Mestia - Kutaisi, 4/X; 2nd September - From Aqtau

Mestia - Kutaisi, 4/X; 2nd September

2nd September

We had a late breakfast with Salome and her mother. They taught MayLyn and me how to make Kachapuri (and the other dish filled with meat — very delicious as the meat is marinated with in a spice mix which has a hint of chilli) — the dough is a very wet one, which makes it difficult to handle, but Salome’s mum handled it as easily as frying an egg.

Taking some kachapuri with us. Salome's family also giften their homemade Svaneti salt -- it contains various spices and some chilli -- goes very well lightly sprinkled on boiled eggs

We set off from the house after some goodbye’s. We had a very relaxing time at the house and eating delicious and filling Georgian food!

At the bottom of the valley, at the meeting of the main road there was a small protest going on where locals had blocked the road. Salome had mentioned that in the past this tactic had succeeded, as it drew attention to local issues which the authorities in Tbilsi were not aware of about.

The protest related to a dam that has been under construction for 10 years in Salome’s valley, but is currently paused, with allegations of corruption against various contractors who walked away from the project.

Obviously the drivers were not happy and there were some arguments going on. But there was no violence that Extinction Rebellion were subjected to when drawing attention to the climate crisis in the U.K. — nobody getting dragged to the side of the road like a ragdoll or being driven into by land rovers.

The next 20 - 30 kms were great as there was almost no traffic passing us due to the blockage.

Towards the end of the day we took a diversion to Enguri Dam completed in 1978, which was impressive. I think the documentary said it was the largest curved concrete structure in the world when it was built, and currently provides a very large (I think at least 1/3?) proportion of Georgia’s electricity, as the water flowing out the dam turns four turbines before reaching the Black Sea.

The descent then continued, and we reached a small town, bought some food, and set off down a gravel path to to find an idyllic campspot by a river, where we enjoyed a swim and dinner.

Camp spot. the river was so clean there were a few shoals of small fish swimming in it

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