We're Marianne and Chris and we've been traveling full-time since 2018.
we're currently spending a few weeks in the country of Georgia.
A country with fantastic mountain views,
crazy roads and even crazier driving.
You can't see! What driving is that?
And let's not forget unusual architecture,
delicious food and cows on the road.
Good morning, we had a lovely, nice, quiet night, sleep here last night.
I haven't quite woken up this morning!
First coffee, but Mamuka the owners invited us up for coffee so we'll have another one!
This must have been part of the old original hotel.
and looking at the weather today it's nice and sunny!
Good morning puppy!
You are not really a puppy, but so cute.
We don't normally have Fanta for breakfast but it's got a dispenser attached to it!
I've never seen that before? neither have I, never.
That's funny isn't it? The pressure comes from the fizzy drink!
Yeah that's a clever design, that's a very cool design.
How are you?
Wow, you are spoiling us this morning!
We've got lots, and a little salad there, what a massively big breakfast!
Cha-cha !
Cha-cha?
Georgian Whisky! Brandy?
I am driving I can't drink ...
Wine for breakfast!
it is wine? yeah!
I think if i drink this, i'll stay here! I'll be sleeping!
No problem !
Tomorrow you can go! Just stay one more day! It is ok !
I love the relaxed attitude, it's so nice.
Mamuka has been so welcoming, and it's fine .... yeah it's very difficult to leave this place because it's so friendly!
And because he gets us drunk!
And because you can't drink drive!
I think it's like they're a version of brandy?
and wine.
So what is the name of this? Cha-Cha
This is cha-cha,
and it's like maybe a Georgian brandy?
Which smells like grappa
It smells good!
We have had the most fabulous breakfast,
put the world to right,
but hopefully we'll be coming back in March when we come through Georgia to go on into Russia.
So Mamuka ..... Thank you !
We've had a lovely time!
What a fantastic start to the day,
in fact it's actually late morning now,
and we've had so much fun chatting and putting the world to right.
It's been a wonderful place to park up for a couple of days,
close to the city, by the river,
and we've had lovely nice peaceful sleeps.
And now it's time to get Trudy ready for the road again,
just do some checks and then we're going to go and show you some more of Georgia
But before we do, I'll just show you around, this is an old hotel which they allow
camping, and this is where we've been parked up,
plugged into the electric here,
it's always good to have a long electric cable,
because that is the nearest electric point.
We've got this little bar area, so we plugged in there.
It's located on the river
It's only a few minutes, probably five or ten minutes drive into the city centre where we filmed yesterday,
so location-wise has been great.
Thank you very much.
Okay let's hit the road!
Do we know where we're going?
Yeah i put it in there already.
Left
We've arrived at the Gelati Monastery, look at the views!
It's very peaceful up here which is probably why they built a monastery here!
Wow that's quite an entrance!
Look at this floor!
So the monastery was built between the 12th and the 17th centuries,
looks like they're doing a little bit of work on it today.
There's a bit of scaffolding, they are doing some maintenance work.
That's an old car, look at that proper old school!
The monastery was an important religious, cultural and educational centre here in Georgia,
and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its frescoes and mosaics.
Marianne's impressed by the size of the snail !
Look at the size of that?!
compared to my finger, look at it! Oh - I am a snail killer !!
So let's have a look in one of the buildings here,
wow this is a grand hall,
it looks like something from Hogwarts!
Oh what's that here?
Yeah there's a telescope and a hatch in the roof,
i'm assuming there wouldn't be much light pollution here so perfect for looking at the stars!
Wow the history in here is amazing!
Just feels so old ......
the frescoes are in incredible condition,
you can see they're doing renovation work,
i can't believe it!
Yeah fascinating monastery.
I'm just walking up the steps here some more
great views over the Georgian countryside, and remnants of old buildings there.
Oh what have you found?
Wow just in the top of this little tower there's another little church,
you can smell the candles and the wax as soon as you walk in.
It is steeped in history!
So after spending a short time in Georgia, it's steeped in culture,
and is obviously or was a very religious country with lots of monasteries and churches.
But one thing we're struggling to get our head round, is there are so many starving animals !
And how does a religious country allow so many animals to suffer?
yeah i don't i don't understand it so maybe it's not as religious as it used to be?
But from all the countries we've been to so far as Tread the Globe,
I have to say that Georgia has a lot of starving dogs.
