June 2026 - Two Wise Nomads

Bishkek and Song-Kok Lake

The flight to Istanbul was uneventful, not so with the flight to Bishkek. I tend to watch stuff on my iPad so have the flight path on the screen. The flight path showed us heading straight over the pole and landing in the west coast of Alaska. WTF. I showed Dits and we both started wondering if there was a Bishkek in Alaska. Surely not, we would have had to all sorts of pre-departure stuff if we were flying to the US. I asked the air-hostie; yes, we were definitely going to Kyrgyzstan. The other hassle was we were in front of an exit row, so the seats had no recline. Great; no sleep.

We arrived in Bishkek at 430am. The airport was very odd. It looked like it was a new build that was 50% complete. The customs hall had about 5 different SIM card providers all yelling out their deals. Leaving the airport was a challenge as it wasn’t clear when you were actually outside. Finding our Yandex (Uber) driver was a nightmare as the car park was a building site and you had to walk 400 or so metres to get to area of pickup. We finally found him and off we flew (literally) into the city. We had agreed to pay cash as we could not link our credit cards to the Yandex account; the problem was we had no local currency. Communicating with the driver was a challenge but thankfully we found some ATMs near our hostel when we were dropped off.

We could not check into our room until 2 but thankfully there we some lovely day beds in the inner courtyard so Dits and made ourselves comfortable and with eye-masks on, managed to get nearly 3 hours kip. The backpackers was called Koisha and really was lovely. Had a really nice vibe. When we got up, we headed out to find a place for breakfast. The city had a very Soviet feel to it – wide boulevards; ugly apartment blocks and the odd statue and concrete monstrosity / artwork. Turns out Moscow administrators had designed the city in the turn of the century. They aligned the wide grid-based avenues with the wind direction and also planted a lot of trees – all to keep the city cool in the brutal summer heat. All the roads were lined with trees and little concrete canals (2 feet wide) to water the trees. Apparently, it had more tree coverage than any city in the former USSR. We found a very western cafe and had a lovely breakfast – and great coffee – which was a surprise given the dire cuisine warnings we had read about the place.

We headed back to chill at Koisha until we could book into our room and grab a much-needed shower and a bit more rest. We walked a fair way across the city for our dinner – a bit of exploring and then a feed. Not much to see really and the heat (early 30’s) made going a bit tough. Found a local restaurant that had a very Chinese feel to it and had an average meal. The city is very Chinese – the people look Chinese with the odd Tibetan looking person. While it’s a Muslim country it’s certainly not overly so. People dress very well with the odd male wearing the traditional Kyrgyz hat. An interesting blend.

The next day we decided to do some exploring with the main town square our first aim – once we found a place to have breakfast. Bublic appears to be a chain as we found another one and decided that since it was so good the day before we would repeat the experience. It didn’t disappoint. The main Ala-Too Square and the State History Museum was next. A huge 33m flag atop a 100m flagpole was visible from fair way off. It was erected to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Region. The museum itself was OK. The most entertaining bit was when I went to retrieve our backpack we left in the bag area, the bag-lady pretended she did not know anything about out bag. She finally relented with a huge grin.

On the way back to our hostel, we made a slight detour to visit the famous Osh Bazaar. It was an amazing kaleidoscope of colours and smells with fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts, cheeses, and a whole range of other goods across several acres. Deryn could have spent days here. After half an hour I headed back to the hostel while Dits whiled away another hour.

We had arranged a driver to pick us up at 10am the next morning – enough time for us to pop out and grab a breakfast at our favourite restaurant; Bublic. In fact, we had probably been there enough for us to be recognised as Booblers; the restaurant’s VIP member card. The drive to our guest house in Kyzyltu and our hosts for the 3-day horse trek to Song-Kol Lake took about 4 hours. We paid 8000 som (about $A130) with a driver in a nice new electric BYD – we stopped twice to recharge; although we think the second time was more for our driver to have his chat to Allah as he popped into a mosque. Interesting that there were regular EV charges along the road. We arrived at the guest house at around 230 only to be told that we would leave after lunch the next day. We always knew that we would be leaving the following day but assumed it would be after breakfast. Symptomatic of the quality of communication in the guest house.

Our guest house had the fancy name of Econest & Horse-riding tours to Song-Kok Lake. We shared the house with a family – 5 of them as well as ourselves an Aussie lad called Riccardo and two German girls called S and Audrey. There was a single toilet stuck under the stairs with a washbasin in the hallway with water only working when the pump was turned on. To access the shower, you had to walk through the kitchen which was the hub of the household. Also, there was nowhere to sit down to relax and the ‘wifi’ was the mother’s hotspot off her phone which maxed out when 3 users were on it. Still the family were lovely and provided a massive lunch. After which Dits and I headed off for a walk to explore the village. Not much to it really – the most impressive part was the graveyard and the 4-lane highway running to the left of the village. Not sure why such a large road was required? The tombstones are impressive – looking like miniature mosques. Must be a great lobbyist in the builder’s guild.

There as a couple from Belgium who has just completed the 3-day trek and said they really enjoyed it. They warned us that the second night in a yurt at the lake was freezing. Turns out they hadn’t lowered their insulation mat on the yurt door so the freezing wind would have whistled in! Anyway, after an early night – no internet and nothing else to do and filling in several hours of doing nothing the next morning, we finally had lunch and started our trek.

