Hiking in Georgia – from Mestia to Zardlashi and Murshkeli villages

Sunny days finally arrived and we used our chance for another trek, this time it was first part of 4-days trek to Ushguli. At the beginning, the path passes Hotel Tetnuldi, where we could already seen stunning view of Mt.Ushba in a distance!

In comparison to the last day, a perfectly clear sky gave us a chance to see multiple mountain ranges. After a while, we have seen wild herd of horses who did not pay attention to us at all. They look magnificent with the mountains and Mestia village in the background.

Wide path guided us few kilometers through the fields until it reached wooden sign marking the direction to the near villages. We kept going straight, path became very narrow, muddy and steep. Branches of the trees and dense bushes made this part the most difficult. After that part path again became easy and pleasant, branching into few variants which were leading into the same direction.

We could see in a distance the only road leading to Ushguli with heavy trucks on it. Few villages in the valley looked pretty old and destroyed, however the characteristic for this region towers were still on their places. At on point we decided to start heading back to Mestia, from curiosity choosing the way through one of the villages located in the lower part of the valley. Buildings seemed to be abandoned and we haven’t seen anyone there, besides one, barking dog. We got trapped in 10 cm deep mud while passing the narrow paths in the village, luckily no one fall into it! We decided to return mostly the same way as we came to avoid more muddy and unpleasant surprises :) We have met only few tourists, horses and a dog during this really nice, 20 km walk on that bright and warm day.

As always we finished the hike in one of the restaurants in Mestia, waiting for a great meal to compensate the toils of the day. This time as a appetizer zucchini rolls with garlic-walnut paste as a filling, served cold :)

Practical info:

On the map below you can see our hike and the distance. It took us almost 3h to get there and almost the same (including breaks) to get back. We were not rushing, just enjoying the day.