Shenako

When you look down from keselo hotel to the left you can see the road going towards the edge of the plain and disappearing there. It is the road that leads to Shenako. The road goes down to the river Alazani and then goes up the forested mountain. So the whole way, till the top of the mountain goes through the birch, pine and hazelnut forest. Nowhere else in Tusheti one can see such beautiful birch forests. The distance until the river is one third of the whole length. From there it goes up. When you reach the highest point of the road from there begins the valley. One sees no village and one expects no village, one just goes excited with the beauty of the scenery and immediately just by one step the hill in front of you comes down and you see the village built on the slopes of the hill with a trinity church on its top. It is just an unforgettable sight and this optical wonder has made many people, who see Shenako for the first time, stare or cry for excitement.

The village Shenako was situated down in the gorge and then settled upwards on the hill. In the old place there is the old village ruined but still beautiful. It is called Ageurtha. If you stand facing the trinity church in Shenako and look down to the right side you can see the road leading to Ageurtha. To Ageurtha it is half an hour to walk. There goes a path along the car road. Ageurtha has an excellent location. The view on Alazani which flows down like a silver string is amazing.

The locals make the guests to close their eyes just before this one step to gain a stronger impression through it.

The village itself can be divided into two parts; houses built on the slope and the fortress just at the edge of the canyon. Ageurtha is very damaged, no house stands up to the roof

And the castles are ruined fast to the ground floor; it is still very interesting and beautiful due to its architectural details and location. If you are a little bit imaginative you can easily imagine the gone strength and beauty of Ageurtha and this is a really good feeling

We are in Shenako.7.30 pm.the shulta lorry has come to Shenako. Shulta is a person who treats all the village at the sacral festival. The whole village is there and helping them to download the lorry. In Tusheti the villagers keep together in everything. Here the whole village breathes with the same air of events. Even when in Alvani the contact is not so tight and everybody’s private life flows more or less apart. Here it is just the opposite. They boil beer three days before the festival, the men make it in a sacral place, because  festival beer is a sacral beverage. they make it from grain mainly and other secret components. Beer, which is called Aludi is  a little bit sweet and fizzy

Senako festival is calculated on the 100 day from Easter but the festival day must be Sunday, so the date varies within three or four days. In Shenako people celebrate during three days. One day the table is laid in the village, the second day in Ageurtha, the old village, the third day the table is laid again in the village but only the Shultas are invited to it. But as usual the whole village gathers themselves at the end and the public entertainment goes forth maybe through all the week although in decreasing dimensions.and instead of long festival sittings on bekhvne(meeting place of the village) one can hear drunken and cheerful voices from the houses.

In Shenako I have met the oldest man of the village Shota Kurdgelaidze.he had an excellent memory. He could remember even the slightest details from his early childhood and as he hilmelf confessed is very eager to speak. He knows much about the life of Tushs for the last two centuries, but one needs much time and work to write down everything as a book.

People in Shenako are more homely as in Omalo. Omalo is big and there come all the tourists and so hospitality and traditions are not so strong there any more. But Shenako is different. I have met a French pair here who had spent two nights there and their hostess knew none of the foreign languages, but they could even find out all about her life. The woman made them understand by gesture language and she made it artistically with exact meaning. That’s one more proof of the Georgian character. They are very expressive, of an artistic nature; they always speak with metaphors and exaggerate everything a little bit. It is just the opposite of European character. The European says what he thinks really, in Georgia such discredit attitude in personal relations is not general.

From Shenako are possible two hours trip to Ageurtha, five hour’s trip to Diklo, old Diklo,Dotkalto valley.