First, they allocated us a horse based on our size. The horses were not big but looked strong. Mine must have been the strongest of the horses as he got me as well as the saddle bags packed with Dits and my gear for 3 days. The positive of the saddle bags was the added padding; the negative was that I had to clear them with my leg to get into the saddle. That was beyond my flexibility so we had to find something to stand on before I could get on the horse. Unfortunately, they did not tell us the name of our horses only that “Choo Choo” meant go and “Brttt, brttt” was stop. It certainly worked with my horse. We were joined by 3 Germans for the first half of the journey but as they were only doing the 2-day tour they peeled off half way to head straight to the lake after a couple of hours. It was a beautiful ride though rambling hills – one part we went through a couple of hundred meters of bush that was teeming with crows. Talk about a murder!

The level of riding experience in the group was mixed but generally as soon as one horse decided to up the pace, the others followed. We had the father at the back of the 5 of us and the son at the front. They were pretty chilled as to what we did although a canter was the quickest the horses would move. After about 3.5 hours and 15kms we arrived at our campground in a wide expanse of a valley with at least half a dozen campsites scattered around the valley. There was the clear, cool Kelemchi river running though the middle of it, which I guess is why the camps were located here. We were allocated a yurt – amongst a group of 6 in our campsite – and told dinner would be at 7. Dits and I had a bit of a wander, marveling at the hundred or so horses that grazed around the valley. All the horses that they use for the tours where geldings as the females are for milking. The visible herds were typically mares with their foals and a single stallion. As it was spring nearly every mare was accompanied by a colt and sometimes two. It was incredible to think that a month earlier these meadows were covered in snow. Once the snow melts the nomadic local bring their horses, cows, yaks and sheep into the alpine meadows.

Dinner was held in the larger yurt with horseshoe shaped tabled bedecked with ornate pedestal bowls. There was about 20 of us in the group with a very diverse range of nationalities. Deryn and I were by far the eldest. We love these sorts of adventures when we get to hang out and enjoy the energy of youngsters. Dinner was soup, pasta and plenty of bread. My fears about meat only diets again proved to be misguided. Perhaps I am not going to lose the weight I had hoped?

Dits and I were in bed a good hour or so before the rest of the group. I am reading a book about the Armenian genocide called “The Forty Days at Musa Dagh” and was loving reading it so an early bedtime wasn’t a burden. We both went to bed with socks and longs on and even though the ground bedding had a thick mattress it was still pretty cold overnight. Getting up in the middle of the night for a piddle was damn cold but at least I could avoid the 2 long drops and just go in the wild.

Another great breakfast – they provide a lot of tea as I guess it’s good to counter the dehydration from the altitude – we were about at 2500m; heading to 3300. After struggling back onto my horse, we were on our way again. While our legs and bums were a bit sore at the close of play yesterday, we started the day fresh as daisies. We spent a fair bit of the day climbing – 800m in all – and the views just got better. One of the amazing things was the total lack of anything bigger than grass in these massive expanses of meadows. The altitude and cold makes it impossible for them to survive. At the peak of our climb, at about 3500m, we stopped to enjoy the sweeping view both down to the lake and also from where we had come. We bumped into our Germans who were heading back down – they said it had been really cold the previous night. Great.

Both Dits and my knees were hurting by the time we arrived at our yurt campsite at Song-Kok Lake but again the scenery certainly diluted the pain. We were about a kilometre from the lake edge again with a lot of campsites dispersed around the valley. Again, we were allocated a yurt and the 5 of us cramped into it again. It seemed smaller than the one the previous night but felt better after finding out that one of the groups had 7 in theirs. It rained heavily for about an hour after which Dits, and I decided to head down to the lake edge. We piled on the clothes as it was cold with the lack of sun. Once again, the large herds of mares and colts were amazing, interspersed with the odd cow and sheep. I went for a nudie dip in the water and was amazed at how mild the water was – well above zero. We then went to explore a development over the hill that had 4 chalets built on a hill overlooking the lake. They looked lovely. You just know that this place is going to be developed and eventually its stunning beauty is going to be its downfall. It will become too touristy.

While out walking we saw groups out riding, galloping across the meadows. Dits was really keen for a ride but unfortunately, she was told it was too late. She was really pissed off at the lack of communication as we had no idea an afternoon ride was an option. A few of the youngsters sourced some beers (800 som or $14 for a 750ml bottle) do before long a group of about 12 or so were playing drinking games with some of the older guides. Turns out that a few of the (married) guides got a bit fresh with the younger ladies. Very dodgy. We met a German lady called Sandra who was heading to Karakul at the same time as us, so we decided to hire a car together. Dinner was fun with the group getting more comfortable with each other, helped with some alcohol, so there was plenty of banter.

Again, we were the first in bed although as dinner wasn’t until 8, it certainly wasn’t early for us. The night was not nearly as cold as we were expecting, in fact we thought it was warmer than the night before. Neither Dits nor I slept that well, apparently the altitude is to blame as your body has to work that much harder. We were up and away around 9.15 after a breakfast that was a bit below par with the cold fried eggs hard to stomach. Dits managed to get some warm ones as she asked for some well-done ones. We were told it was 4 hours back to the guest house and roughy 18kms. The ride was definitely the best of the 3 days. After climbing about 300 metres, we descended alongside really steep valleys at a very steep incline – hard work for the horses and even harder work for our knees. The scenery was unbelievable.

Everyone was really struggling by the time we made it back to our guest house. What an incredible experience. There was a group of Portuguese about to head out on the trek including a couple that were potentials for the Portuguese World Cup rugby team. Those big boys are going to have fun on those horses!! We decided not to shower but grab a quick lunch and then get away. We were both shattered but feeling blessed at what we had experienced.

