It’s still early in the year, spring just started, the trees start to blossoming. The climate various from subtropical at the Black Sea coast, to high alpine climate in High Caucasus in the north to hot arid steppes in the east.
40% of the whole country of Georgia is on more than 2000 m above sea level. There is still so much snow even on the lower mountains of the lesser Caucasus that we decide hitting further to the south-east first. Armenie is also one of our destinations with the plan to return to the High Caucasus-mountains in the North of Georgia later this spring.
The Goderdzi Pass from Batumi towards Adigeni and further to Akhaltsikhe just opened again since a couple of days. We leave Batumi on a pretty road along waterfalls and historical bridges before the road is getting gravel, sandy and worse. It takes us 8 hours for 80 km, but for sure much more fun and adventure than on the highway the other way around. It’s definitely not to do without 4×4 at this time of the year. Snow melting water and the rain of the last days let rocks, ground and trees erose on the road or even the road partly gliding down.
What a work to reconstruct everything again and again.
We pass the modern looking Goderdzi ski resort that just closed 31st of march. At 2000 m we reach the the top of the Goderdzi pass with snow walls like sculptures of more than 4 meters on both sides of this muddy pass trail.
Not very spectacular but for us the beginning of our adventure in the Caucasus where we are really looking forward to the great nature of the mountain region, bad nice 4×4 roads, hiking, monasteries and churches and witnesses of the Sowjet history.
Though the monastery of Zarzma is also under construction it’s not at all less beautiful.
The Rabati Fortress is an reconstructed fortress above the city of Akhaltsikhe. It is on our route and it’s time for coffee- otherwise we wouldn’t have stop here…