Our journey to the David Gareji (Garedzha) monastery complex

the transfer between minibus and coach
at Hotel Royal Batoni

crossing the river Iori south of Sagarejo

We wake up to a wonderfully sunny morning and enjoy breakfast on the terrace - looking down on the lake, now slowly filling up again! I find the food choices better at breakfast than for supper - being a wheat intolerant vegetarian can be tricky sometimes (!) - and so I make the most of the breakfast spread, refuelling for the long day ahead of us with salad, eggs and the fabulous Georgian Sulguni cheese. Because today we are off to the very isolated David Garedzha Monastery complex, founded by another of the Syrian Fathers, St David, and his disciple Lukian. It is all carved out of the sandstone in a stark semi-desert landscape close to the border with Azerbaijan and it will be hot!
This is one of the holiest Christian places of pilgrimage in Georgia. There is stone here transported from Jerusalem in the 6th Century, and three visits here by Christian Georgian pilgrims is said to be equivalent to one pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This hotel we are bidding farewell to today, the Kvareli Royal Batoni Hotel, was only reopened a year ago, in July 2013, at the site of an old castle. It is truly an amazing place, with wonderful views, superb rooms, horizon swimming pool, and pleasant ambiance inside. It was a great shame for us that the lake was temporarily empty for our short stay. The photos on the hotel website do it full justice and I will certainly want to stay there again when I next visit Georgia.

typical concrete irrigation channel

a salt lake in the desert

typical large herd of cows in the desert

We have Morning Prayer on the bus as usual - today, 31st May, commemorates the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth, and we hear the reading of the story from the Holy Gospel according to Luke, Chapter 1 vv. 39-56, including the wonderful Magnificat, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my saviour…" I simply love singing this at choral evensong. In some ways this is a social activism song, imagining a social transformation, bringing an end to poverty and hunger and the huge injustices of the world, as relevant now as then. Mary sings of God filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich empty away, of pulling down princes from their thrones and exalting the lowly. But this song is not Mary's alone. About one thousand years previously, Samuel's mother Hannah prayed a very similar song, as given in the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament, Chapter 2 vv. 1-10.
Prayers over, we settle back for the long two and a half hour journey, due to arrive about midday, the hottest part! We are driving south towards Azerbaijan, and its neighbor Armenia to the West. The Georgian Military Highway, which we traveled on the other day, is a vital trade route between Armenia and Russia to the North of Georgia. We now climb up into the Gombori mountain range, entering a thickly wooded region and through this onto a high and extremely fertile plateau, where wheat and maize is ripening and plenty of water melons and other cucurbits are being grown and harvested. There is a solitary man in a huge field laboriously watering his crop of what looks like cucumbers, with buckets of water he has brought here in his large white truck. There are two ladies hoeing between the rows by hand. A car overtakes us with its roof rack loaded high with crates of bright red tomatoes, clearly heading for a market somewhere. Back in the plain to the south of the mountain range, and just before we turn off the main road at Sagarejo, there is a comfort stop at a petrol station, with untypically luxurious loos! Here we also have the opportunity to stock up on essential water, and to buy a ice cream.

Soon we're on to an altogether different kind of road. It's a single width track really, the surface of which steadily deteriorates as we drive ever further into the desert towards David Gareji. To start with all is green, with the now familiar crops of grapes, sweet corn, barley, green beans and so on. But it is getting ever hotter and drier. We cross the River Iori as it meanders its way through the landscape. Horses and cows struggle to find shade under high pylons at an electricity sub station. A large herd of goats has better luck, huddled close together among a thicket of trees and shrubs. There are isolated homesteads in the distance and the occasional lone man keeping watch over one of the animal herds, or leading them to a water reservoir for a drink. Sometimes these keepers are on horseback. Some herds know when to come in for milking and need minimal tending during the day. There is a large salt lake, where the salt is collected for the cows; an essential part of their diet. Levan tell us that the trees here were felled in huge quantities for industrial purposes and that is why there is now this desert. The main source of income in this desert is cheese and milk which is sold in Sagarejo. There is minimal public transport here and life must be tough. A minibus goes to the town in the morning, returning at the end of the day. A lone man, elderly and weather-beaten, is walking along the road seemingly miles from anywhere, shovel on his back. I guess he is filling in some of the potholes on this ever deteriorating track….we are nearly there...

