#svanetti

Гудаури горнолыжный курорт

Казбек

In the morning clouds, the rainbow reflects the colours of the first perfectly. From the lush greens fading to yellow, orange and red with the shortening days. Violet and blue flowers stare out at you from the drying leaves littering the forest floor. And where the rainbow fades back into the clouds, the white reflects from the brilliant glaciers that straddle the tops of mountains like cowboys attempting to tame a raging bull. At the risk of offending my family and friends, Svanetti seems to do Canada better than Canada itself. Since arriving to Mestia less than a week ago, this brilliant change has taken the lush green forests and started to turn them into the fiery hillsides of autumn and fall. My only regret is leaving tomorrow; too early to witness the final transformation of this beautiful place (hopefully the colours will catch up to me elsewhere in Georgia before I leave). I've spent the past two days hiking from Mestia to the town of Iprari, towards the better known city of Ushguli. While not seeing Ushguli is a shame, for the sake of other things, we packed in a day early and returned, but not before seeing some of the most stunning mountain scenery imaginable. Mountains look as if Raphael himself has painted them into the land so the sun catches them just right, or so that the clouds curl and fit into the jagged edges of nature in the most pleasing way possible. If this sounds crazy, that's because it is. Our first hiking day we wandered past striking Svan villages with their truly unique defensive towers and lush fields with teenage boys careening from place to place on horses an old men swinging gleaming scythes to rip hay from the nearly inaccessible hillside and pile into into huge heaps drying in the sun. The night we stayed at a delightful guesthouse, with more amazing Svan food and a jug of the finest homemade wine I have tasted yet. Unfortunately, one of the israeli girls (the israeli and the polish seem to have found this paradise before anyone else) in our group fell ill and half our group returned to Mestia to recuperate. Fortunately, this liberated a British friend and I go we're short on time to hoof it past our second days destination and land in Iprari one day ahead of schedule (albeit more than a little tired). The second days hike was gruelling and we found outselves lost more than once (I am convinced locals move marker stones to misguide tourists, making a local guide all the more valuable and needed). Fortunately through all the scrambling we made our destination, a reported 35 km (when I looked at the map I saw 30, but another groups guide insisted it was 35) and 2 mountain passes away, just as the sun started to set. The gruelling hike is now over as I lay on my bed in a guest house in Mestia, but I'm sure by tomorrow my legs will happily remind me of just ow crazy that was. It was fortunate we made our destination on time, because last night was a terrible thunderstorm that seems to have washed away some nearby roads. Still the trees happily soak up the remaining sun before fall finally sets in.