It is three hour’s walk to Diklo from Shenako. The paths runs in curves up the Sonekhi mountain and then you find yourself in a beautiful George. It is wide enclosed from the both sides with thick pine forested slopes. A little river is flowing along the forest, where you can cool yourself after walking up the steep slope in the burning sun. from this point the road is not tiring at all. There is nothing interesting in the village itself. It is perhaps the ugliest village of Tusheti, but the george itself is very

tush boys and girs

 I have forgotten to name the previous post which is now unnamed there in the list. so that unnamed is photos of Tush boys and girls. see it. the post is good :)

                                                                  Tush boys and girls

Omalo

We started at 6 pm from Alvani and at ten o’clock we are already in Omalo. The sun is shining and the air is full of smell of flowers. In fact it is not easy to determine what the components of this perfume mixture are. Alpine valley is blooming with Field flowers of uncountable kinds and of slightly different sweet scents. For pines it is a little bit later. They bloom in May.                          

Going back to Omalo, Five minute rains are common here. The sun always comes out after the rain and shines even brighter than before. It occurs often that light rain is dropping on the roof of the neighboring house but the afternoon sun is shining in your yard with its complete strength

The surrounding mountains loose their materiality by sunrise and obtain dark-sky-blue and light blue colors. Skylines of mountain chains on the differently lighted background build a very impressive picture.

Light and fog are very changeable in Tusheti. It forms a movable scene of millions of unrepeatable pictures, so in order to catch the full of the scenery one should watch it from early morning till late evening. Believe me; it is far more relaxing and exciting than any film.

The village Omalo is situated at the end of the valley you drive in from the narrow road on the mountain range slope. After deep and narrow Chanchakhovani gorge the plain of Omallo, which is like a hand palm among the endless ranges, takes you by surprise. It is like a rest place.

Just at the entrance of Omalo valley there is a guesthouse with birch forest near it. There are three guesthouses in Omalo. The first, the Keselo Hotel, was open in 1999. It is situated on the village top and through it obtains the full view over the plain. From here you can see all the roads crossing the plain. Most of these roads go through the village. One of them goes round the plain through the birch and pine forests. The roadsides are full of flowers and from here one can see the villages of Chanchakhovani and Gometzari gorges. The road goes round the village Omalo and then leads to Pirikiti and Gomatzari gorges. The place, where the road goes apart towards these two parallel gorges, is called Mirgvela. It means a round place.

When the road makes turn round the village  just after 200 meters you’ll see a path go up the slope. The main road is a serpentine. It is waving to make it easier to escalate. The path goes straight up and crosses the main road twice. For easy-goers it takes 10-15 minutes from down village to up village Omalo on foot. While down village is a modern village with tin roofs and houses scattered all over the plain width, in up village you acknowledge at first the vision of an ancient Tush village.

The simple architecture with blue stone and simple two sloped roofs, small windows, little wooden doors, where you must bow to two in order to go in, cool darkness of narrow passages and blue stone smelling like water, cooling like water and making the simple small houses look very beautifully. It is stone and wood the only decoration of Tush style of architecture. Their balconies are cut in wood, very fine with big supply of incomparable originality

But forward! Keselo fortress with its fantastic views is waiting for you. There are 7 castles on Keselo hill. The upper castles are built at the edge of a deep canyon. It is breathtakingly beautiful due to it. The canyon attracts you with its terrifying depth. From the bottom point the right and left slopes of two mountain ranges replace each other with mathematical sharpness and makes an impression of ever repeated eternity going far over the horizon line.

if you look carefully you will see the note fixed to the pine tree "hotel keselo" this is the view

i

There is an ethnographical museum in one of the castles.

In Omalo there are four guesthouses:the green house just by the roadside, the Kamsuri right in the village, the Keselo on the top and one guesthouse just at the entrance. In each of these guesthouses are ten or fifteen little two-bed rooms and one or two bathrooms  . The Keselo hotel has a view advantage and there are beautiful pines too. in the Entrance hotel the hall and interior is beautiful and its upper store is spacious and nice, all in wood and there are birch trees. Green house is a little cozy guesthouse at reasonable prices I think because I have met there only students and new-married couple, who had no money to waste. Hotel Kamsuri is maybe the most comfortable but not for a fine taste.

From Omalo you can make one-day tours to Shenako, Chanchakhovani George or to Kue,(direction mirgvela) or just wander on the Omalo plain and see flowers.

flowers blooming in Omalo valley late in July

these are only a few from a great variety of flowers in Tusheti.