Todays trip was supposed to be yesterday and then tomorrow and was now today. After not getting home until nearly midnight last night (and then still having to upload blogs), the important thing was an early start today. So 7am it was.
Off to our usual office of Gamarjoba tours (the best) booked through Get Your Guide. Todays guide has been Sally who has been great, full of excitement with interestings stories and always willing to listen and join in conversations. Our fellow travellers were a Dutch couple who have perfect English of course. Conversation was good and, as usual, we told the truth about our cruel and evil government. We do like to spread the truth but people abroad are sensible enough to know anyway.
So far we have made 12 stops today, only 2 of which have been for the toilet, which leaves TEN ‘tourist stops. Yes, weve been busy and seen a lot. Lets try and approach this methodically.
Stop 2: An abandoned railway carriage. Behind a fence sadly but I do like abandoned things and places. The sun was in the wrong placeAGAIN.so hopefully the photos will be okay.
Stop 3: an abandoned cable car station in Chiatura..Chiaturas main industry is mining manganese and features a network of cable cars that were mainly used to transport manganese but also the workers as well. As far as we could see only one line was running and that is relatively new. More on that later. The old mine buildings are still there but they work in new ones. They do still use some of the old machines though.
We walked across a rickety bridge to see the plant and noticed how black the river was due to the factory waste being dumped in it. keep getting fined but they dont care. I guess they must be Tories.
Stop 4: it was time to climb a lot of steps in very hot weather again, how very Georgian. It was also time for me to get dressed up for some nuns, not something I do every day.
of the steps is a nunnery where they are quite strict about the dress code. Women, as usual, must cover their heads and legs but men must cover their knees..even if they have trousers on!! So I had to wrap some sort of cloth around my waist and cover my already covered knees. Claire got a glimpse of my knee and got a bit excited. Luckily she managed to control her urges. There were some small cave churches/chapels up there but Im not sure it was worth the climb.
Oh and there was a Georgian guy up therein jeans.with no covering. Luckily his covered knees were nowhere near as attractive as mine so the nuns managed to contain themselves.
Stop 5: A theatre and an abandoned railway station. Normally guests are allowed in the theatre but there was a rehearsal on today so we missed out on that unfortunately. In the ironwork adorning the front of the theatre symbols of the hammer and sickle could clearly be seen. The train station had some people waiting on the platform but the trains dont stop there. Maybe we should have told them.
Stop 6: we stopped in the town centre to photograph another abandoned cable car and station. The car is just above a roundabout and we walked across the rickety remaining bits of the station. It was a bit wobbly at the top
Stop 7: lunch! Our guide told us we would be having a family lunch and that it would be 40lari, about. £13, which seemed quite expensive. We pulled into someones garden and sat at a table outside. There were many different dishes, which the lady kept refilling, as well as drinks including water, fresh cherry juice, wine and The food was lovely and really She brought out some plums and peaches too, some biscuits and sweets and hot drinks were available as well. She even had a beetroot dish that didnt taste of beetroot and was actually nice, weird I know! Claire ate her fill of aubergine with walnut paste and was so full she actually left one. We were stuffed. 40lari was a good price.
We are at the Katski Pillar, a huge pillar of rock (45 metres bigh) which 22 monks live on top of. Its a quiet, reclusive place..
