We've made it up to the church and it took us an hour and thirty-five minutes from our guesthouse
One hour from the very edge of Gergeti Village
all the way up
we have met another three dogs at the top
so there's every chance we might have six trail dogs with us
on the way to the glacier
or maybe this is where they all call it quits, I don't know
I hope not, I've already named three of them
We're about to climb up to the pass
and there's a ridge trail this way
or there's the 'classic' trail which goes around
which is probably a bit easier and a bit shorter
but it doesn't have the views
That's if we get any views of Kazbek
I'm hopeful that this mist will clear up though
so we're going the ridge way
Dogs in tow
We've got 1.3 kilometres to go
before the 'best view' of Kazbek mountain
Hmmmm
I'm sceptical
But, these dogs are keeping me so happy
Hey doggos
Thanks for the welcome party
Raindrops
We just passed the pass
which is a little under 3000m
so it took us about 3 hours 15 minutes
from the church to get to the pass
which included about 15 minutes of debating whether to just turn around and go back
I was all for going back
because there were no views and it felt pointless
Del was like, 'It might clear, let's just keep going'
and he won cause he usually does
and now I think we've got about an hour and a half to the glacier itself
maybe we'll get some views, maybe we won't
we should have some amazing views of Kazbegi right behind us right now
but we don't
fingers crossed
At least we've got dogs, eh! Six dogs. Mmm mmm.
Frank! Move!
Move!
Frank! F*** Off!
F****** Frank!
They don't like it either
OK, we're across, it's fine, let's go to the hut
and eat some lunch, I'm starving
Frank keeps rolling his eyes back as if he's trying to hypnotise me
with his icy blue gems
It's not working
you're not getting any more
And, we've made it
to the glacier
It's taken us eight and a half hours to get up here
which isn't to say it would take you that long
No.
We've spent a lot of time getting the camera out, videoing
droning, all that jazz
debating about whether we'll continue because of the rain
Luckily we did
Talking to the dogs
All that kind of stuff
Anyway, so here it is!
We've got a wee view behind us, it's been coming and going
So it's about 2.30 in the afternoon now
we left at 6am
Actually, we're feeling alright. I've got a wee bit of a headache
cause it's like 3300m or something here
I'm all good.
I always suffer more than him.
So anyway, we're gonna start back down
and the weather forecast is for some sunshine later
on so hopefully we'll get some good views as we're heading down
Yeah. We had none on the way up.
Pup was too scared to cross the river
and she's been howling over there for like 2 hours
and we were about to get back to her
and she finally just shows up!
Oh Pup!
Aww, now she's gonna have to cross it again
Well done. Are you traumatised?
Aww you poor thing
awww
Well done
OK, let's go, let's go
We've just stopped into Altihut
which is super swish
they invited us in for some chacha
and it's apparently a very special grape
this stuff is so strong though, I'm gonna have a little bit but we've still got a long way to go
It burns
Firewater
Fourteen hours later
we're finally back in Kazbegi
it only took us about 4 hours to get back down though
instead of the 8.5 hours that it took us to get up
so to celebrate, and to reward ourselves
we're having our very first Adjarian Khachapuri in Georgia
which is ridiculous seeing as we've been here for 4.5 months
but Del's not a huge fan of cheesy bread
I on the other hand, am a massive fan
and at least I've deserved this today
Oh my goodness
Oh ho ho!
Worth it