Svaneti, one of the most inaccessible valleys in the Caucasus.
For centuries, its higher villages used to be the safe where Georgians hid their most valuable religious artifacts to keep them away from Turks, Persians or whoever was invading their country. Nowadays, there is one paved road up to the village of Mestia but that will be just the start of an unforgettable adventure...The fact that the first part of the road was paved does not mean it was free from hazards, not at all. Apart from the usual cows, pigs, broken cars, drunks, potholes, etc. that were part of the general driving experience in Georgia, I can remember two WTF spots that made me slow down and take things easy.

The first one was a tunnel with no lighting at all that was full of... cows! As you can imagine, my low beam, which is always on, was not enough to penetrate into the tunnel from outside in broad daylight. Just before entering the tunnel, I decided to brake slightly and switch on my high beam as well to have better visibility. At that time, I realized the tunnel was not empty and had to brake hard to stop in front of the cows (stepping on their slippery shit everywhere), and started honking and flashing my lights to make some space to drive through. The animals had just decided it was too hot outside and they were taking a nap in the tunnel...

The second hazard got my adrenaline levels to the max. The road was actually not made of asphalt but slabs of concrete, making a rhythmical bump-bump sound as we rode. At some point, without any traffic warning sign, they had decided to cut a stream into the road. In order to let the water flow without damaging the road too much, they placed a couple of those slabs going sharply down, a few of them flat about 1m below the rest of the road and again a couple of them going up. The result is that unaware drivers can obviously see there is a hollow in the road but would never imagine it is so deep. The result: I braked but not enough to avoid jumping together with Natalia and my 300kg bike... we took off straight and landed straight. Nothing happened, just the new experience of flying on two wheels.

After a three hours drive from the coast, we arrived in Mestia, checked in a hostel and started meeting some fellow bikers. I spoke to two Swedish and one German who were all travelling separately. The two Swedish guys had come the same way, one of them also flew on the very same spot without consequences while the other actually fell off his bike in a different place because of pigs crossing the road and another car swerving and braking violently. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to him, just a few scratches. The German guy had actually ridden the opposite way, coming from the neighboring valley over the pass into Higher Svaneti. He said he had dropped his bike a few times, had to spend the night camping in the middle of nowhere, broke a few parts of his Yamaha Tenere (the Swedish guys were driving a Tenere and an F800GS) but definitely recommended to try and cross the pass. At that time, I did not have that in mind but the temptation started to sneak into my brain...

Anyway, while in Mestia we managed to do a couple of easy hikes. One of them took us to the Chalaadi glacier and we actually made a dog friend who came with us all the way. We named him Khachapuri, which is one of the most famous Georgian national dishes: cheese-filled bread in different variations.

The road to Ushguli, the highest village in Svaneti (and actually the highest permanent settlement in Europe if Georgia is considered part of Europe) was not paved and there was no public transport. I was not experienced enough to take a passenger on this road and had to say goodbye to Natalia, agreeing that we could possibly meet again later in Kutaisi or Tbilisi. I was not sure if I was gonna drive the whole way over the pass or just to Ushguli and back but I had to start from the beginning... so I spent three hours driving those 36km to Ushguli.

I dropped my bike twice, both times in the mud and due to driving a bit too fast in second gear for those conditions. I learned from experience that one has to slow down to 5-10km/h in first gear and cross those mud hazards slowly but steadily, trying to keep the balance and foreseeing the direction in which the front or back wheels are going to slide. Once you do that, I realized it is very similar to free-ride snowboarding but with a 300kg machine instead of a light snowboard... well, both times I dropped my bike somebody helped me lift it after waiting for 10-15 minutes and I could continue my trip. One of my anti-fog lights got broken but I fixed it temporarily with tape (later on in Tbilisi with instant glue and it looks perfect now).

After those three hours of stones, gravel, knee-deep mud, stream crossings, very steep slopes and sometimes all of them at the same time, I arrived in Ushguli pretty exhausted. However, the village was worth all the effort and the setting was simply superb at the foot of Shkhara, the highest mountain in Georgia.

The previous picture looks great in the morning sun but the next one is when these 5000m high giants start roaring during storms, usually happening in the evenings. You can also see how the village looks like, with its characteristic stone architecture and the not-so-fitting new guesthouses made of metal and plastic. It seemed that in a few years' time, Ushguli could lose its charm due to tourism exploitation.

This is a close-up of one of the symbols of Svan: their defense towers. This brave people built almost as many towers as houses in their villages to defend themselves and their religion against foreign powers. They were successful since many empires had a very hard time coming to these valleys, often just leaving Svans going on with their lives in their remote villages.

After getting all kinds of advice from locals and travelers, exploring the first kilometers of the road on foot and taking into account that it had not rained heavily for a few days, I decided to drive over the Zagaro pass. I will not make further comments, just watch this video recorded last year in August on the same route:

Georgia on Africa (Twin): from Ushguli to Lentekhi. Part 3: Zagaro Pass

After that pass, I and my bike became one.