16/9/19 Ushguli

Yesterday Dermot had a ride back down the hill with a good driver in a good car and found out about going to Ushguli with him, so we decided to head there today.

Johnnie said he'd leave at 9am, but when his vehicle wasn't full he kept on delaying.  There was only one other couple - Bebbe and Joost from the Netherlands.  The forecast was for rain in the afternoon so we were pretty keen to get going.  Eventually we changed vehicles and headed off.  This seems to be a common occurence - the drivers are pretty keen to wait around until they have a full load.

I'd thrown up during the night so wasn't feeling the best :-(  I think it was something I'd eaten.  It meant I didn't have much energy to go exploring, but just wandering around the UNESCO village of Ushguli, with all its Sveneti towers was great.

Unfortunately a lot of the buildings are empty and falling down, and I think tourism and development will rapidly destroy the place.  The village is at 2,100m in a beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains, with horses and cows grazing in the hillsides and people working in the fields.

We even got to see Mose from the film Dede that we'd watched last night.