The Manzies in Georgia and Armenia

By Ian and Shelagh Manzie

Introduction

In the summer of 2014 Ian and Shelagh Manzie made a motorhome journey from France to Turkey's border with Georgia. The following detailed account of the ensuing journey through Georgia and Armenia includes their photographs and four detailed maps of the route.

Their journey to the border just east of Hopa on Turkey's Black Sea coast, is itself quite remarkable and a measure of the couple's approach to travel. From their home in France they made their way through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia (with a side trip into Bosnia Herzegovina), Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and so into Turkey. Through Turkey they travelled along its Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, through Cappadocia (including a balloon flight), Gaziantep (touching the Syrian border), Nemrut Dagi, Diyarbakir (capital of the Kurdish region), crossing the Tigris and Euphrates, touching the Iranian border near Lake Van and glimpsing Mount Arafat before reaching the Black Sea.

And so into Georgia and Armenia . . . . Read On! 

We arrived in Hopa (NE Turkey)on the Black Sea. A few weeks back when we were planning in detail this part of the trip we mused on the possibility of including Georgia and Armenia in our trip. By email with some American friends we were encouraged to make the effort as Rick and Kathy said it would be well worth it. Well time will tell but we do trust them!!

Reading their account it seemed that their biggest issues were the state of the roads and navigation. While musing on the state of the roads we read a French account of a similar trip a couple did last year and looking at the distances they covered each day in a similar vehicle to ours and decided it was possible.

Not being a great fan of gps devices such as TomTom (they are great if you know where you want to go and provide an efficient route there!!) we use various mapping programs running on a Windows 7 tablet. In Western Europe the maps provides very good coverage. However the farther east you travel the less detail and a constant theme of other travellers is the problems with navigation!

Fortunately there is an 'Open Source' free option in the shape of 'Open Street Maps' which when married with a free software package enable one to download (and so not need an internet connection) maps for most countries in the world! In general the basic road data seems to be accurate.

Open Street Maps are updated by users so some places can be full of useful localinformation. Indeed in Romania last year these maps were the source of several great stops!! They frequently highlight some great parking places as well as local tourist attractions and shops.

In Turkey we have found the maps very useful and looking at the coverage in Georgia and Armenia it looks pretty good! More anon!..the travels continue!!

28^th May 2014

So from Hopa we drove up to the border wondering what we were going to experience as we passed km after km of parked lorries! The border was organised chaos and after about 45 minutes of queuing we left Turkey. Georgia customs greeted us with smiles and a pleasant chat asking us what we knew of Georgia, and no vehicle inspection! Frontier police gave us an even warmer welcome with bigger smiles and suggestions of what to see before waving us on. We swiftly drove the few km to Batumi and our jaws dropped: we felt we were back in Europe! Modern skyscrapers were everywhere and new ones being built and immaculate hotels on palm lined boulevards. It all reminded us a bit of our time in Kuwait city (except here it is a lot cooler and raining). We parked and started on the admin of a new country; changing currency, internet connectivity and temporary insurance. The first two were expedited rapidly: the girl selling me the internet SIM even telling me what to do in impeccable English before I even had to pose the question!! The insurance was completed the next day after I had signed over 30 times various papers at a cost of about €25.

The Georgian language is written unlike any other script we have come across in our travels and reading!!  Fortunately round here as well as signs being in Georgian they are all translated into English: hope this lasts.

So according to 'Google' this is Ian and Shelagh saying

საუკეთესო სურვილებით ბათუმი (best wishes from Batumi –I hope!!)

Leaving Batumi we hugged the coast towards Poti, a major Black Sea Port, spending two nights in fairly run down resorts –lots of evidence of the Communist era buildings, many unfinished, similar in many ways to our experiences last year in Slovakia and Romania. Dotted in and amongst were newer style 'posh' developments. The market in Poti provided us with a kilo of fish for just over 1€ -they were fresh –still wriggling. Also a really tasty flat bread from a clay tandoor oven. It was fascinating to watch the baker 'stick' the dough to the inside wall of a very hot oven.

From Poti our route took us along some lovely tree lined roads, in not too bad condition, as we headed towards the Caucasus Mountains, stopping near the 'Arch Dam' as it was labelled or more correctly the Inguri Dam

The next day we chatted to an engineer now retired who had worked on the project some 40 years ago. He proudly told us it was the highest dam of its type in the world (he actually is out of date: it was till 2010 when the Chinese built a higher one!!).

