Georgia: Part II

Zaqatala (Azerbaijan) --> Lagodekhi --> Sighnaghi --> Telavi --> Kazbegi (but now officially called Stepantsminda) --> Kutaisi --> Gori --> Akhaltsikhe --> Posof (Turkey)

With Azerbaijan crossed off the list in 10 days (and a good thing too because it's jolly expensive) I zipped back into Georgia via Lagodekhi and stopped overnight at the LP-recommended Sighnaghi. Lonely Planet often exaggerates the appeal of a town or attraction but this time they were right on the money; what a beautiful village. Especially so because it's perched on a hilltop with views of the Caucasus and excellent views of the village itself from the road to the nearby convent. Lots of photos were taken.

I sidetracked to Telavi to take in a nearby cathedral and monastery before heading, via Tbilisi, up the Military Highway to the northern mountain town of Kabegi. It's a spit away from South Ossetia and a few kilometres south of the closed border with Russia but I'm the sort of person who sneers at danger so went anyway. As it happens it's a quiet wee town so I enjoyed a relaxing time there and did the short walk to the nearby hill-top church.

I went next to Kutaisi to take in another cathedral and monastery (can you tell what some of the main attractions in Georgia are yet?). Georgians are quite religious people - when driving past a church, even if it's a pile of rocks where a church once stood, Georgians will solemnly make a sign of the cross several times over. In the church itself? Kiss one or more (and ideally all) of the many icons and crosses then press your forehead against them (ideally in a kneeling position) and light candles. However I discovered new extremes of worship at Motsameta monsatery when I observed a well-dressed young woman crawling on hands and knees around the monastery's church.

To finish Georgia I made a beeline for the Turkish border via Gori, birthplace of one Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, a local cobbler's son cum overachiever in the field of politics. Despite the summer's biffo Gori looked entirely normal and untouched - not because it wasn't attacked (it was) but because of the quick cleanup and repairs carried out.

I did one last stop-off on the way to Turkey at Akhaltsikhe to see the ancient cave monastery of Vardzia. There's caves - lots of them, in fact - and they all start to look the same after a while (and most are quite small so no labarynths to explore) but the church there is quite funky and the scenery en route ain't bad.

So, at 8 am on Christmas eve I take a taxi the 20 km to the border with Turkey at Posof (''Turkey's most isolated border crossing,'' notes an anorak-wearing LP author), arriving at 8.30 am. No one's there. I walk inside and there, in the distance is a single man in uniform: customs. He checks my passport and takes me to the passport control. No-one there. Customs man shouts at a distant house in the border zone. A surprised man appears and shouts to come back at 10am (when the Turks open their border). I spend the next 90 minutes sitting in the customs hall. Time to go! I pass through Georgian customs to find that the Turks still aren't there. After 10 minutes of standing between two barbed-wire gates a Turk turns up and lets me through and takes me to Turkish passport control ... which doesn't open for another 30 minutes. I made the dumb mistake of forgetting the time difference between Georgia and Turkey (2 hours at this time of year). Still, all ended well and I got a bargain taxi ride for the 150km to Kars in time for Christmas.

My travel map has been updated, should looking at things like this interest you and the Georgia photos are uploaded.

Happy new year and here's some photos of Georgia for your viewing pleasure ...