2021 09 trans Georgia trail day 5
Lashas uncle and ant had treated us like kings and queens we could wash some clothes and shower, with solar heated water . Afters breakfast of fried potatos and eggs, cheese pizza, tomato's,cucumbers
And bread rolls and coffee, we rode on the gravel road towards the last village in the valley. From there we climbed on a hiking trail up to the pass, into the next valley. Descending we run into the broken down winter village of the people, from there we followed and old sled trail to the summer village. With oxen the had brought hay down in the winter for their cows, sheep and horses. 1940 the Russians forced the mountain people to abandon their traditional way of life, with the result that those winter homes and after the Russians had left also the summer villages where abandoned. Up till now those villages are only accessible by horse, and the few roads that were built, only connect the most important of mountain villages. From there we climbed on a hiking trail up to the pass, into the next valley. Descending we run into the broken down winter village of the people, from there we followed and old sled trail to the summer village. With oxen the had brought hay down in the winter for their cows, sheep and horses. 1940 the Russians forced the mountain people to abandon their traditional way of life, with the result that those winter homes and after the Russians had left also the summer villages where abandoned. Up till now those villages are only accessible by horse,and the fiew roads that were built, only connect the most important of mountain villages.
We reach the first village and that is where the dirt road ends that they call streets here. We follow the road down the mountain and reach the next village passing broken houses from 200 or even 300 years ago. The mountains here are slate rock and all the houses are made from that material. The doors and windows are tiny, the reason for that if a not welcomed guest would enter through the door head first, you could chop it off easily. Between the 15 and 17 century they built towers to flee into and defend themselves against invading and local enemies.
We reached a world heritage cite with such towers and enjoyed the warm beer they were serving in that tiny villageof50 people during summer only. 3 hours later We reached the village that we had aimed for to get the permit for entering the state park. It had been a hot day and we were happy to find a guesthouse that had a shower. We met some Belgian hikers and enjoyed a meal together.
 

2021 09 trans Georgia trail day 4
We climbed as we got used to another 300 m up and crossed into another valley enjoying the vista.
We had to follow the trail down till we hit the road to Omala. Arriving in Omala we needed to get permits for entering the park from the border police. There were 3 dozens of Tuchetien horses freely grazing on the plain. We rode up to the store and restaurant and had our first beer in Georgia. Not very strong. But ok. We ordered some salat, fried patatos and kotteleti, that turned out to be hamburgers. From there it was an houre ride to Lashas uncles guesthouse.

2021 09 trans Georgia trail day 3
After the frozen lake we walked the horses down along the creek till we run into another creek coming from a side valley. From there we could no longer follow the river but had to climb another 600 m of elevation to stay way above the river.
Following the elevation line we run into a group of sheperds manually shearing sheep. They invited us to coffee and fruit and cheese which we happily accepted. We bought some cheese from them and continued on the trail leading to a valley passing two ghost villages. From there it was a steep decent to the river we had followed and a even steeper ascend on the other bank. After 9 hours of riding we finally came to a flat area where we could stake the horses and make fire for our evening meal.

2021 09 trans Georgia trail
Day 2
We woke at 6 am and we're ready to climbed up the mountain at 8 am. 500 m of elevation till the pass where done in 1 hour. We could not find any water till about 3 in the afternoon. The horses do a incredible job climbing on trails that are barely visible. We were hoping to find water on the other side of the pass, but it did not look like it. We passed a shepherds hut and we were sure there must be water here. After we had passed by, we were facing another 500 m assent, without visible trail, when we saw the reflection of water further down. We climbed down and decided to camp right here, because we and the horses were tired.