Garni, Goght and Geghard

The drive from Dilijan to Garni was uneventful except for the paranoia about speeding after being flashed again. It’s a nightmare as there are so few speed signs, it’s very difficult to know exactly what the legal speed limit is. Especially as locals overtake at twice the speed of sound.

We thought we would check out the Garni Temple before heading to our BnB but the queue for buying the tickets to enter the gardens was at least 50m. All the tours from Yerevan which was only 40 minutes away. We decided to come back later tine

Next stop was our BnB called 3G in Goght. It was amazing with some many chill areas and a deep, cool pool with surrounded by plenty of loungers. The owner, Sandra has moved from Holland 12 years earlier and ran the place with the 2 other local ladies. She was very social and made us feel feet welcome. It was incredible what she had done with it over the years – starting with a run done building ad turning it into a multi-level space with rooms, glamping, camping and camper vans. The first thing we is to grab our togs (first time on tour) and jump into the pool. We spent a few hours chilling by the pool before jumping back in the car and driving back into Garni. We decided to have a look the Symphony of the Stones. Pleasingly the car park was empty when we arrived.

The Symphony of Stones” or “Basalt Organ” was up there with all time impressive natural monuments I have seen for a long time of Armenia. It is made up of thousands of columnar basalts stuck together up to 50 meters high. In its appearance it resembles an organ musical instrument, hence the name. The columns were the result of powerful lava from an eruption 127000 years ago. Due to slow cooling, the lower parts of the lava flows took the form of pentahedral and hexagonal columns. It was quite scary standing underneath some of the overhanging columns as it looked like they could break off and drop at any moment.

Next we headed up to the Garni Temple. The Temple is a classical colonnaded structural and is considered an eastern outpost of the Greco-Roman world and the only largely preserved Hellenistic building in the former USSR. It is conventionally identified as a pagan temple to the sun god Mihrbuilt by King Tiridates in the first century AD. A competing hypothesis sees it as a second century tomb. It collapsed in the 1679 earthquake, but much of its fragments remained on the site. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to excavations in the early and mid-20th century. It was reconstructed in 1969–75, using the anastylosis technique. It was pretty impressive, as were the gardens surrounding it and the view up and down the Garni Gorge and the Azat River. We finished off our evening of culture with dinner at the 7 Qar restaurant with sweeping views of the Temple. As a started we had a plate of pickles – peaches, grapes, cucumber and even cauliflower amongst others.

Deryn decided that she wanted to walk back from the Geghard Monastery so we drove up there nice and early to avoid the heat. We had the Monastery mostly to ourselves which was magic. It really was special and my favourites of the 10s of monasteries that we had seen on our trip.

While the main chapel was built in 1215, the monastery complex was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator at the site of a spring inside a cave. The monastery had thus been originally named Ayrivank, meaning “the Monastery of the Cave”. The name commonly used for the monastery today, Geghard, or more fully meaning “the Monastery of the Spear”, originates from the spear which wounded Christ on the crucifix, allegedly brought to Armenia by Jude. The effort and skill in building the monastery into the cliffs really was incredible. The natural setting was as impressive. No wonder the site has a World Heritage listing. By the time we were ready to go, the tourist busses were pulling up and disgorging hordes of Japanese tourists. I decided to head into Garni for a haircut and pick up Deryn on her returning walk.

The haircut in a 1-chair barber cost me a pricey $8. I found Deryn at a roadside cafe where there were a couple of ladies making lavash in the traditional clay oven. Looks simple but watching some tourists have a go showed just how difficult it was. We had a cup of Armenian coffee and some lovely apple pasties that we made in the clay over. It was then back 3G and more chilling by the pool. As it was my birthday we got stuck into the bottle of orange white wine we had bought in Georgia. Eventually. Our BnB had a shared fridge and a fridge mistakenly opened another guests wine. He wasn’t happy. We ordered take in which was equivalent quality but half the price of the restaurant food.

We got a late check out for the following day as we didn’t have to drop the rental off until 4pm. Another restful day chilling by the pool.

The drive back to our rental drop off point was easy until the last 15 minutes where we ended up chasing our tail down tiny dead end alleyways until we finally gave up and told the rental guy car to come find us. We shared our location on WhatsApp and waited.

5 minutes later a young lady turned up. We were literally 100m from our destination. We grabbed a Bolt to the station and killed a couple of hours wandering around the station area including checking out a lovely art museum cafe. The area was a mix of affluent and poor but had a lovely family vibe.

We boarded our train at 9 but as the aircon wasn’t on I hung around outside. Our 2 bedded cabin was very comfortable – once the aircon came on.

The border crossing was a bit of a pain at 330 am. Leaving Armenia we Okish but entering Georgia was a pain as we had to leave the train and stand in a queue. It was bucketing down as well. It took a couple of hours to process all the passengers at the checkpoint. 45 min out of Tblisi the train stopped for 2 hours. No explanation. It was OK tho as we got a couple of hours of extra sleep and helped kill the time before our flight to Bishkek.

We arrived at a very odd central station in Tblisi. Georgia certainly is a lot more tatty than Armenia. We grabbed a quick coffee and pasty at the food hall before getting a taxi to a nearby sulpher bath to spend an hour soaking in boiling water. Dits grabbed a salt scrub as well. It was then off to the airport and the next leg of our adventure

Lake Seven and Dilijan

The drive from Gorin to Seven was through similar beautiful passes that we drove through on our way down. Dits had diligently found some interesting places to visit on the way, the first being Carahunge, Armenia’s Stonehenge, although a lot older with estimated ages ranging from 5000 to 30,000 BC. There are 220 odd stones (some weighing 10 tonnes) and with over 80 having perfectly round holes drilled through that align with the stars leading to the belief that they were used for astronomical observations. Just how the ancients drilled these holes before the Bronze Age is unknown. The site was beautiful.

