Moving deeper into the mountains, we were set to discover wine making monks on the Georgian/Russian border and breathtaking mountains.
We stopped over in the small village of Stepantsminda and Gergeti. Nestled within the Greater Caucus Mountains, it also sits right on the border with Russia.
On our way through to the village we visited the Ananuri Fortress, which was built in the 13th century. Attacked many times over the years, it was never taken due to secret tunnels that led to the water and thus provided a way to get food and water to the people who had taken refuge in the castle. The enemy finally captured a woman named Ana, who was from Nuri, and tortured her to reveal the location of the tunnel. But she chose to die rather than giving the secret away.
The mountains continued to give us some stunning scenery on our way through.
From the village of Gergeti is the Holy Trinity Church. It sits at an elevation of 2,170m under Mount Kazbek. We were fortunate to witness a service with the local monks while we were there.
We had the option of hiking up to the Holy Trinity Church, which we put the kibosh on pretty quickly!! And came up with the excellent suggestion of driving up and walking down. On the way down we gained one of our regular local dog guides….. who walked a significant away into town with us.
In the afternoon we visited a monastery that was right on the border with Russia. Georgia establish churches on their borders to prove they had rights over the land. The Dariali monks make their own wine in the traditional clay pots that are buried. In usual Toni, Stephen and Paula style we ended up buying more wine and cognac than 3 people should purchase…..!
In the afternoon we had a dumpling making masterclass, followed by a felt making master class. The mountain dumplings (Khinkali) are amazing and I will make an attempt when I get home at making them! Felt making is a big tradition in the Georgian mountains, as it was the basis of their shepherds coats (which are 7 layers of felted material). The physicality that goes into felting is amazing, our little effort was only 2 layers of felting! Our felting master was impressed with our efforts to abstractly replicate the mountains. I’ve let Toni take our mater piece home.
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