New hiking trail puts forgotten part of Europe on the map

Visiting Murkmeli is like being in a medieval fairytale. The largely abandoned village in the Upper Svaneti region of Georgia is dominated by five-storey Svan towers. Built mainly between the 9th and 12th centuries, these unique stone structures served both as homes and as defensive fortresses.

During the brutal winters, families and livestock would live together on the ground floor to conserve heat. Whenever they were under attack – either by invaders, avalanches or neighbours – they would retreat up into the tower.

High point… sunset on the Transcaucasian Trail.Credit: Getty Images

A legendarily resilient people who are thought to have lived here since 1000 BC, the Svans have a long tradition of blood feuds, bride kidnapping and forced marriages. As our Georgian guide Lasha Udzilauri puts it, “Svaneti people have a heavy character.”

We’re staying at a simple guesthouse in the neighbouring village of Chazhashi, the most developed of the four settlements collectively known as Ushguli. At 2160 metres, it’s one of Europe’s highest continuously inhabited settlements. This UNESCO World Heritage-listed medieval time capsule is surrounded by a dramatic medley of alpine valleys and towering peaks.

Until about 10 years ago, this remote region barely saw any international travellers. But thanks to the Transcaucasian Trail, a 3000-kilometre hiking route being developed through Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, it’s experiencing a sizeable upsurge in interest. As a result, families who had previously abandoned their homes to find work in the cities are returning to open guesthouses and restaurants.

Ushguli is the figurative high point of a trip that started six days ago in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. Some of our 16-strong group have already tackled the Armenian section of the trail with World Expeditions, while the rest of us have joined for this 10-day Georgia instalment.

Daunting… mountain scenery.Credit: Gesine Cheung

Our hiking exploits start gently, with a stroll along a 700-metre metal boardwalk suspended high above the steep-sided Okatse Canyon. From here, it’s a long drive on nerve-testing narrow roads to Ushkhvanari, one of many unpronounceable hamlets in the mountainous Upper Svaneti region bordering Russia.

Our first proper trek is to Shdugra waterfall, a 120-metre torrent in the foothills of Mount Ushba, a distinctive twin-peaked granite goliath that for much of our trip remains obstinately shrouded in cloud. Following an uphill trail through an endemic pine forest dotted with purple wildflowers, we frequently have to cross milky glacial streams using makeshift wooden bridges.

After skirting an armed border control point guarding a mountain pass leading to Russia, we get our first glimpse of Ushba glacier, a minty white ice flow that tumbles down the mountain’s western flank.

Hiking reward ... Shdugra waterfall.Credit: Getty Images

The 12-kilometre return hike is a good warm-up for the next few days, where we’ll push higher and deeper into the scenically extravagant Greater Caucasus, a 1200-kilometre-long mountain range stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.

Mestia is the region’s gateway, an unexpectedly cosmopolitan ski town with modern hotels, atmospheric restaurants and an intriguing architectural mishmash of ancient stone towers and wooden alpine chalets.

From Mestia, we spend three days hiking to Ushguli, a journey that plunges us into a buckling landscape of forested ravines and raging glacial rivers. Along the way, there are taxing climbs over mountain passes (the highest is 2720 metres), but the reward is normally a stupendously scenic lunch spot with a panoramic view of a squirming glacier or a peak-studded horizon. Afternoons are then spent descending on trails through autumn-tinged beech forests, occasionally passing fields dotted with clanking cattle and skittish wild horses.

Lush greenery … Mestia during the warmer months.Credit: iStock

En route, we encounter hikers from all over the world. One day, I pass a shirtless Russian man and his two children; on another we meet a group of young Spaniards drinking red wine and playing chess. While we use horses to cross a freezing glacial stream, a mother and daughter from Latvia nonchalantly wade across in sandals. “It’s OK,” says the daughter, noticing my concern. “At home, we go ice swimming.”

