“Georgia 🇬🇪 ~Zugdidi to Upper Svaneti Range of the Caucasus; Ushba Peak, and Mestia”

• June 16, 2021
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

With another several hours of driving from Chiatura, we made our goal of Zugdidi.

Come to find out, this is another city we like. Approaching this area we saw some nice stately old homes with large groomed, or semi-groomed yards. Another like-able area of Georgia.
This city is the capital of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, which combines Samegrelo (Mingrelia) and Svaneti.

Our afternoon of driving had us backtracking more than we wanted to, from Chiatura, but we got 90 percent good roads, instead of the other way around; first time, since we arrived in Georgia!!

We are feeling a bit run-down from all the challenging roads, so we are staying for two nights in Zugdidi. Some countries, due to their individual histories, have their historical sites very spread out. Georgia is definitely one of those countries.
We parked the car and won’t move it for that same amount of time, either. If we get a break from the rain, we can walk around the area from our hotel which, by the way, has a restaurant. ⬇️

Leto Boutique Hotel
Sauna is closed and Massages are not allowed.

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We have noticed Georgia is the first country since March in 2020 (when we were in Greece) where masks are in place everywhere, (worn mostly on their chins, though) ….and many hotels and restaurants are no longer in business. This is our 16th country visit since that lockdown; over a year ago. It’s very sad to see, and we feel impacted (once in country) by the COVID issue for the first time, after arriving in a new country; since leaving Greece. I’m not sure why Georgia is so stuck, but they are. As a result, we have ended up paying more for our lodging, when we find one. The same is true for meals. This goes hand-in-hand with “the last man standing” kind-of-thing, during the COVID-era, for at least this country.

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Why did we come to Zugdidi? Our main purpose of coming to Zugdidi was originally nothing more than finding the road north, from Zugdidi, for our second attempt at reaching the far north on a road that is not torn up.

Call us CRAZY, or I should say call “me” crazy, because the truth be known, I am like “a dog with a bone,” when I get an idea in my head. It’s just hard for me to let go of seeing great places!

I want to get to the northern range so bad, to see the largest collection of medieval Georgian Towers, I discovered in further research, there is a UNESCO World Heritage Site called Svaneti Towers. It is a well preserved medieval village of Chazhashi.
I’ve been doing nothing but researching routes, since returning to the hotel in Tsageri, after our huge failed attempt to get up north, yesterday, to the range near Ushguli. (we were only 20 miles away, before a mud/rock slide blocked the road and had to go back).
I shared my plan with the big guy, of “round two to the north,” and here is just one of the reasons why I love him so much! He said: “Whatever you want to do, we’ll do it.” Again while at the hotel in Tsageri, the owners son who spoke some English, verified for me the route I found, would work as far as Mestia, at least. After that, the young man did not know about the roads, but we will be close, if we get as far as Mestia, and maybe we can hire a driver to get us the rest of the way. If no luck there, we will have to be satisfied with what we see in Mestia.

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We left this morning from Zugdidi and had the most wonderful and scenic drive to Mestia. We could see the mountain range we were heading for, right off the bat! Good sign, with great weather.⬇️

 It took almost three hours to reach Mestia, and a pleasant surprise along the way. was when the mountain peak; Ushba, came into view! It reminded us a little of the Matterhorn in Switzerland 🇨🇭. This was the mountain peak we wanted to see, also, while up north, but a previous attempt to go there; the map app read “it was not possible.”
The weather was clear enough today, we could see almost the entire peak! ⬇️

Ushba is one of the most notable peak of the Caucasus Mountains. It is located in the Svaneti region of Georgia, just south of the border with the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia 🇷🇺

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We arrived in Mestia ⬇️ and stayed for two nights to see what we could see. We have rain again, so we are waiting that out, as per the norm, too.
We had no trouble finding lodging, but food, not so much. We didn’t starve to death, no worries.
There are many ancient Towers here, but the UNESCO Site in Ushguli, is our ultimate goal and destination. It is still another 1.5 to 2 hours from Mestia.

The gal at the hotel in Mestia said the road to Ushguli, from Mestia was good for half of it, and bumpy the rest. We will definitely give it a try. If we’ve done 10 hours of bad roads in one day, before, what’s a little ole hour? 🤪
In the mean time, here are some photos from in Mestia, where we got to see our first groupings of the Medieval Towers.
We are super proud of ourselves for finally making it this far!

Mestia ⬇️

The Frontier Village of Latakia ⬆️

We have seen random, single Towers, still standing in varying condition, all around Georgia, but Mestia has many.

FANTASTIC!






View From our Hotel ⬆️

What we understood from talking with the gal at the hotel was this: UNESCO came to Mestia to add them to their list, but the locals felt like the changes would be too intrusive, so they said no, and UNESCO moved on. I can understand both sides of this coin.
It would appear the Towers in Mestia are privately owned. We were not able to look inside any of them. All the more reason to get to the actual UNESCO Site to (hopefully) fully explore, there.

If interested, I found this article, which spoke to this, and I thought it was interesting. It raises very good points about UNESCO vs the locals.

https://eurasianet.org/perspectives-the-threats-to-georgias-world-heritage-sites

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Be Prepared to Be WOWED!

Our drive up north (second attempt) was spectacular! ⬇️ We have definitely experienced the most beautiful part of Georgia!

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