Svaneti

Svaneti in Georgia is absolutely gorgeous! Here Marcia mentioned that they should start calling the country Georgeous (GEORGia + gorgEOUS) and that some parts were so beautiful that they brought tears to her eyes! We visited 3 area’s in the Svaneti region where we went for hikes. We hope you enjoy the photo’s and short film.

Ushba valley & waterfalls

Here we camped for 3 nights and hiked up to the waterfalls. Most of the hike wasn’t to difficult except the part last uphill, which later turned out to be the wrong way to reach the waterfall. There are a lot of beautiful and large waterfalls and therefore some pretty wild rivers.

Chalaadi glacier

This glacier is near Mestia, a regional town. The hike is pretty easy.

Ushguli

Oh wow! What an absolutely gorgeous area. Ushguli is well known as it is the highest permanent settlement in Europe. It is located at an altitude of 2100 meters, which means a lot of snow for (at least) 6 months of the year. The road to and from Ushguli is unpaved although road works are in progress. Ushguli is based in the Caucasus mountain area with the Shkara summit (5193m) the highest mountain in Georgia. The towers are typical defensive watch towers. Here we stayed for 2 days and hiked up to the Shkara glacier.

Shkara glacier

Zagaro pass

The Zagaro pass is the “backdoor” to the Ushguli settlement. it is an unpaved mountain pass which we drove to make a clockwise route trough the area. Here too there are road constructions going on, but it will be some years before it will be finished. meaning a sealed surface road.

View from the dashboard