Wednesday 26th June

We travelled north from Gaudari towards the Russian border on a very winding & bumpy highway, very busy with heavy trucks, cars & buses following the Tergi River, stopping at the giant curved panoramic monument celebrating 200 years of Georgia & Russia's integration built in 1983. On we went to arrive at the giant Jvari pass, at 2379m, where there is a small cemetery to the memory of the German POWs who died during the building of the highway. We descended, past several snow covered gullies, down to the town of Kazbeti, where some of our group walked the 3k, up to the Gergeti Trinity Church. Four of us took the easy way out & went up in a 4WD, as we thought it was all getting too hard. The views were spectacular but unfortunately the highest snow-covered mountain, Mt Kazbeti, 5000m+ was obscured by cloud.

We returned to the town & wandered about before a quick lunch. Met up with the walkers & returned to Gaudari.

Thursday 27th June

Off at 8.30 towards Tbilisi, as 2 people had left their passports in the safe at the hotel there. A traffic jam outside delayed us ther,e so we were late at the border. Here the system was chaotic & the crossing into Armenia, where we were met by our next guide, Elya, took about an hour

After a short lunch break, we drove off, on the worst roads we have seen, to see the Haghpat Monastery, quite properly listed by UNESCO. The complex is amazing in both its architecture & its Basalt, (Bluestone) stonework, in that the workmanship is so fine.

Armenia was the first country in the world to convert to Christianity in the mid 4th century & the abbey was started in the 7th century, although the major buildings were built in the 13th century.

Elya spent some time on the country's history etc, claiming that the present state only covers 10% of its former area, the rest being held by Turkey & Iran. Its population today is about 3 million but after the Turkish massacres of 1915, there are now 6 million in the Armenian diaspora mainly in the US. Any person with an Armenian name can claim Armenian citizenship.

In the recent war, with Azerbaijan, there were mass migrations from some villages on each side & relations with other countries are quite complex. The borders are closed with Azerbaijan & Turkey but relations are good with Russia & Iran. All these factors seem to contribute to its rather threadbare look after Georgia & Azerbaijan. We drove through one town which had a huge copper smelting plant from the Soviet era, now closed & falling into ruin. This seemed to be a common problem of the Soviet era in that production was centralised in a region regardless of economics but now many of these giant plants have become outdated & abandoned.

From Haghpat we drove through a range of countryside from wide valleys with snow covered mountains in the background to steep sided gorges, nearly all on very badly potholed roads. We passed several villages of Molokan people, a sect who broke away from the Russian Orthodox church & were moved from Russia to Armenia in the 1830s. The villagers live in a form of closed society growing organic produce & intermarry with Molokans from other communities.

Finally, we arrived at Dilijan, a well known country holiday area & after a short stop to admire the restored buildings, we went on to our hotel.