“Leave a light on for me” (Belinda Carlisle)

Heading back down from Mestia I was able to go up onto the roof seats – two hatches at the back of the truck with fortunately padded seats allowing 4 people at any one time to sit so their legs dangle into the truck, but from the waist up they are sticking out the top of the truck. It allows for the most amazing 360 degree views and photo opportunities, and also allows whoever is driving to have a bit of fun by trying to drown you as you go through leaky tunnels, or decapitate you with low branches!

We drove on for most of the day, stopping briefly to visit a market and a beautiful old church on a hill. We also had the opportunity to see the clouds gathering for a thunderstorm, and desperately hope that we were heading in the other direction!

After leaving the town we (in the royal sense) managed to find a lovely bush camp on the banks of a river with stunning mountain views in the distance. After appeasing the land owner with a t-shirt, we settled into camp and received a number of visitors including a herd of cattle, an overnight stay by two policeman (although the chief of police, who also came to visit, did make them give their guns in before they could stay – not sure whether that was for our or their protection!). Another amazing bbq dinner (this time pork, complete with crackling) and a couple of cheeky glasses of Georgian red wine, and a lovely sunset and, amazingly, no rain! Happy days!

An early-ish start the next morning as we headed towards Tblisi. First stop along the way was Gori where we visited the Stalin Museum. Surprisingly, it was a quite hilarious visit. Stalin was born in Gori and for a town whose only other claim to fame is that it was almost completely wiped out by an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter Scale, that is a pretty big deal. As a result, the guide gives you a fairly interesting version of Stalin’s life that manages to avoid any reference to people dying. It was only when asked directly how many people died in Leningrad that our guide responded curtly “three million” and we moved swiftly on. The highlight of the tour was a highlight for us for a different reason. We were walked into a circular room in which is displayed Stalin’s death mask. Unfortunately the room was completely pitch black. The guide was unable to explain why the lights weren’t working, however I had to admire her dedication to the cause as she marched us all into a pitch black room (complete with ramps and steps to add a little spice) to look at a black mask in the middle of the room that none of us could see. Fortunately one of us had a torch and so we were able to see the mask to a certain extent (and also not fall down the stairs on the way out).From the Stalin Museum we headed to a cave city where we were guided around by a very enthusiastic and thorough guide. We saw churches, pagan temples, prisons, living rooms, wine-making rooms and a pharmacy. We also heard about the use of “dunk” to cook bread (later to be discovered that the word was in fact “dung”), and ended up walking through a tunnel with 97 wooden steps down to the river. And no lighting. Call me surprised.