Next stop was the lovely Shaki waterfall. It was at the end of a 5-minute walk along a bubbling river. We got there again before the masses so had time to chill with a cup of very strong Armenian coffee. We are getting used to the sludge that is always at the bottom of the cup!

Next stop was Orbellian’s Caravanserai at the pinnacle of the Murtuni-Getap Highway. A Caravanserai is effectively a luxury hotel for the ancient traders on the old Silk Road. We picked up a French couple hitch-hiking (both carpenters), so it was nice to chat to some people. They were going to Seven so were very happy to get a life the whole way rather than their usual village hops. The Caravanserai was impressive though luxury it certainly wasn’t. It was a huge stone barn effectively with holes in the roof to let the light in. It was also freezing. I am sure it would be very different filled with travellers and fires. The views were spectacular.

We dropped our hitchhikers in Martuni and then continued on to Hayvarank Monastery, built between the 9th and 13th century. It’s incredible how blasé you become after seeing to many of these historical marvels. What it incredible is how so many of them survived Armenia’s tempestuous history. There was a wedding there with a stuffed fox strapped to the bonnet of the car which is a thing in Armenia. It’s meant to bring the bride and groom god luck. Not so lucky if you are a fox.

Our accomodation in Seven was the impressively named Luxury Collection Hotel. It was located behind a high fence with an automatic gate. We had got it incredibly cheap – $54 down from $185. It looked very Persian with lots of bling. The owners were incredibly nice and upgraded us to a lovely big room to long as we gave them a 10 rating on Booking.com. No problem! We were recommended a restaurant on the shores of the lake so off we headed for dinner. Seven has weird motorway system – once you navigate the pot holed roads to get to them – as you have to head many kilometres in the opposite direction before being able to head in the direction you want. Very odd. The meal was amazing, as was the restaurant. Being a day trip from Yerevan was obvious in the quality of the customers.

We planned to get away early in the morning to check out the beautifully located Sevanavank Monastery. However, we could not get out because of the locked gate, so we had to make some noise to try wake up the hotel owner. He then insisted we come inside for a coffee and some sweets. However we still made it to the monastery before the crowds. The monastery is located on a little peninsula and actually it was originally built on an island 3kms from the mainland, but the Soviets drained the lake by 20 metres in the 70’s for hydro and irrigation purposes. The monastery was built by Princess Mariam in 874. She was not allowed to enter the island as it was men only. The view was incredible. Lake Seven is 1900m above sea level, is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Eurasia and comprises 1/6th of Armenian territory. It also remains about 13 degs all year round so keeps the surrounding area nice and cool in the hear of summer. Hence a popular place for Yerevan locals escaping the heat.

Next destination was the forest and hiking trails of Dilijan. We were advised by our hotel host to stop at this supermarket on the northern tip of the lake. It was incredible. The food looked amazing. It was packed because it was a Saturday am, but unfortunately we had already had breakfast. We committed to stop there on our way back to Garni. The trip to Dilijan was uneventful bar getting flashed by a speed camera just before entering a very long tunnel. It’s a real nightmare driving in Armenia as there are very few speed signs. It’s all a bit of a guess. Dilijan was beautiful, as was our room in Verin Tun on its outskirts. However, the mattresses had certainly seen better days.

It was raining when we arrived, at times really heavy, but nonetheless we decided to head out for a walk and check out the Drunken Forest – a forest where the trees are all on a lean. We drove into the old town and the hiked up the hill. We had to stop for cover during a particularly heavy downpour but apart form that it was fine. After being on roads to the summit we found the Transcaucasian Trail – a 1900km (planned 3000) through the Caucuses and followed it on its way back into town. We then had a wonderful around the very scenic Old Town. Back home for a shower and back into town to a recommended local restaurant called Kchuch, on the banks of the Aghstev River. The food was amazing. Again!

The next day we drove to Parc Lake for the 7.5km hike to Goshavanq Monastery. We got away early after a massive BnB breakfast so we were the only ones there when we arrived. It was a beautiful 20 min drive through the wooded mountains. The trail was part of the aforementioned TC Trail. The first part of the hike was disappointing as it was a very muddy, rutted road but after 30 minutes we peeled off onto a single track through the forest. After another hour we reached the alpine meadows and understood why Dilijan is referred to as Armenia’s Switzerland. We were befriended by some cows so we stayed and had a little chat. We made a couple of wrong turns but eventually we were rewarded with amazing views of the Goshavanq Monastery and surrounding village. We passed an Aussie couple that we had bumped into earlier on in the trip on the way down heading the other way – small world.

The monastery was built in the 12th century by Mkhitar Gosh, a bit of a dood who turned the monastery into a renown place of learning for academics all over the Caucuses. There was a service going happening so it was nice to be able to join in for a while. The priest and alter boy’s singing was amazing. After eating our picnic of dried fruit, and a cup of Armenian coffee, it was time for the return leg. 600m of climbing and just over 15kms in total. Parc Lake was teeming by the time we got back around 2 so we didn’t hang around. It was back to our BnB for a shower and a bumpy kip before heading to our favourite local restaurant for a few games of cribbage and another amazing meal. Tomorrow, we head away back towards Yerevan to a place called Garni and some famous tourist attractions.