the track across the desert

for the highlight experience of our pilgrimage...with just so many fabulous photos of the day I shall have trouble choosing which ones to show here...

scenery close to the monasteries

first views of the monastery complex - promise of wonders to come

Pilgrims on a journey; Our stay near Telavi - in Caucasian Georgia

First view of our hotel across a meadow
alongside the dried up lake

So we climb back into the coach again for our drive to our hotel which will be home for the next two nights. We are to stay near Telavi, at the Kvareli Royal Batoni Hotel. Our first glimpse of this place is amazing - perched high up on the wooded hillside, a mock castle complete with crenellations, not to mention a very welcome looking terrace with sun umbrellas and horizon swimming pool. These pilgrims are enjoying their creature comforts!

view of the dried up lake from my room!

But hang on a minute; there is a problem! Our driver has to pull up at a barrier at the beginning of the road up to the hotel. There is much discussion and remonstration and eventually it is made quite clear that we must all disembark and await smaller mini bus transport for the final half mile or so to the hotel itself. It soon becomes obvious why. There is no way that the coach could have continued up to the hotel. It looks as if part of the road has collapsed. In fact we later find out that excessive rain fall has over time brought quantities of sand down into the lake, and they have decided to dredge the lake and build a new road at the same time. They assure us the lake will be full again in 3 days. We leave in 2!

The transfers from the coach to the hotel are very efficient though. They have this well sorted! And any frustration at the delay in getting these tired and hungry pilgrims to their rooms is soon forgotten when we pick up our keys and climb the spiral staircase or queue for the tiny lift. Our rooms here are wonderful. Mine is huge, with a super view across the swimming pool to the (dried up!) lake. Others look over the woodland at the back. There is an outside terrace on the first floor and here we celebrate our Ascension Day Eucharist, with far reaching views through the crenellations to the town and countryside beyond - as far as the eye can see.

beautiful wild flowers - vetch

There is a film crew in residence, here to produce a series popular on Georgian TV not unlike the UK TV "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" which seems to involve snakes in the swimming pool among other horrors ….. but our hymns manage to drown out their exuberance below…

Sadly our guide Maka has been feeling quite poorly for a few days and has been gradually losing her voice. Struggling to do her job and explain all the sites to us, which she has done admirably, she has to give up the struggle and we give her a warm and sincere send off that night. We are so sad to see her go but it is even more important that she does not compromise her health by struggling on.

There was a very bad electrical storm apparently in the night. I really do not like storms, but although I noticed the loss of electricity a few times and a dodgy TV signal, I managed to sleep through the worst of it without hearing or seeing the thunder and lightning!
There is a full program ahead of us for the next day. We have a new guide, Levan, introduced to us by Maka. He has a youthful enthusiasm for his country, of which he is justifiably enormously proud, and on the coach in the morning on our way to the churches and monasteries of the Kakheti region he regales us with many facts about the Georgian wine industry, including the fact that every family in this region makes and drinks 20 tons of wine each year, and the wine is exported throughout all the world's continents. There are 18 varieties of grape endemic to this region he tells us. I read later that these are just a small proportion of the more than 500 varieties grown in Georgia, of which 38 are in common use. It seems that every spare piece of land is used for vineyards here, or for growing many other crops. There is no space for the large recreational gardens so many of us enjoy - and we learn that the valley is so fertile that two harvests are possible here - a fertility and productivity clearly reflected in the larger and better standard houses in this region. The only other place I have visited with such fertility is the Portuguese island of Madeira, where again two crops can be grown each year on the same land.

vineyards in the fertile valley

Levan also explains a little about the toast/meal ceremony or supra which is a Georgian tradition of which they are very proud; it seems to be a marathon of eating and drinking, for men only, in which four liters or so of wine will be drunk by each man, accompanied by twenty or more toasts over a very long evening, of perhaps five hours or so. There is a definite order to be followed for these toasts, controlled by the toastmaster or tamada. Levan tells us that the first and last toasts are dedicated to God, then they toast to peace and love, friendship and family, with a special toast for women and mothers for whom they have a special respect. I'll drink to that!

Sighnaghi, Bodbe convent and Kvelatsminda - our pilgrimage to Georgia continues...

