Joni the manager from the guesthouse in Kutaisi picked us up three days later to take us on the four hour
journey to Borjomi a picturesque town divided by a river with a large park of one side complete with orthodox
church and steep mountains on either side. Our guesthouse ‘Four Seasons’ was up a steep flight of stairs again
but the staff were very good carrying our heavy bags. I made friends with a ginger pussycat who was very friendly
and came when he was called. I could have taken him/her home.
The driver who picked us up in the morning to take us the the cave town of Vardzia and the enormous Rabati Fortress
had one of the many Japanese import cars which had their steering wheels on the right hand side so being a crazy
Georgian driver (like most of them) he kept me suitably scared when pulling out to see if he could pass a truck.
Rabati was somewhat of a living Fortress with administration offices, restaurants, a wellness centre complete with
hamam and hotel and cafes. It was spectacular in its diversity with fountains, a mosque, church, recreation rooms
and towers. It had a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. From Rabati we went on another hour to the
cave city of Vardzia which is mostly uninhabited now. There was one roped off area with planted flowers and
grapevines where someone lived. We had a hard climb to get there and we managed another few hundred steps up and down to the bottom again. We had again been lucky with the weather. It was misty in the mornings in the mountains and the leaves had begun to change colour for the autumn. Many people were harvesting walnuts and hazelnuts common to many regions.
We were surprised to learn that in the 12th century there were 16million inhabitants of Georgia but over time and with the wars the land had been divided and now there are only 3.5million people living in Georgia.