Armenia – Yeghegnazdor and Goris

It was exciting to be on the road after nearly ending up without a rental car. It would have been a nightmare had Alina not managed to find one for us. It was a lovely new car so driving was a pleasure. First stop was Khor Virab – apart from stopping to photo one of the numerous storks that had made nest on top of lampposts. The temple was first built in 642 to commemorate St Gregory the Illuminator who spend 13 years in a pit on the site after admitting to being a Christian to King Trdat. Trdat fell ill and was advised by his wife to release Gregory, his illness was cured. He then converted to Christianity and made Armenia the first Christian nation in the world in 301. The view of Mt Ararat in the background was stunning – although cloud cover made it less than perfect.

After that it was a beautiful drive through some spectacular canyons to the deserted Norovank Monastery built in the 13th century. The sheer red cliffs surrounding it made for an awesome setting. After enjoying the isolation and scenery we headed back down the canyon to some nearby caves called Areni-1 Caves. The caves were amazing – there was evidence that they were making wine there back in 3500 to 4000 BC. There was still a lot of qvevri buried in the ground. Again there was very few people there whjch enabled Deryn and I to have the place to ourselves – apart from the flocks of swallows which is hardly surprising given its also called the Birds Cave.

From there it was off to the weirdly named Yeghegnadzor and our B&B called Home. It was beautiful and our host Saba was an incredibly helpful host with a lovely twinkle in his eye. His recommendation for dinner was the Gastro Yard Arman Hakhverdyan was superb. Best meal we have had on our travels to date. For 5000 GEL each we had multiple courses, 2 wines, a brandy and a lovely vodka was well as a gift of a bottle of brandy with our photo on the label. The walk to and from the restaurant was lovely – seemed like every car was a Lada. Very unlike Yerevan where there was a lot of Chinese EVs.

Saba provided a lovely breakfast – again at 9am as no one gets up before then – and it was on our way to our next destination on the Yerevan Meghri Highway through a spectacular pass. We spotted the isolated Vorotnavak Church off the to the side of the road. The benefit of getting away early is that there are no crowds. Again we had the place to ourselves to wonder around.

Next stop was the Tatev Monastery and the famous Wings of Tatev. A 5.2 km cable car that runs between Halidzor and Tatev Monastery. We decided to do the cable car first and then check out the monastery. The cable car was OK although a bit pricey at $40 each – $20 each way. The monastery was built in the 9th century and in the 14 and 15th centuries it was most important Armenian universities. It has spectacular views over the Vorotan River. We decided to drive to the bottom of the canyon and walk to the Dragon’s Bridge – a cave that looked like a bridge. We ended up going what we thought was the wrong way so backed up and walked the other way up the river until we got to a point where the river was too deep to cross. Deryn bum was still hurting from the fall in Kutaisi fall. It all got too hard so we flagged it and retuned to the car and continued our journey. We found out later that the first route we took was the correct one. Damn, as the cave sounded impressive.

Our next stop was the town of Goris. While driving there we notice a small stone rotunda perched on the edge of the Alaverdi. We enjoyed the little walk to the rotunda and then the incredible view.

The drive to Goris was easy. The roads so had been pretty good although once we got into Goris the roads were terrible – it looked like the potholes were being prepared for fixing with these big rectangles all over the roads. We pulled up outside our BnB called Aregak. It was run by Mareta who sounded like a real character. The BnB was in an apartment block so it was a bit difficult to find but Mareta eventually came out and gave both of us a big bear hug. We had booked a 4 bed room but Mareta tried to convince us to move into the room with a double bed. The problem was that the bed took up the whole room. After thinking about it for a while I said no. That resulted in a big hug from Mareta. She then made us some coffee and biscuits. She noticed that I had dropped a crumb onto my sweatshirt so she picked it off for me. When I chuckled she grabbed me by my head and smothered me with her bosom. Very odd.

We asked for a recommendation for dinner. She said she knew just the place and rather just tell us where it was she walked us there holding Deryn’s hand the whole way. Our take on the situation l was that the quality of the rooms of her BnB were poor so she compensated by being this person. It didn’t feel put on though. Dinner was great as always.

The next day we decided to do the hike to the Old Bells of Goris and through some well known cave dwellings. Apparently the caves were inhabited from the 5th century through to the 1950’s. We had a lovely breakfast in the garden of the BnB – basically Mareta’s allotment. It was a lovely breakfast. We then headed out for hike. It was a beautiful day. We had a bit of trouble finding the trial to the top of the hills but eventually made it. The was a sign at the peak – and some cows – the the options of the the Old Goris Loop (and the cave dwellings) and Old Bells of Goris. Well the loop will obviously bring is back here and then we can do the Bells walk. Well the loop took us past some caves and back to where we started out this morning. Well then had to re-climb the 300m back to the top of the hill. We went off piste and found some dwellings but hardly impressive. It was hard work and by the time we found the path to the Bells were were pretty worn out. But soldier on we did. We met a local cow herdsman who chatted away in Armenian. After about an hour we got to the Bells which was again hardly inspiring. We tried to hitch a ride for the 6kms back to town but failed. Thankfully there was a fountain there so we could refill our empty water bottles. I then convinced Deryn to retrace our steps back to our BnB. It wasn’t that tough as it was mostly downhill We hobbled into town and grabbed a couple of kebabs from a very impressive local supermarket. And then it was back to the hug palace for a well earned sleep after a 12km of hiking and nearly 800m of climbing.

We headed back to the same restaurant as the previous night for another enjoyable meal and few games of cribbage. That evening back in the BnB we met an older English lady who had spent a fair bit of time in NZ in the 80’s. Working as a farmers in Gore. She told us a story about how she nearly died while hitching and being picked up in a truck that rolled. She was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the truck. She was in hospital for 4 months. She has travelled widely all without ever owning a phone!!

