Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Burr-r-r-r

Ah, nothing like WET cold rain! We're at 3,000 feet and it's cold AND raining. This lovely homestay is also NOT heated! So we've dug out out sleeping bags and woollies for a cold night indoors! Gotta love overlanding. Ha-ha.

A free morning and departure to Telavi

A long lazy morning and a short visit to the Georgian State Museum rewarded us by viewing gold and silver finds from 2000BC grave sites, an exposition of the Russian occupation and holocaust 1921-1991, and a unique collection of Persian and Tibetan art. Sorry no photos.

We loaded up Sura, were joined by our new family member, Val from Roma (photo below) and departed for the wine country and the town of Telavi. All of us have now had a cold, some worse than others...and a few have had "revenge of the road." For once I have only had the sore throat thing. I have been VERY careful about what goes in so I am not inconvenienced by what comes out!

The highway out of town carried a familiar name, "the George W. Bush Highway." OMG! I wonder what we invested in to have this "honor"?

We drove into the hills. It was a cloudy and cool day. The hills were green and the fruit and nut trees covered in blossoms. The road varied from pavement to gravel and dirt and it took about three hours to reach our destination.

The small village of Telavi, on the Lesser Caucasus foothills welcomed us with a brisk temperature. Our rooms tonight are on a large family home with charming carved wood stairs and antiques. Laundry facilities were arranged and we settled in for a relaxing evening and a home cooked meal.