28 August, 2018

Svaneti beyond Mestia and Ushguli

Category: Interesting Places

Very early on, when I was still a second-year undergraduate student and was enthusiastically trying to learn more about the regions of my country, their nature, culture, and traditions than I knew, I chose the subject “Geography of Georgia – Western Georgian Highlands”. At the very first lecture, the lecturer mentioned the sentence “If you haven’t been to Svaneti, you haven’t seen Georgia”, which I never understood, although as I later discovered, it was very banal and almost everyone knew it. Then I decided to visit this region, I heard different assessments of Svaneti from acquaintances and strangers: “Georgian Switzerland”, “The land of the greatest culture”....

Summer came and the day I decided to go to Svaneti came, so I was collecting information on how, where and what sights to see. When I asked my acquaintances what I should see first in Svaneti? They all answered in unison – of course, Mestia, Koruldi Lakes, Ushguli, Ushguli Lamaria, the source of the Enguri, Shdugri Waterfall, Chalaadi Glacier and Gulish Pass. I also got up and believed my acquaintances, went to Svaneti and saw everything from my list, I will not hide from you that I returned with very cool emotions. “What a “Georgian Switzerland”, any European mountain country could stand in Svaneti” – I used to tell everyone. Then I visited in the winter, skied on the hutsval, ate a lot of kubdar, drank delicious apple vodka, took a helicopter ride (by the way, there is an airport in Mestia and flights from Tbilisi are carried out on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays) and returned to Tbilisi doubly delighted and happy that I had been to Svaneti twice, which meant that I knew Georgia twice. After that, I had to go to Svaneti many more times, each time I was convinced that Svaneti is a region with inexhaustible tourist potential. As soon as you pass Samegrelo and slowly go towards the Enguri Gorge, you climb higher and higher, the gorge narrows, here and there, bare rocks look down on you, including At first, the Enguri River flows slowly and gently, but near Svaneti it picks up speed and crashes like crazy against the huge walls of rocks, on which spruce and pine trees appear green. The air also becomes harsher. After enduring the Tbilisi heat, you even enjoy the cool air. The car, following the speed of the river, also rushes along the narrow, concrete road, here and there it crawls through tunnels carved into the rock like a lizard, while you, glued to the window, with wide eyes, look out greedily, observing everything, not wanting anything to escape you. Now you are already in Khaishi, you will miss the turnoff of the Chuberi Gorge, then the Naskra Gorge and so you slowly approach your long-awaited Mestia, leaving Latali behind, you will enter Mestia and the places that You just drive past the stencils, you think this is Svaneti and all its attractions, you think you have seen all of Svaneti, you enjoy these thoughts and emotions until you realize that Svaneti is not just Mestia, Ushguli and Becho communities. To realize this, you need to carefully visit all the places starting from Khaishi and ending with Ushguli, go beyond the stencils on the Zugdidi-Mestia central highway, enter all the gorges, go to all the villages, talk to all the Svans and they will introduce you to the real Svaneti.

I have been visiting Svaneti for so many years and never thought about even entering the Chuberi Gorge, to look at this region from there. This year, in late autumn, I had the honor of getting to know a completely different Svaneti, Svaneti beyond Mestia and Ushguli. In this article, I will tell you my impressions of two gorges, Chuberi and Naskra.

