Georgia’s beer of choice is named after the town of Kazbegi and every bottle is branded with a picture of the iconic summit of Mount Kazbek. We were hot and bothered by frustrating visa procedures and busy Tbilisi streets in the heat so we decided to marshrutka north for a look at the mountain up close.

 

It was raining pretty hard when we arrived in Kazbegi - a last wee town before the closed Russian border - so the bus driver drove us around until he found us somewhere to stay. It was an interesting choice.  The house was big and empty. The mum worked in the local shop 13 hours a day and the teenage daughter, who shared the smallest bedroom with her mum, was usually out (or maybe she was in, it was hard to tell, she was very quiet). Photos on the wall indicated that the father had died recently. Other families may have joked about the broken cooker, the long and frequent power cuts, or the morning wash under the freezing bathroom tap. But up in cold, rainy Kazbegi it wasn’t all that funny.

 

The whole town felt a bit sad. The constant rain probably didn’t help the mood but even in the sun the once handsome stone houses now crumbling on either side of muddy, plastic bag filled streams would still have looked grim. The unemployed guys who stood around the main square with vodka on their breath all looked a bit helpless - although they did spring to life one morning when a young boy rode into town on a frisky looking mare. The ensuing horse mating scene required several men to control the kicking mare and provided much entertainment for everyone else.

 

The surrounding scenery however, more than made up for the sorry atmosphere in town (or did did it just highlight the sad fact that there should be visitors from all over Russia and the Caucasus holidaying here but no one can afford to travel anymore). The dramatic setting of the Tsminda Sameba Church was worth the trip alone. And the mighty, dark rock faces of the closest mountains hinted at how impressive the iconic 5000m Mt Kazbek would have looked had the clouds parted long enough for us to see it!

JL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kazbegi beer logo