full of new emotions, experience, impressions. And this is that’s to GTG.

Advice:

1. Wear the shoes, that are really very comfortable. Which does not slip and stand firmly on the ground.

2. Don’t try to climb stretching downhill without an experienced guide.

3. Have another pair of shoes, as you may have to change it, while getting wet in the canyons.

4. Mobile service doesn’t work in the ravine of Birstivis. (only available near the fortress.)