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

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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.