These cobbled roads are giving Trudy a little bit of a massage this morning!
I love the train crossings here,
'Hello' They have guys that close the gates manually,
I haven't seen that anywhere for a long time.
We're on the motorway now and there was just a cow eating off the grass in the central reservation ....
i've seen it all now!
So we're back to good old rural Georgia, going down some of these little back roads.
Google maps can't keep up, there's no signal at the moment.
So i think we're going in the right direction,
it's very pretty but i think as the navigator, i think we've taken a wrong turn?
But we're just going to go with it, because it has to hit a main road somewhere,
and sometimes you take these little routes off road, and
It is gorgeous! Exactly you see more rural life and you might discover some unknown gem!
It is the vineyards there
wine growing
I reckon we're lost!
We have this thing Chris and I ....
I tend to uh talk us into trouble and Chris tends to talk us out of trouble!
it depends who's talking louder that day!
oh there's a truck coming so there you go it must go somewhere!
A nice big smile from the lorry driver,
probably laughing at us, thinking where the hell are they going??
hey mr pig!
yay it led to a road!
Yes Marianne! Just because i can't get out of a car park, doesn't mean i can't find a main road !
Everywhere leads to somewhere, otherwise it wouldn't be a road!
Turn my side ...
We've hit a bit of heavy traffic,
so it's quite funny there there the cars don't want to wait,
so they make an extra lane they made another lane down the dirt track here,
and you also get cars coming down down the middle!
They make an extra lane, i love it! Look an extra lane!
Okay so we've come off the main road and we've got about a km to go,
down this little dirt track which we think we should be able to go down .....
there you go you can just see it on top of the tower through the trees there,
so we're nearly there!
There we go,
we've arrived at the bottom!
and it's just started to peak up here look!
How amazing does that look?
So we have arrived at the Katskhi column,
here just outside of the village of Katskhi.
You can see Trudy parked up behind,
we're just walking up the hill,
Okay one thing's for sure we are definitely getting our steps in today,
in Georgia no need to go to the gym today love! Oh really?
So this is the Katskhi column, and it's a limestone monolith,
and it's approximately 40 meters high.
And located on top has to be one of the most isolated churches in the world.
The church at the top was built between the 6th and the 8th century
and it was dedicated to a 7th century monk called Maximus the Confessor.
Monks that live down below they make this dangerous climb to the top every day,
up this precarious ladder.
Because they feel that being right at the top of this monolith they're closer to god.
I'm not actually sure that you would want to climb that?
I think it's been there a few years!
And in fact nowadays you cannot climb it only monks are allowed to go to the top of the column.
Historically it is only male monks that are allowed up females unfortunately historically have never been allowed up.
Just at the the bottom of the column this is very cute,
looking chapel here, let's go and have a little look.
There's a few buildings dotted around and it's so well maintained,
there isn't an entrance fee
so i'm not sure how it's funded, but it's absolutely glorious, the colours are popping !
Just under the column down here there's another little building,
it's tiny!
What is it?
I don't even know if i'll fit?
Oh really? If you don't fit, i've got no chance! Oh wowzers!
It really is tiny!
That is a very small little stone church here,
is it a tomb?
I'm not sure it looks like a little tomb actually?
I thought that that looks like it could be a coffin? Maybe this is a little crypt because there's a cross at the end like a headstone?
Can I go out now? Yes you can, come on.
Just at the bottom of the column,
there's this little footpath you can go to,
Oh look they've got some engravings in this side of the column,
it really is very high up there!
Let's have a little look,
what is this? where does this go?
There's bits of rock that have fallen!
Oh there's another cross here with some candles,
obviously a place to pay respects there.
So until 2015 Father Maxine lived on top of this column for 20 years!
Can you imagine spending most of your time in solitude on top of this column for that long?
They've got the pulley system here this is how they send food up,
to the monk that is in isolation on the top.
so right next to the column we've just seen this gravestone,
and we're pretty sure this is father Maxine's grave here,
but as we say with some of these wonderful places,
sometimes the best place to actually see them is from a short distance away.
We're leaving the column, we're going to find somewhere to park up try and find some food,
and call it a day.
So after 45 minutes of driving,
we have found this lovely little spot!
It's quite flat, it's a little car park here next to the river.
And i think we're going to have a lovely evening here,
so good night!