While parked at the dam we went to a newly opened restaurant and had an excellent meal for about €8 for us both. As well as salads, we had the local speciality Kavalti. These are dumping which you pick up by the top suck all the juice out of and then eat the dumpling except the top!! There was a birthday party in full swing and they shared their freely flowing wine with us, as well as with a couple from Prague. Dancing ensued!!

A beautiful run up the gorge to Mestia, the road in the main, with one exception, was pretty good. Here we spent a couple of days in simply superb Caucasian mountains. We do enjoy the Alps and Pyrenees but something about these mountains makes them special.

One night we dined at a local restaurant and were welcomed and entertained by a group of locals. One guy came over and hugged us and was almost in tears as he thanked us for visiting his country. Whilst there we also met folk from Australia, the UK, Netherlands and Austria.

The trip back down the valley, some 100 km, was as stunning and different as driving up. And we had some rain! Stopping for lunch we met three Russians on two motorcycles who had travelled down from St Petersburg. Sadly one of their bikes had developed a problem so although it was still drivable he couldn't take his partner and the luggage. They asked us if we could drive Elena to the next big town so she could pick up a bus to Tbilisi and meet them there to get the bike repaired. We were pleased to help fellow travellers!!

Below Fresco at Gelati Monastery near Kutasi

We journeyed eastwards our destination being the second city Kutasi. Arriving and following our mapping software we headed for the main sites. Sadly the software didn't tell us that it was a national holiday and the centre of town was blocked off. The policemen pointed us in the general direction and the computer guided us round till we able to park outside the city at a beautiful monastery, Motsameta, perched on a rock above a gorge. Later we visited another monastery complex at Gelati which again was beautiful, before heading back to Kutasi. Still blocked off we were forced to bypass one of the main attractions Bagrati Cathedral before resuming our trek eastwards.

One interesting feature of travels is what is sold at the roadside! Our run up into the mountains saw us pass numereous stalls selling fruit, tomatoes and cucumbers: these gave way to stalls of pottery and cane ware. Next there was local bread and finally 'deck chairs' and hammocks!! Our night was spent in the gorge parked outside a restaurant. Rather than a communal area with multiple tables we were given a room with one table laid for 8! The food as ever was delightful, especially enjoying again walnuts in various salads, cheese bread and barbequed calf meat along with a bottle of the local mineral water all for less than €10 (for both).

Our next destination was Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, and a visit to the Stalin museum. 

The visit included the train carriage in which he travelled to the Tehran and Yalta conferences in World War 2 where he met Churchill and Roosevelt. Having been stimulated by 20^th century history we journeyed further back in time to visit Uplistsikhe one of the earliest Georgian settlements cut out of the rocks and dating back to pre Christian times with an interesting mix of 'buildings' up to the middle ages.

The road eastwards has morphed into a well engineered smooth road, complete with signs indicating distance to travel that included Tehran (1290km), and enable us to reach the 'Spiritual' heart of Georgia, Mtskheta.

We enjoyed a couple of days chilling out in Mtskheta. Our introduction to the town was a little hectic as it coincided with the visit of the prime minister to the town for a political rally and the school kids having their graduation day. Police were everywhere: but then it seems every other bloke here is either a policeman or some form of security guard. The most modern buildings everywhere are police stations! We parked by the roadside and enjoyed a quick brew before we were able to enter the car park and enjoy a quiet nights parking.

After Mtskheta and visiting the beautiful Svetitskhoveli Cathedral we headed up the 'Georgian Military Highway' northwards towards Russia and up again into the Caucasus mountains. The initial kms were just a steady climb on a fairly straight road. We stopped at the lovely Ananuri church and whilst there chatted with a group from Southwark Cathedral doing a pilgrimage round the Georgian monasteries.

The road on climbed and the mountains got closer on either side until we reached a stretch with several hair pin bends and passed through a developing ski resort. We arrived at a rather garish viewpoint near the highest point on the road before crossing the Jvari pass (there are a lot of places called Jivari in Georgia: it means 'Cross' in Georgian another demonstration of the countries long Christian roots).

The road from the pass, down towards Russia, has recently been resurfaced. Sadly for them, it defeated our American friends a year ago. We arrived in Stepantsminda parked and contemplated walking up to the Tsminda Sameba monastery  the next day. This is a monastery with an absolutely fabulous setting with Kazbegi Mountain on one side and views along the valley. However we decided that prudence dictated it was just a too difficult adventure!

Above: a good lens got us this close to the monastery.

Sadly because of a landslip towards the Russian border the police wouldn't let us drive up to the Darial Gorge immortalized in Russian poetry and one of the most romantic places in the Caucasus.

