In search of a winter wonderland

After the descent to the 7th circle of Dante's Inferno that was Traveling A Budget Airline Out Of Tbilisi, we made a unanimous decision to stay in country this holiday season.

Being Northerners, we crave a cold snowy winter, which can be hard to come by in town, so we set off for a remote mountainous corner of Georgia where the Svans have been living (in relative isolation) for centuries, Svaneti.

There is only one driveable road to the village of Mestia in winter, and it passes through a winding, landslide-prone river valley. The final two hours of our day-long drive stretched to four as we crept through the snow. We felt grateful for the umpteenth time that we had heeded the advice of our progenitors and brought a 4WD vehicle to Georgia.