We talked Mareta into an 830 breakfast the next morning so we could head way early for our trip to Seven. Breakfast was great and after some hugs it was off back north.

Armenia – Yerevan

Our driver turned up on the dot of 7:30, and within 90 minutes, we were at the Armenian border. Our driver told us we had to take our luggage through the Georgian emigration as well as the Armenian side. We were there early, so it took less than 5 minutes to clear Georgian customs but at least 10 minutes to walk the 500 metres between the border posts. Armenian immigration was a doddle, and we were outside looking for our driver in 5 minutes. The problem was he was still waiting for us to get back in the car in Georgia— a bit of a communication breakdown. Thankfully, Deryn had got roaming on her phone, so we were able to WhatsApp him. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for him to clear Armenian customs as things had got busier. We used the time to grab some local currency— 1 AUD was about 260 Armenian Drams.

The roads in Armenia seemed pretty good compared to Georgia, and also what we had read in a blog. We stopped at the Haghart Monastery Complex. Like Georgia the day before, it was not a good idea to visit the famous monastery on the weekend at a location with 90 minutes of the capital. The place was packed. The complex was located in a beautiful mountainous forest and was built between the 10th and 13th centuries— it was beautiful, and it made sense it was so popular.

From there, it was about 90 minutes until we were dropped off at our hotel, Ithaca, right in the heart of Yerevan. The hotel clerk was lovely and, after showing us to our room— a tiny but clean double room— he made us each a cup of the dark, tasty Armenian coffee.

After that it was off to get some local ESIMs and check out the local area. Yerevan had a much more energetic and happy vibe to Tbilisi. It could have been because it was a beautiful sunny day – not an uncommon experience as apparently it happens 318 days of the year. We decided to do a ‘free’ walking tour at 5pm. We were a little bit phased when he told us it would take 3 hours – getting close to our bedtime it thankfully we had wisely (as in two wise nomads!) grabbed a dinner before joining the tour. The food was lovely – Deryn was impressed that the salads were as good as the Georgian ones. And as cheap, if not cheaper

The walk was good although the host was a little prickly. He was a ‘former’ artist who set up the free walking tour concept in Yerevan and now everyone was copying in, Lara’s are only driven by pheasants in the country and Azerbaijan deserves to be wiped off the map. While Armenians smile a lot more than Georgians they are certainly a race that have been bashed around by the superpowers – Otterman Empire, Russians and the Persians. Like Georgia they have experienced recent wars. Incredibly resilient people. The guide was telling us that the Americans are investing a lot into Armenia because of their quality education. He was also positive about Trump because of his trump highway – TRIPP. Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity – proposed 43-kilometer transport corridor in Armenia’s southern Syunik province intended to link mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave. The elections are being held on the upcoming Sunday and once again it’s a battle between the pro-West party (the incumbent and favourite) and the pro-Russian party.

We had a local dog follow us for most of the tour – to the dismay of the tour guide who did not like dogs. The tour was 3 hours with no rest – would have been nice to stop somewhere for a drink. We tipped the guide 10,000 GEL (A$40) and had a well earned cup of tea before collapsing into bed after a long day.

The next morning we had the usual challenge of finding a place for breakfast – the Armenians are certainly not morning people with most places not opening before 9 or even 10. We walked through town to the Opera House. It’s an incredible building – it’s amazing a city smaller than Auckland sees it worthwhile to spend that sort of money on an opera house. From there it was through a park filled with incredible statues – including some springboks and a kiwi. It was then a climb of over 840 steps to the top of the Cascade Centre. The views of Mt Ararat and the incredibly conical volcano Mt Kucucagri towering over the city was amazing. It’s a tragedy that Mt Ararat which is such a symbol of Armenia was gifted to the Turks in 1921 by the Russians – post the Armenian Genocide.

We took the extra time to climb up to the brutalist Soviet monument built in 1967 as a memorial to the 50th Anniversary to the October Revolution. It was pretty average and the views hardly better than from the stairs below.

We then wandered through the numerous beautiful parks looking for the Cognac Factory. We eventually found it but unfortunately the tour wasn’t until 2 pm which made it a too hard. We meandered back to our hotel stopping at a nearby cafe for some lunch. I hung around to write the blog while Dits headed back to the hotel to do some more trip planning. I bought myself a tea shirt at the huge market near our hotel – I was getting a bit sick of the wearing the same 3 shirts. Dits wandered off to do a bit of market wondering; I joined her 45 minutes later. Dits bought some lovely silver earrings and me another tea shirt. We when checked out the Blue Mosque, an 18th century Iranian Shia mosque. It is an active mosque used by Iranians living in Yerevan.

We decided to try pick our rental car up earlier than the 10am we had booked. When we turned up the rental company we were dealt a blow. Aus and NZ drivers licences need a paper copy of an international drivers license as well – unlike virtually every other country on the planer where just the local drivers licences will do. We cajoled and pleased but to no avail. We went and sat in a cafe to try figure out wha the hell to do. Stay in Yerevan and do day trips; hire a driver on a multi -day basis …. I decided to reach out to Simon who had married Alina, an Armenian. He was on holiday in Moscow so Alina contacted her many cousins in Armenia to see if we could borrow a car. After several hours they finally tracked down a car. Brilliant!! We had to wait another couple of hours before we got an address and GG’s (local Uber) to the address. Our car was a new Mazda CR5 for a reasonable US$55 per day. We had a fair bit of USD and Euro left over from our Sri Lankan holiday from 2 years ago so it felt like it was free. 4.5 hours late but we were back on track

Georgia – Telavi

Some observations after a week in Georgia:

Black is by far the most popular colour of clothing;

Both sexes have great hair but with a weird practice of dying it very black. There was a smattering of bright red heads in Tbilisi mind;

It’s rare to see a smile, that’s what being under the yoke of Russian imperialism for 200 years will do to you. However, they really are the loveliest people.