The drive back down the highway was just as stunning and we arrived at Georgia's capital Tbilisi. Unlike most countries we have driven in, driving was more orderly in the city than in the countryside, a fact that was confirmed by the young lady in the Tourist Office. (Incidentally Georgia has a well run network of Tourist Offices with very helpful staff and some good literature in English to help.)

We drove round Tbilisi looking for somewhere to park, resisting the entreaties of a parking attendant to enter his underground car park clearly labelled max height 2.5m when we are 3m!! Finally we found what we thought would be a quiet stop in the car park attached to the park high above the city. We enjoyed stunning views of the city and a meal on the restaurant terrace watching the lights come on and an amazing lightening storm. The meal was rounded off by a pleasant chat with a local young lady with excellent English and her boyfriend.

Our hopes for a quiet night were dashed. A sequence of cars came and parked alongside us throughout the night with much banging of doors and chatter. The only thing we didn't suffer was loud music. Dawn broke leaving us feeling somewhat ragged and our resolve to explore the many fine aspects of Tbilisi shredded!

We headed out of town towards the wine region and saw the signs for a highly recommended monastery site, Davit Gareji. We headed down the road which wasn't too bad for some 35km out of 50 but then the road got progressively worse. We crawled the last few km to the monastery situated on the border with Azerbaijan having debated whether or not to turn back. It was a stunning and peaceful location and well worth it.       

Davit Gareji monastery on the right.

Having enjoyed a quiet night at the monastery we returned to the main highway towards the wine region. The roadside stalls were now selling cheese. Stopping at one I started trying to establish price and that I wanted 500g. Difficult: but then an Azeri (from Azerbaijan) draws up with excellent English and translated my order to the lady who try's to weigh the cut piece on an ancient electronic balance without success. He spoke to her with the result the cheese was handed over –he telling me it was a gift from him, and waves us on our way!

On the left: a Kvevri, a traditional Georgian wine making vessel

So we arrive in the wine region at Sighnaghi, also known as the city of love, and after a quiet night at St Nino's monastery where we enjoyed a typical Georgian meal and wine tasting. Our host, Nathan (a Brit), really knew his stuff highlighting the long continuous tradition of wine making here (over 8000 years) and the methods used. The wines were called 'Home Wines' with no additives in growing and production.

After Sighnaghi we found the rest of the wine region pleasant but lacking the wow factor. So we returned to Tbilisi!! First port of call was the 'Sameba Cathedral' a marvellous new construction (dedicated in 1996) and the largest Georgian Orthodox Church and is visible from many places in the town. This time we managed to park in a large car park by the river attached to a public service building. This proved to be a great place to explore the city as most of the sights were in walking distance as well as a well stocked western style supermarket.  After a day the security folk called to check if we were OK and needed anything and before they left made sure we knew what to visit and where to eat.

The quiet park especially now the weekend has arrived has given us an opportunity to explore and enjoy the city wandering over 10 miles. It is an interesting blend of old, soviet era and modern.

We are just 60km from Armenian border.

The new 'Peace Bridge' (left) If you know 'Morse Code' you can decode the lighting sequences!!!!

These countries are often compared, I suppose because the natural tourist thing is to do them both at the same time. Armenia is a landlocked country and although bordered by four countries only the borders with Iran and Georgia are open for travellers by land. Parts, like Georgia, are 'no go' with break away states that make this area complex and sadly potentially open to future conflict. Armenia is a country of less than 3 million (Georgia is about 5 million) and boats the longest Christian tradition having been 'officially' a Christian country for 1700 years.

Our first destination was the monastery complexes of Hapat and Sanin both very interesting but set in some very depressing communities built in the Soviet era when the valley was home to a copper mining and processing (it still is an active industry today).

Round Vanadzor we encountered the 'square' pothole, a phenomena we first seriously encountered in Romania. A crew comes along and carefully digs out the road surface round the pothole ready for the second team to fill it in. Sadly the second team often seems to be absent. Driving becomes a slow slalom, also trying to best guess the route drivers coming the other way will take, and complicated by the don't care brigade who just power through!  After Vanadzor we saw how it was supposed to work with both teams within a few hundred metres of each other complete with a man with clip board logging the work done.

We arrived at a resort town Dilijan and found much to commend the place -in about 2 years from now. However it did have a mobile phone shop and we signed up for unlimited internet for a week for the equivalent of £2 (If only it were so easy and cheap in some other parts of Europe!) We stumbled on the tourist office by chance to find a dejected man who spoke some English. All he could offer was some general guidance as to where to visit in the whole country, the only map he had was somewhat dated and rather dog eared!! Anyway it was nice to feel as if one had made his day.                             

