I was disappointed to learn yesterday that we won’t be able to get to the very high mountains and that most of the itinerary has been canceled because there simply isn’t time in a three-day trip.
I feel bad about having to convey this, not least because I have promised more to Raw Honey Shop Customers.
But having seen the state of the roads I can understand. My expectations were unrealistic.
Once you’re off the main roads getting anywhere is very slow. If you’ve seen Joanna Lumley in the Silk Road series you will have seen how bad the roads are in the Georgian high mountains.
My aim was to get to Tusheti National Park, where the highest peak is nearly 16,000 feet. Even though Tusheti National Park (on the border with Russia) is only about 70 miles from Tbilisi I am told a trip into the high peaks there and back is 3 days or more.
Anyway, the good news is that we will be going part of the way, to a very remote area.
(Although something worries me a little. I read online that three American tourists were murdered close to the Russian border earlier in the Summer. It’s not hard to forget that this area was a war zone less than 10 years ago and that Chechnya is just across the mountain, another place which was at war recently. People have guns.)
It’s 10am when Mr Ramaz picks me up from the hotel.
Again the traffic is horrendous in Tbilisi. We stop to pick up Tamta and Omar (the advisor to the Minister of the Environment and Agriculture) and then head out of Tbilisi.
Within two hours we are at the house of Vlado (short for Vladimir). This guy is super dynamic. He has maybe 200 hives in a walled enclosure.
He’s a bit of a pioneer and runs beekeeping holidays for foreigners. I think that Omar sees beekeepers like Vlado as the future of beekeeping in Georgia.
His hives are state of the art – and he collects and sells some royal jelly.
You can see Vlado’s house above. It’s a traditional Georgian house, about 200 years old.
After tasting some of Vlado’s honeys – including a very bitter Chestnut and a delicious multifloral we are off again. (Btw, the multiflorals here are stupendous, I think this is because the variety of flowers here is much greater than in western Europe. The range gives a tremendous depth of flavour.)
We are heading for a place called Chargali, which is maybe 50 miles from the Russian
border. I notice when I ask Google Maps for a route to Chargali it simply replies with ‘Can’t find a way there‘
We pass a massive lake and head up a tree lined valley.
The road is a track although I see workers who are tarmacing. I guess in a year or so it will all be paved – which is probably bad for the wildlife here (easier for hunters to get into the area and inevitably development follows roads. But of course, I totally appreciate that a decent road will be a good thing for the people who live in the isolated hamlets.)
The road doesn’t feel very high but Omar says we are above 1,000 metres.
Looking around it’s all very green, Really green. Many trees. Walnut, acacia, lime, chestnut, hawthorn and a few trees, which I cannot identify and Tamta cannot find a translation for.
This is a real wilderness.
The forest just goes on in every direction. Stretching over the horizon.
After driving for maybe two hours we stop in the square of a little village.
Apparently, we are to be met by the local administrator.
We all get out and one of the villagers lets us use her toilet.
A 4×4 appears, driven by a priest called Gabriel and the administrator is with him.
Tamta and I are ushered into the 4 x 4.
The road gets narrower and climbs more.
We pass a few houses and then stop outside one.
We go through a narrow gate into the garden of this house.
It is the house of Khatuna, a female beekeeper, whose life has changed dramatically since she took up beekeeping. More on Khatuna to follow.
Raw Honey Man 