Very limp handshakes mind

We headed away straight after breakfast again as we intended to stop at Mtskheta, another one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the and is located at the confluence of the Kura and Aragvi rivers.

We parked at the outskirts of the town – thankfully as closer into town the place we packed with tourist busses. First stop was the Samtavro Monastery, a UNESCO world heritage site. It was here that the Cappadocian maiden Nino, took refuge who bought Christianity to Georgia. With her cross of twigs bound with her hair.

From there it was a wander around the very touristy but beautiful town. The main Cathedral in the town was the oddly named Svetitskhoveli Cahtedral another UNESCO world heritage site finished in 1029. The grounds were lovely with the roses in bloom. We then wandered down to the river – nothing to see except the Jvari Monastery up on the hill. Our next destination.

The Monastery was built in the 6th Century utop the hill with commanding views across the valley. And you guessed it, another world heritage site. As with other religious sites we visited, the monastery was active with priests chanting mournful hymns. The site was beautiful, contrasting with the dark thunderclouds storming in from the north.

We drove to our home for the next 3 nights in the cute wine town of Telavi. Dits preferred it over the main town of Sighnaghi which was a good call. Our room was on the first floor of a century old, character filled house. We headed into town for dinner and to a 5 star rated restaurant picked by Dits. I was getting more and more sceptical as we walked deeper and deeper into the industrial part of town. The ‘restaurant’ was closed. I checked the rating – 2 reviews. Probably the mum and her sister. Back into main part of town with a bit of hangry brewing we found a place and after a salad and pizza plus a couple of games of cards; all was good. Dits was also enjoying her nightly 2 glasses of wine. I still wasn’t drinking. I wasn’t missing it and being so busy during the day meant it made life easier.

The next day the plan was to explore the museum and then do a wine tour in the afternoon. The lodging came with a lovely breakfast which was an unexpected bonus. Fresh bread; tomatoes and cucumbers; frie eggs and some lovely coffee. Perfect start to the day. We walked into town – again noticing the large number of dogs. We started off at the information centre but the three ladies in the stifling room were not a lot of help. From there we walked across the road into the impressive Telavi History Museum. The walled complex contains the palace of the King (17th-18th centuries), which is the only royal palace that has been perfectly preserved in Georgia; the residence of King Archil II; the church built for Erekle’s son, Levan; a royal church (9th-10th centuries), the king’s bath, an underground tunnel, a wall, and the Ketevan Iashvili Art Gallery. The art gallery was controversial when it was built – they basically dug it into the hill of the complex. It contained part of the collection of a famous Georgian artist named Ketevan Iashvili. She must have had a huge home or kept a lot of the art in storage. It certain was an impressive collection.

The palace was relatively spartan – it must have been freezing in winter when the temperatures in the area can get well into the negatives. There was also a school off to the side of the complex – nice to hear the sounds of kids playing which hasn’t really been a noise we have heard a lot of in Georgia. After spending an hour or so in the complex we wondered off to see the famous Giant Plane tree – a 900 year old Oriental plane tree. Not that impressive compared to the trees we saw in North America.

We had booked a wine tour at 4 at a local winery called Sesikeli Winery. We thought it was best to get some food in use before getting stuck into the wine so grabbed a feed before walking the 30 mins to the venue. Thankfully we did because it absolutely bucketed down during our meal. It was still lightly drizzling for our walk but nothing we couldn’t handle. The winery was a house – the grapes were grown a little way out of town on a 1 hectare block. Our host Simeon produced the wine; and chacha in his house. There was a Canadian couple there for the tour as well. Simeon followed the traditional Kakhetian method, which has been used for over 8,000 years centred on the qvevri—a large, beeswax-lined clay vessel called buried underground. The process relies on natural fermentation and extended skin contact to create deep, tannin-rich amber and red wines, free from artificial additives. The skins are kept on the grapes in the qvevri for 6 months giving the wine the orange colour and distinct flavour.

The process is mostly manual – even heating of the skin over the corks to seal them. Simeon produces about 6000 litres of wine and 500 litres of chacha (made from the grape skins, seeds and stems). We went into a little room for the tasting and spend a lovely 45 minutes chatting and trying the wines and chacha. Simon has spent 6 years in the UK in the mid 2000’s – there was no work in Georgia – driving a fork lift. He could not gather the $10k to buy his way into the US, only managing $5k which got him into the UK. The French couple, Valerie and Julien, were on a similar itinerary to ourselves. We bought a bottle of the orange white (30 GEL) and combined with the 80 GEL for the tour, great value for some lovely time with a local. We had a busy day of travel ahead of for our return journey back to Tbilisi the next day so headed home and watched a couple of episode of Widow’s Bay (great) we were in bed early.

Another lovely breakfast in our BnB before heading off to the very cool Gremi Monastery perched on top of a hill. As we were there early we had the place to ourselves apart from the monks who were chanting in the chapel. After that it was a relatively short drive to our next Monastery – this time atop a lot more substantial hill with an incredibly steep road to get to it. I have no idea how anyone could use the road in winter when I imagine it’ll be pretty slippery. The Nekresi monastery was a functioning monastery with monks living onsite. Again they were in the middle of morning prayer so we privileged to watch and listen. The monks did not seem that enamoured with visitors though. The monastery had a very old wine making area with at least a dozen qvevris so at full capacity they would be producing a lot of wine.

