27-Aug-2006 -- My wife and I visited Svaneti region of Georgia from 25 August 2006 to 28 August 2006. Svaneti is a very mountainous region bordering with Russia. We stayed at a guesthouse in Mestia. The family (owners of the guesthouse) we stayed with was very companionable and their boys offered to show us around. It soon became apparent that they are very familiar with the Svaneti region.
On Saturday evening while we had dinner I looked at the map of the Ushguli area we were planning to visit on Sunday. I told the family of the Degree Confluence Project and showed them the point 43N 43E on my map of Georgia. They fetched a more detailed map and informed me that they have been to a nearby area and that they are very familiar with the village Adish close by. All of a sudden I could see the excitement for them about the point as well. We spontaneously decided that we will attempt to approach the point on Sunday, 27 August 2006 before we continue to visit the highest village in Svaneti called Ushguli. Ushguli is claimed to be the highest inhabited village in Europe and according to my GPS the village is at an elevation of 2086 m.
The road to Adish was in very bad condition. From Adish we were 7.9 km from the point, as the crow would fly. We left the car at Adish and walked along the river towards the degree confluence point. The first 6 km were fairly easy going and we covered this distance in less than 2 hours. At approximately 2 km from the point the terrain changed and become very difficult. Because of the terrain, I suggested that we return but it was not accepted. One of the brothers, Irakli, offered to stay with my wife at this point while the other brother, Dato and I continued towards the confluence point. The terrain was very challenging and it took nearly 2 hours to cover the last 1.9 km. The scenery was absolutely fantastic. While crossing the glazier Dato told me that historically there used to be a village here but an avalanche of the glazier destroyed the entire village and all inhabitants were killed.
We went right to the point and took some pictures. From the exact point the terrain prevents taking pictures that would do justice to the beautiful scenery. For this reason we took pictures from a point nearby (~68 m) that does justice to the beautiful nature scenes.
Included with the pictures is a picture of the typical Svaneti towers at the village Adish and a cattleman’s hut (1.9 km) from the confluence point with the mountain and glazier in the background (confluence point to the right of the glazier). The Svaneti region is one of the very beautiful Georgian regions with many very historical sites well worth a visit. For us it was certainly a memorably experience.