We packed and left the apartment. The dog was still sitting and waiting for us at the gate. It was so sad, but we had to leave him and drive away. I had messages from other girls from my previous trip, Tínatín and Sophie.
Our first goal was Prometheus Cave. We stopped along the way at random place to do photos of the landscape. After that, I spotted by chance old hanging bridge and we went to explore it carefully. We went as far as the middle point, but no farther, because we saw that there are loose wooden planks and hole on the other side of the bridge. But it was enough, we made nice photos on it.
Prometheus Cave was full of wide corridors and enormous spacious halls. Fantastically shaped stalactites, stalagmites and columns created impression of an alien world. It was discovered only recently by late Soviet exploratory expedition in ‘80 and only recently opened for tourists. In one of the halls, there were natural structure that looked like couple looking at each other. We learned that because of that this hall is used as place for a weddings. After regular tour there was an option to go for a boat and we choose it. There was a big queue leading to underground river, with people from previous group too. A boat was taking 15 people at once and we had to wait for 2 turns before we could board the boat. Interplay between water surface, cave structures, color lights that lit the tunnel and modest speed of the boat create beautiful experience. It finished with the blinding light at the end of the tunnel and we exited to lush, natural greenery which gave striking contrast to bare and lifeless caves. We got into a bus that drove us to entrance area with parking.
Before leaving, I went to the toilets with mom and Gosia while Damian left already to the car. Along the way back, women wanted to buy coffee, but people at the shop had some problems with express and it was taking a lot of time. Damian was getting impatient and was calling us from the distance. When we finally got the coffee we could return to the car.
The next stop was Okatse Canyon. The road there was a little longer and we got into a path that was clearly not main road. We even had bunch of horses blocking our path. Horses were added to menagerie of animals we already saw then. But they were clearly confused with our presence which made us think that they are not used to too much traffic. When we arrived at the parking before tourist center we were swarmed by men who tried to explain something to us. I couldn’t clearly understand their English and context made me confused. At first I thought they are from the parking collecting fee, then I thought maybe they are tourist information (it’s not so out of blue, in previous place there was person like that who approached us on his own). But they were local people who were offering drive to the canyon and back. We decided not to take it and we went for a walk to the canyon. There was narrow paved way leading to the canyon through the forest area. It taken approximately an hour to reach there. When we reached there, mom couldn’t find one of our two tickets and I already thought I won’t enter. But she found it so we all could enter.
We traversed along platforms hanging in the air. Looking down through the grid was overwhelming. Views were truly extraordinary, scale and enormity of it all was hard to comprehend. We said that no photos could really try to capture it, but it didn’t stop us from trying. Similarly, words escape me from explaining it. At the exit we were climbing stairs and it was quite tiring for mom. We noticed cows grazing at the slopes. It was surreal to see, at such slopes and so close to deep canyon.
At the exit from stairs some local caught us and offered us drive to the parking. We were hesitant, but we started negotiating. He lead us just a little higher and we saw his car in which engine he was tinkering. But it wasn’t our ride. His son came soon in another. It was crude, sturdy old car and son looked like he’s too young for driving licence. The road was bumpy, full of mud and quite extreme, but our driver was completely unphased. We all started to laugh at the situation from the mix of being scared, surprised and excited for new experience.
Upon arriving at the parking we were relieved to get to our car and drive at our pace. We commenced journey. We were supposed to find new apartment along the planned route. There were some problems with network and we didn’t turn at correct turn. We had to stop to calmly find something out, because out of hunger there was slight tension. We decided that because wrong turn it makes sense to return to Kutaisi and found new apartment there. We found something with swimming pool so we were excited to use it at the end of the day. Before coming we stopped at small town restaurant and made quite a big feast. From my side I chose lobiani and mushrooms in clay pot. Besides that I tried little from others’ orders which were vegan as well. Salads with walnuts, fries and tomato sauce.
Our next apartment was placed at the outskirts of Kutaisi on the steep slope. It made striking effect, because we were going down from entrance, but we still had balcony in our room. Place was decorated like from previous polish era. We tried to talk with old man from apartment to establish prices. He was using Google Translate to translate directly from Georgian to Polish, he hasn’t been able to speak even a little Russian like most older Georgians and people from tourist industry. After quick shower we went to swimming pool. It was very nice, but little too cold at this time for me. Either way it was great finish for the day and afterwards we quickly went to sleep.