The ladies of the tourist information in Mestia had said the road to Ushguli would take about 2 hours to drive, then on to Lentehki another 5 hours, and 2 hours from there to Kutaisi... we've decided not to listen to Georgian travel time estimates. The drive to Ushguli, a very remote village in Svaneti, took about 4 hours, but it was an incredibly beautiful drive. On arriving in Ushguli we drove around to the handful of guesthouses and found one that a) spoke En...

Georgia is amazing! As a country the size of Ireland, the diversity of the landscape and the things to see are incredible! So far we have dined on the Black Sea, cooled our feet in the gorge at Martvili, driven passed raging torrents on precarious ledges and walked up to the tongue of a glacier! Yesterday we went on our "beginners" hike, climbing 900m to reach The Cross that overlooks the Mestia village. Well, not so much of a beginners hike then! And then the g...

Drove for a couple a days just along the main road, but seeing as its along the Black Sea, not too terrible! We arrived at the border crossing at Hopa/Batumi at 2pm, quite suddenly and by suprise - the border is at the end of a tunnel! We joined the queue and after 2 hours had crossed into Georgia. No problems. We got into Batumi and had a drive around. It was quite strange because the street signs became impossible to read (not in Roman alphabet!) and the Pres...