#kutasi

Photos: Shokran Parwani vs György Kutasi

Danny writes:

  The final two stops on our whirlwind tour of Georgia were Katusi and Batumi. After the food and wine themed previous week, Western Georgia turned out to be more about caves than anything else. First up was the excellently named Uplistsikhe Cave City. Uplistsikhe was an ancient Silk Road cave town, expertly chiselled into the rock face, just outside of modern day Gori. It was clearly a rich and prosperous destination, with amazingly detailed carving work still visible in many of the surviving caves. The level of civilisation that was evident from excavations, given the time period the city was functional, was remarkable. An ancient pharmacy has been excavated, complete with shelves carved out of the stone, and there is a museum full of all the pottery that has recently been uncovered.

  Katusi was next, and with it the Prometheus Caves. Discovered by chance in 1985, and opened to the public in 2011, the Prometheus Caves are a vast underground series of caves, absolutely full of stalagmites and stalactites. The biggest of the caves could well be the size of Westminster Abbey it is so big. Quite incredible. At the end of our tour around the place, we got into a boat and rode through the final caves to the exit. The water level in the caves changes throughout the year and we had to duck down to avoid hitting our heads on the cave ceiling as we moved along.

  From Katusi, we drove west until we reached the Black Sea. We have spent the night on a ferry crossing the Caspian, but the Black Sea feels more like the end of an epic land journey to me. Looking at our journey on a map, it is mind boggling to think of the distances we have travelled. Six time zones and over 4000 miles in a straight line separate us now from Beijing, the distance we have actually travelled is much greater of course. When we set off it was the height of Beijing's summer, with all the humidity you expect in far east Asia. Now we are in Autumn, approaching the gateway into Europe and the end of Silk Road. What a journey.