The last leg - down from the mountains to Tbilisi
Even before leaving the UK I knew I'd made a mistake by not booking at least an extra day in Georgia's capital city, Tbilisi. A schoolboy error on my part, as the tour schedule really only gave me an afternoon there. Idiot!
In booking this trip I also made another silly error. My impatience got the better of me once I had made the initial booking for the tour itself. The day after that initial booking I asked Intrepid to get me some quotes on flight prices. They organised these for me last year, and I trusted them to get me a good deal. To be honest the prices were decent, but the layover times in Istanbul looked too ambitious. It didn't take long to get better timings, so I went ahead and booked. As with my two trips to the Stan's the flights were with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul, so I just assumed that was the quickest route. A couple of days after making the flight bookings I thought I'd look at Skyscanner just to see if I had got the best option. In short, I hadn't! There was a direct flight from Heathrow to Baku, using the relatively unknown Azerbaijan Airlines, and a direct return flight from Tbilisi using BA, for a combined price that was less than I had paid. Bugger! Serves me right for being impatient. I suppose the best learns come from mistakes, or some other baloney like that.
https://youtu.be/oQea4Z6pcRc?si=uLxqWq6DB2UvxpJS
Have a look at Ali & Nino.....
Given the limited time available to explore Tbilisi, 3 hours drive away, I was both surprised and disappointed that we had a leisurely 10am departure from Gudauri. We wove our way back down the Military Highway, leaving behind the beautiful mountains. I'd have like to have stayed longer really. After an hour we stopped at Ananuri Fortress, which in reality is a very fine church sitting within fortifications next to the Zhinvali Reservoir. It's an impressive sight, but best seen from the hills above. Getting up somewhere to take in that view was impossible, so I headed off along the main road to a bridge to at least get a better perspective. Although the bridge shook as the numerous HGV's crossed it, I got a few photos.
I walked back over the shaky bridge and headed down to the fort. As I went through the entrance most of our group were leaving. The mood amongst them was generally downbeat. "Oh yes it's an impressive place, but they couldn't get near anything because a coach load of Chinese tourists had arrived just before them". Now I know I shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush, but from my experience, the tour groups from that part of the world are notoriously selfish. Their speciality being for each person to "hog the best viewpoint, and spend at least 10 minutes taking the same shit picture for Instagram over and over again, whilst being blissfully unconscious of anyone else who might be waiting to see the view, and get their own photos. Oh, and as for queueing? A non-existent concept. Just push in front of anyone, as the world exists solely around them. " " (space to insert sweary description of your choice!!). I still went in, and it actually didn't seem too bad. Maybe I've just got more used to that behaviour, given the amount of time I spend in London and Oxford. And perhaps we'd all just got used to being in relatively quiet, uncrowded and less touristy places. Ananuri was, after all, a nice day trip out from Tbilisi. There were also coachloads of Russians and Indians, so it made for a potent mix!
Most importantly, at Ananuri I was able to get some nice "I 💖 Georgia" tourist stuff for one of my best friends, whose daughter's name is........yep, you guessed it!
Ninety minutes after leaving Ananuri, we were at our hotel in Tbilisi, next to the Kura River. Our "orientation walk" consisted of Giorgi standing 100 metres down from the hotel, pointing in 3 separate directions to "the Old Town, the Commercial District and the Russian Quarter". Hardly extensive, but to be honest, the somewhat abridged orientation didn't bother me, as I'd already decided what I was going to do with my very limited time in the City. The cable car up to the "Mother of Georgia" statue beckoned. As an added bonus, my tour group favourites, Mel and Alyssa decided to join me. By now it was a beautiful sunny day in the Georgian capital. We walked for 20 minutes along the surging Kura River, and reached Rike Park where the base station of the cable car was located.
Surprisingly, there was no queue, and within a couple of minutes we were rising high above the River with great views of the city in all directions. The perfect way to get orientated, see a lot of the main sights, and prioritise where to go on our return back down. In an ideal world, I'd have walked back down, or even across to the even higher Mount Mtatsminda, however, a combination of aching thighs (from the previous days sharp descent from Gergeti) and a lack of time prevented that. All of that continues to build the case for a return to the city in the near future!
Back down in Rike Park we all fancied visiting the Old Town, so crossed over the Kura using the rather stylish "Peace Bridge". The Old Town was very nice, even if predictably touristy. However, an unexpected offshoot of that was the first postcards I'd seen openly on sale during the entire trip. I'd given up on sending one to my mate Steve who has a legendary, but unseen, collection of cards. His exuberant WhatsApp messages whenever he receives one always brings a smile - usually something along the lines of "got your excellent card from xxxxx this morning. I've never had one from there before. A marvellous addition to my collection". When we do our German football weekends, he even sends one to himself. I hope his collection is stored safely, as his wife very much likes order and no clutter. His even more legendary collection of bath ducks for German football teams has to be kept under lock and key as she regularly threatens to throw them out! I'm told he's bequeathed them to me in his will. They be a wonderful addition to my clutter, and would sit in a prime position next to my collection of plastic cups from German (and other) football teams.
I digress. Cards were bought, now could I get stamps? We went in the shop next door, selling all kinds of tourist stuff including cards. Oh well I'll ask just in case - fully expecting to be told that the only place to get them was the main Post Office. Knock me down with a feather, they had stamps; and not just that, if I left the written cards with them, they'll ensure they get posted properly. Given the urgency to get them written and "posted" I left Mel and Alyssa to meander around the Old Town. The cards were written sitting outside a bar enjoying a pint of German beer, and some Kachapuri; a most wonderful local health food snack.
All that sitting around had allowed my leg muscles, still suffering from previous day's exertions, to stiffen up. I walked away from the bar looking like an old cowboy who'd ridden for hours. Shuffling, legs akimbo. Given that I was definitely coming back to Tbilisi, I decided to head back to the hotel and rest up. Luckily, on my way back I stumbled, completely by accident, across the Clock Tower which is a renowned sight in Tbilisi. That was lucky, as I'd completely forgotten about it, and would have been very frustrated not to have seen it.
Old stiff thighs is back
In the evening, we had a group "last meal". It was in a lovely location - the Illia Chavchavadze Literary Memorial Museum. We were the only diners in the courtyard of this place, but the service as frankly diabolical. The arrival of the food was at a glacial pace and in an utterly random order. A real shame to end the trip in such a way.
With people all leaving at various times over the forthcoming 48 hours, we all bade fond farewells to each other. They were a good group to have been with. I agreed to try and meet Mel in London at some point to visit a Georgian restaurant in Brick Lane that she really liked. That could be fun. Hopefully they'll sell Kachapuri!
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