Four Days in Racha

We left the boys and headed further north towards a town called Oni, stopping along the way to bathe in a river pool (see the photo- Dima hadn't yet got the hang of the self-timer on the camera!!!). We had the most delicious hajapuri (cheese bread) baked especially for us in a small run-down Oni cafe, and then headed along a stony road towards Utsera to try the natural spring water (fizzy, straight from the ground and smelling of sulfur!). At the fountain Dima

got talking to a local grandmother and offered her a lift home with her five litres of water! She accepted and we were taken across the Rioni river (which rises high enough to wash the bridges and houses away some winters!) to a small village nestled in a pine gorge. We ate with her, her two daughters and a neighbour- being treated as part of the family from the first! As it was growing dark, we asked their advice about where to put a tent for the night. "No, no!" they said, "You must stay in our house up the hill!" Escorted by Tamuna and Khatuna, we wound through the village and found ourselves in the house in the last picture. They had started to build it but had run out of finances. Warm and wooden with no windows and little furniture, it was more than adequate and we were able to make a comfortable enough bed on the floor of the 2nd storey (a wise choice- a few nights before, we found out the next day, a bear had come and eaten a cow just outside the village and up the hill from this house! Thank god we didn't camp!). The next day we went back to Khatuna's grandmother's house (stopping on the way to drink champagne and eat chocolates with some villagers (Why?- Just because we were passing and the wanted to welcome us!) and picked up Khatuna and her friend (the boy in the photo on the left, I've forgotten his name). Then we drove almost to the last village in Georgia before Russia (the road conditions were too much for our Golf in the end!) and stopped to take in the mountain air and enjoy an open fire. (sigh!)