Snickerse for sale in Sighnaghi

This is the sixth full day of our pilgrimage to the Holy Christian sites of Caucasian Georgia. We are now heading towards the fortified town of Sighnaghi, situated towards the south eastern end of the fertile 170km long valley of the River Alazani, a major wheat and grape growing part of the country. We have quite a journey ahead of us again, and I take up my usual position pressed to the window, camera at the ready, anxious to take in as much detail as possible from the passing scenery. I find it hard to understand those who have paid quite a bit of money to come all this way to see this lovely country, only to spend each leg of the coach journey buried in their kindles and watching films on their tablets. It takes all sorts, I guess.

St Nino church at Bodbe Convent

Again we see all the huge trucks lined up along the roadside with nowhere to go - the road north into Russia blocked by landslides. It reminds me of Operation Stack in Kent, when the ports at Dover or the Channel Tunnel are not functioning properly and our "truckies" have to moor up alongside the M20 motorway while they wait for the back log to clear.

There are skeins of sheep's wool hanging out, presumably to dry before being spun. I continue to be fascinated by the resourcefulness of the country people here who manage to make fencing out of pretty much anything they can lay their hands on: old bedspreads, bed heads, the railings out of old cemeteries, branches from bushes and trees, corrugated iron, what look alarmingly like corrugated asbestos sheets, and I even saw old concrete railway sleepers set on their ends and used as a wall around a garden in Gori the other day.

New church being built at Bodbe

Not far from Ananuri I see that a farmer has controlled the flow of the stream to create a small pond in his garden, presumably to breed trout for food. I would imagine that garden aesthetics must have a practical purpose in such a poor area of such a poor country. Gardens here have to be productive and not necessarily beautiful. Many people are growing their own potatoes, and there are plenty of free range chickens around, supplying eggs and meat.

A view of the Bodbe Convent grounds

As we arrive in Tblisi and take the road out and east towards Sighnaghi there is a road sign to Tehran - 1239 km! We have lunch in the center of Sighnaghi and afterwards have time to explore this delightful place. There is opportunity for a little souvenir shopping. There are plenty of snickerse for sale at several stalls, the strings of nut and grape sweet meats. I love them but they are not everyone's taste. There are also many of the colorful felt goods for which the country is so well known. I really regret not buying one of the lovely little felt dolls.

within Kvelatsminda church

Leaving Sighnaghi behind and heading south we soon arrive at Bodbe convent, our next destination, where 20 - 25 nuns live and work. In the grounds is the Church of St Nino, the Enlightener or Illuminator of Georgia, built over the site of her grave. This is a very beautiful and quiet place, set within manicured and very colorful gardens. Inside the church there are attractive frescoes including Adam and Eve, and the Last Judgment, and also an elaborate golden iconostasis. No photos are allowed inside the church so after savoring its spirituality and beauty I go to the shop looking for a guide in English. None are on show, but after quite a while of hunting, my persistence pays off and the nun eventually produces quite a few from below the counter. Nino prayed here, and where locals come to collect the holy water, said to have healing qualities.

icon within the church

Kvelatsminda church

They are beautifully produced and very informative and at only 5 GEL are great value. She would have sold so many if she had only had them on view earlier. As it is she has largely lost her chance; the coach is soon on its way again, leaving us no time to make the trek down a path to the holy spring, said to burst into life after

Kvelatsminda church

Scarves to cover the ladies' heads

Some 35 minutes later we arrive in the village of Gurjaani, and walk to the Kvelatsminda church nestled among trees some 200m down a shady lane, not visible from the road. This is the only two cupola church in Georgia. There is a mulberry tree in the grounds loaded with a fantastic crop of juicy ripe berries. On our way there from the convent we snatch an incredible view of the 170 km valley stretched out below us. Here there is some of the best housing we have seen so far, reflection presumably of the value of the wine industry to the country's economy. By contrast many of the farm implements seem very old and well battered.

Mulberry tree

The church is beautiful. We are thrilled to meet a monk there who unlocks for us a gallery above the main body of the church, accessed by an outdoor flight of stone steps. Here there are two chapels; one dedicated to Saint Barbara, a special saint in Georgia for children, the other dedicated to St George. Inside above the altar the apse is painted blue, an undercoat we are advised, ready for the painting of some modern frescoes. 

Soon we must climb into the coach again for our drive to our hotel for the next two nights, near Telavi - the Kvareli Royal Batoni Hotel, quite an experience in itself - more about that in my next post!