Accommodation is what you’d expect to find in remote mountain communities with only a handful of families – rustic and welcoming. We stay in a series of small guesthouses with basic rooms and shared facilities. Days start with a generous spread of homemade bread, cheese, salads and cake (a breakfast item I enthusiastically endorse) and end with a table-filling array of soups, curries, beans and potatoes. A few of us bravely try the local wine, which on one occasion is dispensed – somewhat alarmingly – from a recycled soft drink bottle.

Georgia claims to be the oldest wine-making culture in the world. But despite 8000 years of practice, its traditional amber wines, produced by fermenting juice, skins and stalks in underground clay pots called qvevri, can often be challenging. A side product from this endeavour is chacha, a grappa-like digestif so potent you completely forget about the taste of the wine.

Lunch-stop views of Adishi glacier, Georgia.Credit: iStock

We learn more about the wine-making process during an enjoyable lunch at Merebashvili’s Marani, a family-run winery in the small town of Kaspi. Owner Lasha Merebashvili explains that Georgia used to have about 550 grape varietals but many were wiped out by two devastating viruses called “phylloxera and communism”.

It’s hard to escape the frequent reminders of Russia’s legacy, from the striking Soviet-era bas-reliefs in Tbilisi to the Cyrillic writing on gravestones. Even at mealtimes, it’s rare not to be offered a variant of the traditional Russian salad of potatoes, carrot, pickles and egg.

Perhaps the most contentious legacy we see is an EU-built settlement housing some of the estimated 200,000 Georgian refugees who were displaced by Russian incursions during 2008. Deemed by Georgia to be occupied territories, the “autonomous” regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia account for almost 20 per cent of the country.

Guide Lasha Udzilauri, who grew up under Russian rule, can still remember the crime-ridden “dark days” after the Soviet Union crumbled when there were long lines for bread and there was no electricity.

The hilltop 6th-century Jvari Monastery.Credit: Getty Images

On the way to Mestia, we stop in Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, to visit a museum containing the two-room wooden hut in which he was born and the armoured train carriage he later used for transport. “Many of the older generation are proud that Stalin was from Georgia,” Udzilauri says, “but they have Stockholm syndrome from this time. The younger generation are different – no one can be a dictator of them.”

During Soviet rule, religion was outlawed, so most of Georgia’s churches were turned into stables or toilets. Thankfully, two of the most significant examples that survived are now preserved as UNESCO World Heritage sites. The hilltop 6th-century Jvari Monastery contains some of the earliest examples of Georgian writing and the 11th-century Svetitskhoveli Cathedral claims to be the final resting place of Jesus’ robe. Equally astounding is Uplistsikhe, a sprawling set of cave dwellings near Gori that date from the 1st century BC.

Chazhashi village in Ushguli.Credit: Getty Images

While these ancient sites are undeniably impressive, I’m more intrigued by the country’s recent history and the enormous economic, social and cultural changes that have occurred since it left the Soviet Union in 1991. We see evidence of this in Tbilisi, where there are striking contemporary buildings alongside brutalist Soviet edifices. And even in remote regions like Upper Svaneti, people are being lured back to breathe new life into abandoned villages.

On our penultimate night in Mestia, two of us head to the local cinema after dinner to watch Dede, a 2017 film by Mariam Khatchvani about the life of her grandmother. Set in and around Ushguli during the 1990s, it’s a heart-wrenching portrayal of a gruelling existence punctuated by family feuds, murders and kidnappings.

Afterwards, I take a late-night stroll along the deserted main drag, past swish restaurants, stylish cafes and even a co-working space. And then, out of a side street, a boy appears with four cattle, which he proceeds to usher down the main street using a stick. It’s a surreal sight – a ghost from Georgia’s past walking towards its fluorescent-lit future.

The details

Fly
Emirates and Qatar Airways offer one-stop services to Tbilisi via Dubai and Doha. See emirates.com; qatarairways.com

Tour
Starting and ending in Tbilisi, World Expeditions’ 10-day Transcaucasian Trail Hike Georgia includes accommodation, transfers, guided hikes and most meals. The trip is rated 4/10, meaning it’s suitable for hikers with a “good level of fitness and good health”. From $3690, twin-share. See worldexpeditions.com

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The writer was a guest of World Expeditions.