Spring snow in Georgia's Upper Svaneti Region

On the week of 8-9 April, I traveled to Upper Svaneti (Zemo Svaneti) in the Caucasus Mountains, with a work colleague and his family.

Most people travel to Mestia, the main administrative centre of Svaneti, by air, but we traveled by road. The distance from Tbilisi to Mestia is 456 kilometers and typically takes 8-10 hours.

Because it was to be a crazy brief weekend in Mestia, we left at 3:00am. By the time we arrived in Zugdidi it was 8:00am. Tako had prepared traditional Georgian food of bread, potatoes, Gurian khachapuri (bread, like Turkish pide, with boiled egg inside), cheese khachapuri, mushroom khachapuri, and meatburgers. It was raining and cold, so we stopped at the Turkish Doner Café, the only eatery open. There were no bathrooms there, so we drove to the Wissol gas station before returning to the café. We were permitted to eat our “picnic food” inside, thanks to the hospitable Turkish owner. We ordered coffee and sat at the red tables.

A sealed road from Tbilisi to Zugdidi was completed in 1934. Currently the route from Zugdidi to Mestia is a combination of sealed and unsealed roads. A new road is under construction which is estimated to reduce the time from Zugdidi to Mestia from 3.5 hours to 2 hours. It is expected to be completed by August this year (although it seems an ambitious schedule to me). It took 11 hours to cover the entire distance with a one hour stopover at Zugdidi. As we neared Mestia, the rain had turned the unsealed road to mud and in some places we had to wait for bulldozers to move out of the way (and there was very little wriggle room on the narrow mountainous route).

It was the beginning of spring, and although we arrived in Mestia under blue skies, it snowed continuously overnight, and the whole region was covered in a thick white blanket. The region is described as humid and cold with virtually an absence of summer. The annual average temperature is 5.7C, which ranges from -6.4C in January to 16.4C in July.

Upper Svaneti is one of the most isolated areas of Georgia. The Svaneti Mountain Range bisects Upper and Lower Svaneti, but Upper Svaneti is in the Caucasus Mountains. Mestia is situated 1,500 meters above sea level, nestled in a valley, and is surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in the world. The tallest in the region is Mt Shkara (5,068 metres), with Mt Rustaveli (4,960m), Mt Gestola (4,859m), Mt Tetnuldi (4,851m), Mt Ushba (4,700m), and Mt Ailama (4,546m).

Mt Shkara is Georgia’s highest peak and the third highest peak in the Caucasus Mountains.

The snow prevented us from traveling to Ushguli, a historic settlement and a UNESCO protected site in the east of Upper Svaneti. From Ushguli, on a clear day, you can see Mt Shkara. Ushguli is one of the highest settlements in Europe (2,000-2,200 metres above sea level). Some say it actually is the highest village in Europe.

Although it took 11 hours to reach our destination, it was well worth it. The views were spectacular. The tourism season is typically May to October, although many do come for the winter ski season. We saw it looking like a Winter Wonderland in early spring, but we’ll be back in summer or autumn to see a completely different aspect of the magnificent, isolated region.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).