Metekhi

September 15, 2023

Another short day (there have been a lot of them on this tour) because we wanted to spend some time at the Uplistsikhe Cave City. Most of the ride was on very quiet roads and, for about eight kilometers, no road at all. In terms of cycling enjoyment it was far better than most so far in Georgia.

The tickets for the cave city were fifteen Lari a pop or twenty Lari to include a wine tasting. A strange combination but we went for the full monty. Uplistsikhe was occupied by various people from the Early Iron Age to the Late Middle Ages and has elements of both pagan and Christian temples. The oldest structures have been dated to the 1st century CE, but archaeologists now know that humans inhabited this site from as early as the 2nd millennium BCE. It was an important trading town on the Silk Route but lost its influence after a 13th century invasion by the Mongols when Mtskheta and Tbilisi became more prominent.

There were two paths to the city. The first was this deeply rutted path. That is solid rock that has been worn away by human use over more than three millennia.

The village below was destroyed in an earthquake in the nineteen thirties. Most of the cave city was also destroyed. The number of cave houses was reduced by eighty percent.

The wine tasting wasn't particularly good. There were four wines to taste ... from a plastic cup !!! We were given about fifteen seconds to taste each wine before the attendant started pouring the next wine into the single plastic cup so there was little chance to appreciate what we were trying to taste (if that was at all possible for something in a plastic cup). The whole experience lasted only a few minutes. Given that the wines cost about $30 US a bottle it is unlikely that the tasting was going to result in many sales.

After the cave city we had only about fourteen kilometers to go to the digs we had booked for the night. Most of this was on a simple track alongside the river.

We had a few spots where the rain earlier in the week had left its mark. The first water obstacle was more of a mud bath. Luckily we found a pile of dried reeds lying next to the road from which we made a raft to lay over the mud.

The next one was a river that had broken its banks. It wasn't deep though so we just removed our shoes and walked through.

We have a rather rough and ready villa (I use the term loosely) for the night in the village of Metekhi. Tomorrow we head for Georgia's old capital, the religious city of Mtskheta (five vowels before a consonant).

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 1,343 km (834 miles)

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