We packed and went down to the town. Yesterday evening we saw it only a little bit and now in the light of the day the town looked even more charming. We went to central park and there to gondola lift. Ride on the lift was really nice. Rapid ascent gave amazing effect and view. There were not much to do at the top so we just briefly wandered around, bought lemonade and waited for return of the lift. While waiting we saw that cable from the lift just going through the hole in the window. It didn’t particularly reassured us.
At our way to Wardzia we stopped at hanging narrow bridge. Jeep just slowly crawled through it which looked bizarre and dangerous, but managed to cross it. Then we went through it themselves on foot. It was possible to swing it to the sides quite easily and Damian indeed did it. We did another stop when we saw some interesting ruins with Georgian flag waving at the top. But we didn’t stop directly close to it, but at small Orthodox church nearby. Mom and Gosia again weren’t dressed properly, but there were scarves at the entrance they could use. Gosia still didn’t cover herself properly and although she had scarf on the head her cleavage was sticking out. The church’s inside was small and filled with incense aroma and light beams from ceiling pierced through the smoke. It created contemplative atmosphere alongside icons gazing at us all around walls.
Unfortunately, when we commenced travel, Gosia realized that we’re going in wrong direction. Something that supposed to be only 1.5 h long journey extended considerably. Now we had to drive another 2.5 h and pass through Borjomi again. At Borjomi we did small stop to do the shopping. But as if we didn’t loose enough time already, it came out that we parked in place we shouldn’t. Policeman gave us mandate, but he didn’t want to take money in cash directly. He instructed us to go to any bank with mandate note and pay there. As we were leaving Borjomi we saw pig transported loosely on trailer, another sign of Georgian attitude. Then we passed by two towers and Atskuri Fortress on the hill. It seemed like views changed constantly. More rocky mountains pierced landscape. And then also short grassed curvy pastures. Shimmering river accompanying us along the road. Change from Caucasian environment was noticeable. At this point we established running gag of the trip. Damian, despite of being our driver, he constantly was fawning over any new beautiful view while my mom was scared that he is too distracted by it. “Wow, look at that, we didn’t see something like that so far!” phrase was dropped at least every ten minutes.
When we were almost at our goal, we stopped at Khertvisi Fortress. We climbed to the entrance passing by regular house at the side opposite to the fortress wall. People were living there, laundry was hanging, kids were playing, old ladies selling homemade food and trinkets, but house looked like natural extension of the fortress. Built from the same stone material, sitting just there naturally fitting in to landscape. After entrance I saw ornamented stone fragments on display at the sides of the road. Sun was beating hard today so we could seek relief in the shadows of the wall or inside towers, thanks to heat trapping thick stones. To some degree it reminded me castles from polish Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska. At the top of one of the towers was Orthodox shrine and outside Georgian flags with which we did photo session on the background of tall mountains.
When we arrived at our new stay, we were truly amazed how in the middle of nowhere it all seemed. Teenager girl opened gate for us and run to show us where we could park. Small spaniel-like dog accompanied her. We had two small wooden houses for ourselves, kitchen in separate building and big backyard. All around us only beautiful halls and mountains. She was little nervously explaining that one house is ready, but second will be in just five minutes. She was unsure of her English, but it was decent and we were able to learn everything and settle formalities. We wanted just to unpack and quickly go to Wardzia, because it was getting to be closed soon. Just before we were leaving I had quick chat with teenage girl and her mother. Mother asked me if I play some music and I learned that their whole family is musical. I excused myself and said that we’re in a hurry to see Wardzia complex before it will be closed.
Wardzia is complex of middle ages cave monastery cut in the stone mountain, associated with famous queen Tamar and poet (from “The Knight in the Panther’s skin”). Strong earthquake split the site in effect creating image reminiscent of beehive when seen from the distance. I had exactly that impression when we were driving towards it. When we parked and mom saw it up close she decided that she won’t be able to climb all the way there and she will stay at the bottom. It was sad, but she was probably right. Maybe she could climb to first chambers, but further parts are going up and down through tough stairs. Three of us entered past the ticket entry alongside schoolchildren trip. Kids were inexhaustible in their energy and they were running up quite a distance from their guardian ladies left behind. First chambers and rooms were interesting enough and from them we saw beautiful panorama. Somehow we felt that this is it, but it was because bigger part was obscured from that angle. When we crossed some point the complex revealed itself in all its splendor. The highlight for me was Dormition Church, heart of monastery and corridors leading from it. Pleasantly cold, incense smell in the air and faded icons. We exited from the other side through corridor with steep stairs. After that started labyrinth of stairs, chambers and corridors. I felt like in exploratory video game where I wanted to complete every path. Schoolchildren trip wasn’t so thorough as us and soon enough we could see them only from the distance on different elevations. At the end we were going down rapidly through staircase tunnels from almost the top to the ground level.
When returning to our houses we made some small grocery shopping in village shop. I was worried about food for myself, but it was in the end doable with mix of bread, vegetables and plum sauce. Except familiar small dog, at the gate to our stay we were welcomed this time by man, his wife and daughter already left. He didn’t speak English at all, but was trying to communicate mostly to my mom by Russian. He shared more information and also food, like Georgian bread. He left after a while. We prepared food and decided to eat outside, being in the middle of such amazing landscape. After eating somewhat, we thought that it’s almost time for sunset. To see it, we left the field of our stay and tried to climb near hill quickly. We didn’t manage on time and saw only pink sky on the mountainous horizon. While we were atop that hill, we noticed that we are surrounded by familiar herbs like coriander. Damian called some dog, from the distance he looked like our little dog from stay, because he was black as well. But it was other dog, very big one with massive snout. He was very calm, but we felt unease around him, unlike any other dog here in Georgia so far. We were trying slowly to backtrack to our territory behind the fences. He calmly followed us, we didn’t allowed him to enter with us through the fence door, but he simply went under the fence, despite his size. Our small dog vanished suddenly. We quickly moved the rest of the food from outdoor table and moved to a house. After a moment I checked outside and only small dog was left on our territory. Soon after that we went to sleep and I turned on some Russian movie for my mom on TV.