Above: Dilijan 

The road up to the tunnel that took us through to Lake Sevan was smooth. At the lake we were able to park by the monastery and enjoy some fish called 'Sig' from the lake. It was fresh, tasty and probably the cheapest fish we have eaten in a restaurant.

The next day turned into a rather long drive as we headed round the lake across two mountain ranges past another caravanserai and onto the main road from Yerevan towards Iran. The road was good in parts and diabolical in parts but most of it was reasonable. Fascinating to see lots of ancient Iranian tankers hauling LPG and diesel. The scenery in many ways was reminiscent of the 'Georgian Military Highway' –stunning.

We arrived at Tatev or rather at Halidzor where the cable car / ropeway, which is in the Guinness book of records as “the longest reversible” departs to cross the Vorotan gorge. (above) The last trip, or flight as they call them, had left for the day but we able to relax on a terrace in comfortable chairs and watch the clouds roll by and the sun set.

Next morning we took the first 'flight' a nice smooth ride in a modern cabin to Tatev monastery. The Tatev monastery complex and the area surrounding it is undergoing a 'restoration', but it was fascinating to explore and stand and enjoy a small part of the daily orthodox Eucharist.

Left: the Tatev Monastery

This visit marked our farthest point east at just over 46 degrees from now on we 'go west'.

Our journey westwards started at Jermuk, a spa town, and home of Armenian bottled water. It was interesting to wander this town with its many derelict complexes, where in the Soviet era, the workers would have enjoyed their state sponsored break. One sensed looking at the buildings that if you were a 'good worker' you might have been allocated a slightly better hotel!! The grandest spa was still in operation opposite a new western hotel in final stages of construction. Sadly a Yerevanite, staying at the Spa, told me the new hotel will lead to the closure of the Spa.

Stopping briefly another car drew up and a young French couple in a hire car stopped. However discovering we were English sped of!! Strange!! C'est la Français!! (Our Motorhome has French number plates)

After another night spent in the stunning location of the Noravank Monastery the road led us out of the hills and into rolling plains with Mount Ararat majestically rising to the south as we headed toward Yerevan. Yerevan is a stunning place to view Ararat and we were glad at last to see it cloud free! The mountain dominates views from all over this part of Armenia.

So we arrived at our second capital city in a week: traffic was heavy and driving bad but we safely negotiated our way to the sadly closed genocide museum. The next day we made a brief detour to the monastery complex at  Ecmiadzin described as the 'Vatican of the Armenian Church' before returning to Yerevan and finding a great free parking spot on 'Republic Square'(left)  to explore the city.

One of the joys of wandering is the people you meet. We sat on a bench in Yerevan and got chatting to a young man from Southern Iran who paints a different description to that we read in the media. A Muslim he proudly told us he was reading the Bible in Farsi and showed us it along with his iPad!!

So now it's on to Armenia' second city, then a brief loop in southern Georgia before resuming our Turkish circuit towards Istanbul.

The next two days we enjoyed the beauty of southern Georgia stopping at the cave city of Vadzia, a stunning location and active monastery.

Our final night, in Georgia, was spent in Akhaltsikhe at the fortress. The restored fortress includes a synagogue, church and mosque (seen on the right).

Our last fill up with cheap diesel saw us arrive at the Turkish border just after 9am to discover it was closed. The Turkish side closes at night and reopens at 9 their time (10 in Georgia). So we parked and enjoyed a pot of coffee before swiftly crossing back into Turkey.

A reflection on Georgia and Armenia. It was fascinating to visit these two countries, similar in many ways but different.

Georgia is developing rapidly as a tourist destination with good tourist offices and literature to support ones travels.

Armenia looks and feels more trapped in the soviet era. In Georgia most of the signage was in Georgian and English wher as in Armenia the second language on signs tended to be Russian. Indeed some knowledge of Russian would be useful in both countries but especially Armenia.

The roads in both countries leave a lot to be desired as do their drivers. We saw some of the worst driving we have seen in our European (+Morocco and Turkey) travels. Armenia still relies more heavily on old communist era Ladas and Zils and Soviet trucks. Many cars in both countries have been converted to run on CNG (compressed Natural Gas). Georgia imports many second-hand cars from Germany and Japan. Evidence of bad driving is recognised frequently by cars with no bumpers!!