The first thing to note is that these two valleys are located next to each other. When you drive from Tbilisi, the first thing you see is the Chuberi Valley, followed by the Naskra Valley. As close as they are to each other, they are visually, relief-wise, and even in terms of people. As soon as you turn towards Chuberi, the road is narrow for a while, following a cliff, on one side there is a fast-flowing mountain river, on the other side there are sheer cliffs. If you drive a little, the environment changes radically. The valley becomes wider. Here and there, mountain slopes covered with huge trees appear. The dirt road is replaced by a concrete road. You won't see any garbage anywhere. The air becomes as clean and transparent as that crazy river, the bed of which the highway follows. Just a little further and you are in the center of Chuberi, you cross the bridge, the village. You will get on the Lower Marghi road and follow the path higher and higher. There are beautiful colors along the way. All the colors of nature have come together. Here and there, the bright red and yellow are mixed with the ever-green columns of fir trees. It is so quiet and peaceful that you can even hear the sound of breathing. The smell of humus and antiquity fills your nose. You blink your eyes here and there, trying to catch every moment, to capture every shot. The further you go, the greener the forest becomes. There is already a lack of yellow and red here. The forest of fir and pine begins. It is a real fairy-tale place. You feel like you are in a movie. You are waiting for the director to call out "Matoor...". The sound of the river wakes you up and brings you back to reality. In the distance, shepherds' huts are visible and above it, the snow-capped Utviri Pass. The shepherd's huts resemble hobbit houses. The surroundings behind them are first golden and then slowly turn silver. At this time of year, the shepherds are already in the forest, which is why we found the huts empty. It was getting late, the late autumn chill spread throughout my body and I was very happy to find a large Svan stove in the hut. We immediately lit a fire and our happiness became complete. The next day we continued our journey early, everyone was lazy, no one wanted to leave this magical place, the fire also attracted us with its magical warmth..... We steadily faced the challenges and continued our journey.... We climbed one hill without stopping, then another and soon we found ourselves on the pass. The Utviri Pass is located on the southern slope of the Svaneti Caucasus, at an altitude of 2714 m above sea level. The sun was generously rewarding us with its life-filled rays, the snow was knee-deep and shone like diamond fragments in the sunlight, although we were not cold. For a while, we enjoyed the views of the Chuberi Gorge, which was visible from the pass in all its glory. We continued our journey and already descended into the Naskra Gorge. On the way, there is a small, very beautiful lake near the pass, which fits the environment very well. There is a legend about this lake, as well as about almost all lakes in Svaneti, that if a person bathes here, terrible rain, hail and storms will definitely begin... Just like on the way to the Chuberi Gorge, here too we came across many shepherd's huts, which are really good places to spend the night, and their location is extraordinary. From here, the entire Svaneti Caucasus is visible. The closest is Ushba (but from behind), Tetnuldia in the distance, among them There are many small peaks, the sunrise here is a miracle, a huge ball of fire illuminates the entire environment, the whitened slopes of the peaks shine in the sunlight like the armor of Titans.

As soon as you pass the huts, you descend lower and lower through alpine meadows towards the valley. As I mentioned earlier, unlike the Chuberi Valley, the Naskra Valley is narrower, a dense forest filled with rows of huge trees follows a river with a narrow valley that runs entirely down the slope. Here and there, the river makes waterfalls, flowing so low that from the path you can barely notice how a thin silver strip meanders between the rows of huge trees. As soon as the alpine meadows end, a broad-leaved forest begins, the smell of which you can smell even before you go down the last slope. The path is covered with yellow, dried leaves that crunch pleasantly when you step on them, by this time the sun is already giving the world its last rays and painting the horizon in a mauve-pink hue. Slowly, darkness replaced light, cold replaced the life-giving warmth, here and there the light flickered between the trees, and finally, when the surroundings were completely dark, we sat in the warm, crackling Svan stove in our hosts' house, sipping delicious mint tea and sharing the emotions of the day with each other. I want to tell you that in addition to the fact that there are places of exceptional beauty in this valley, they also know how to be exceptionally hospitable. I recommend that you definitely taste the kubdar and tash'mjabi (in Naskhra it is called "shusha"), a glass of apple vodka will not be amiss either.

Finally, I would like to tell you that when you decide to travel to Svaneti, don't forget - "Svaneti is not just Mestia and Ushguli, see beyond it, a more beautiful, richer, more interesting and rediscoverable Svaneti."

Tags: #Svaneti #Tchuberi #mestia #becho #latali