After tha it was off to the tourist hotspot in the Kahketi region, namely Sighnaghi. A beautiful town enclosed by a 5km wall with records showing it bing inhabited from the mid 18th century. We grabbed some lunch and then wandered around the town trying to avoid the tourist throngs. We noticed once again the large number of Asian – Japanese and Chinese – tourist in Gerogia. On the way out of town we took a slight diversion to visit the highly lauded St George’s Monastery of St Nino. While we thought Sighnaghi was busy, this was a whole new level of busy. I guess being a Saturday there were a lot of day trippers from Tbilisi. Certainly seemed that way given the huge number of large busses. The monastery was originally built in the 9th century but has a lot of remodelling done. It is famous because of the many St Nino relics there. Nuns are obviously much better gardeners than monks given the quality of the gardens. A really beautiful place and one that we would love to visit in a quiet time.

It was then a 2 hour drive back to our hotel in Tbilisi for our early pick up by our driver to Yerevan the next morning

Georgia – Kutaisi

We got up early to get out of Stepantsminda before the avalanche of trucks from Russia arrived. We’d already decided to give the Juta track a miss as the weather had completely closed in.

The drive was a relative doodle compared to the journey up. We still had to be very mindful of all the potholes and still encounted the holes odd truck but we did the journey in half the time of the journey up.

We stopped at the same roadside cafe for a cup of strong Turkish coffee ($3) and then back on the road. Getting into this. We stopped at a very Soviet styled city called Gori to check out the famous Stalin Museum. He was born in the town as Joseph Dzhugashvili but changed his name to Stalin which means Man of Steel!! Sums him up. The museum was ok – a bit odd that the man was memorialised but hey I guess it’s a tourist attraction so brings the tourists.

We had lunch in a local cafe and then got back on the road and off to our fancy room in Hotel Memoire in Kutaisi, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It was pretty miserable when we go there but thankfully found a park right outside the hotel. A slight hitch in that we had booked for the next 3 nights and not that night. They found a triple single room for us and agreed we would move into our grand room the following night. The room was lovely with views across the river to the town’s famous Bagrati Cathedral.

We decided to head out into the miserable weather and find a cafe to grab a coffee. The main square was shut off due to the due to the upcoming Independence Day celebrations. We walked down to the very fast flowing Rioni River. We found a cafe on the banks and sat and watched the turbulent water. While there we noticed a cable car heading up the hill overlooking the city.

So 3 GEL each later we were cabling our way up the hill admiring the views of Kutaisi. From the top it was a 15 minute walk through some lovely old houses to the Cathedral. The Cathedral was pretty busy – the front door was guarded by a couple of elderly female bull terriers shaking a begging plate at all those entering. The Cathedral’s here in Georgia, while beautiful, are not as opulent inside as the South American ones. Thank the Russians looters for that.

We decided to walk back the 30 minutes back to tue hotel as the weather had fined up. Poor Deryn went bottom up on a slippery bit of road and was really lucky not to do some real damage. We managed to find a cafe nearby for another lovely Georgian meal.

The weather was terrible the next day so after an amazing breakfast in the hotel we decided to stay close with any excursions. We managed to dodge the weather to find a local museum that had a few interesting nicks and nacks. It was then back to the hotel and our new double bedroom hotel suite to chill for the rest of the day.

Breakfasts in Georgia are rarely before 830 so any early departures are difficult. We got away at 9 and headed to the Prometheus Caves first which opened at 10. The drive there was lovely although this is where we first encountered the Georgian habit of letting their livestock (except sheep as they are too dumb) roam the streets. Numerous times we had to stop or drive slowly to get round a cow or dog that was sleeping in the middle of the street. The grass verges were often full of horses, pigs and the odd goats. Later in the trip we saw cows grazing on the grass growing on elevated barriers between the motorway!!

The caves were impressive although the tour group at about 30 odd was a bit too large to really get the best out of the caves. And for some reason the 300m boat ride wasn’t on – perhaps the water was too high from the rain. We were followed through the entire 1.4km underground walk by a trio of dogs.

After the cave it was off to the Okatse waterfall and canyon. Google Maps wanted to take us cross country so after a couple of false attempts we decided to go old school and follow the street signs. The waterfall was OK – the landscape reminded us of the Blue Mountains in Sydney. There was a zip line offer which looked great but unfortunately we didn’t have the time.

Next it was off to Okatse Canyon. It was a 2.3km walk from the entrance to the canyon and then a 2km walk along the canyon. Taxis were on offer -15 GEL each but we decided, somewhat unenthusiastically, to walk. It was a pleasant downhill walk (will be up hill back!!) to the canyon. They had built a steel walkway long the cliff of the canyon so you could see the river 70 or so metres below your feet. I know a few people that would struggle on the walk. It was beautiful and definitely worth it. We thought about a return taxi but unfortunately we had forgotten our cash. Good for the step count!

Driving back into Kutaisi, we passed huge, hulking ruins of legacy Soviet factories and decrepit housing blocks obviously built to house the workers. Must have been awful back in those dark days.

It was close to 5 by the time we made it back to our hotel. We were both starving so getting some food was urgent – basically breakfast and a bag of crisps was the intake for the day. The great thing about Kutaisi, and our experience in Georgia, is that’s it’s never hard to find a decent meal. Off to Telavi and the wine region tomorrow.