20/5/22
I was finally escaping Tbilisi! I planned to go to Sighnaghi, but when I got to Isani Metro station, where the marshutkas were meant to be, I only found the one going to Lagodekhi. I could get off early and switch, but I decided that I’d just go to Lagodekhi because, why not?! There was still twenty minutes before it left, so I wandered down the road and got a coffee before we started the journey to the town less than 20km from the Azerbaijan border.
We arrived in the sleepy town in the afternoon, having been slowed down by many sheep in the road, and I made my way past many a barking dog to the guest house I had booked on route, At Nana’s. It was a small bit cute town with pretty buildings and brightly coloured flowers. When I got to Nana’s, the door was unlocked as is typical in Georgia, but no one was in. I rang the number left online and Nana said she was coming. In the meantime, a guy wandered in silently, followed by a friendly Polish girl. We sat and chatted awhile and then Nana came back and made me coffee. The Polish girl, the guy, who was Mexican and I all decided to eat at Nana’s that night since the reviews were good, and home cooked food is always a nice change! We sat and chatted.
Nana made us a feast! We sat, ate and drank wine. They had both travelled through at least a few of the Stan countries and understood a little Russian. The Polish girl was pretty good a t Russian, working in translation for various languages! It was strange to be the one who had travelled the least on the surrounding countries! They were not impressed that I had not brought walking boots to Georgia even though I had been going for months, they both said they’d never dream of going anywhere without hiking boots! 🤣🤣 (I guess they wouldn’t have slipped about in Nepal so much!!). After dinner, I went to my room to Netflix. I had a big double to myself and it was super comfy with down pillows – glorious!!
21/5/22
When I got up, I packed up my stuff and then went out for a hike. The Polish girl had said the original walk I had wanted to do to a small waterfall was tricky due to high water levels and having to cross the river so I had decided to do a walk on the border of Azerbaijan to a fort instead, which was meant to be easier.
I decided I would walk to the town that the walk started in which was a few kilometres away. When I arrived at the building that was marked tourist information on maps.me, it turned out that it was not a tourist information but a rangers’ hut. I knocked and I asked the ranger how I get the pass I needed to do the walk in the Protected Areas. He said I should have got it somewhere in the town and rang another ranger who spoke better English. This guy was very chatty and tolde that I could get my pass on route so long as I had my passport with me (which I did). He also told me he had lived in UK awhile and told me other things which I have forgotten. The ranger that was presebt was making actions to say that the guy and n the bone was talking too much!! I held the phone away on loud speaker and we laughed together. After the ranger had said by the ranger on the phone, he started walking with me a little to set me in the right direction – this was unnecessary but was very sweet and was definitely just to be nice, which I appreciated.
I walked through luscious green woods, with the sun bursting through the vegetation in certain patches. I had to cross a river many times – sometimes there was bridges but other times I had to walk across tree logs as if they were a tightrope and other times, I just jumped. I heard a loud knocking notice echoing through the woods. It sounded like a workman hammering, but it was in fact, a woodpecker!!! The woodpecker was peck-pecking away when it saw me looking and flew a little further away before flying far away into the woods.
Awhile later, I reached the checkpoint and a man dressed in kharki with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder came over to me. He showed me to a table in amidst the woods which he bwas to sit at. Then he got another army guy to get the paperwork. Since this other guy was not on patrol, he was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops with socks. It was a strange look but I was glad, as another civvy dressed man came out too and if they all were dressed up with their uniform and guns I think it would have felt more scary!! I got my permit and headed onwards.
As I got closer, I passed a sign which said that the path was perilously steep. I found a stick to use as a hiking pole and headed onwards. It was fairly steep and slidey, but I made it down and up and down and up to the Fort. It had a pretty view of the river and of Azerbaijan on the other side. I sat and had lunch before heading back again.
When I returned to the village, I miraculously saw a taxi who took me the last few kilometres back to Lagodekhi. He dropped me at the marshutka stand so I could see when the next one went to Sighnaghi. He told me twenty, which I thought meant in twenty minutes, so I dashed off to get my big rucksack as it took ten minutes to walk each way. When I came back to the marshutka, I realised he had meant twenty past and actually I had had less than fifteen minutes to walk to the guest house and back. Luckily, I hadn’t known at the time and having rushed, I made it just in time!!
I got off at Snori and then got a taxi back the last 10km to Sighnaghi. I checked in and headed out for a mooch about. I sat in a Mexican restaurant, drank a margarita and read my book. I chatted to the owner/chef about Georgia and salsa music. He used to do traditional Georgian dancing and toured around the world, but he said he knew when it was time to stop! Afterwards, I headed to a restaurant recommended by my guest house, Maia’s, for dinner. I sat on the roof terrace in the sunshine. The view was beautiful, but it was busy and it took an hour to be served and then my food came sporadically which was annoying, but apparently normal here in Georgia. I watched the sunset over the mountains and then headed home to Netflix.
wanderingwelshie travels 