Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Chazhashi hamlet: COLD water on tap

The hamlet's main church seen through the entrance stairway

Tower cluster

A 19th-century Russian Empire church bell

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

View towards the top of the village and Mt Shkhara, Enguri rushing by

Looking down from Tamar's Winter Tower complex, which even 80 years ago had more towers than it does now

Icicles - gravity is definitely lower here than it is at lower altitudes; I've seen ice doing things it would otherwise be too heavy to contemplate

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Upper village at sunset again. Mt Shkhara looks to be within easy walking distance as it catches the last of the light. But's it's actually 7 km away from the foreground, just so high - over 5 km - as to appear closer

Reflection of the house - and me at the doorway, lower far right - in Dato's truck. I'm always looking for good reflectors, water being a favourite

Zakro with one of his twice-daily bundles of hay for the cows

Icicles in the sun

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Self-portrait in truck window

Icicles

Sunset on Mt Shkhara

Fenceposts

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Several images from a walk which Lali and I went on across the Enguri and towards Mt Shkhara. The last shot's tower is that of Lamaria Church, the highest of the village's 7 churches. We almost reached the summit I was aiming for, but it was getting late in the afternoon and I didn't realise how quick our descent would be compared to our ascent, so I turned us back. We could've made it! And now, with the amount of snow which has fallen in the region, cutting off both roads and electricity for now, I'll have to wait until the spring to make that summit.

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Ice and water on the Enguri River, tower reflected in it

Tamar's Summer Tower Fortress above the village

Mt. Ushba at left, Mulakhi village spread out below it

Murqmeli, lowest hamlet of Ushba, and the Enguri

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Top 2: the main church in Chazhashi hamlet, including some remnants of outer-wall fresco work

Goat closeup in yer face

Water, snow and ice on the Enguri River

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Lali on a bridge, Mts Skhara (left) and Lamaria (right) behind her

Tower in the sun

Anzor & Lana woodcutting, he splitting the logs on which we depend for heat and cooking

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

In honour of the video clip which made me famous last April, and for which I was presented with a prize recently at the studio of Rustavi 2 TV in Tbilisi... Tony in the bath, again. Badly missing the steam baths of Tbilisi's Old City

A building (exterior and interior) which I'd assumed was the 8th of Ushguli's churches, but apparently it was a gold refinery, if I understand correctly

View towards Chazhashi, one of Ushguli's 4 hamlets, from the river which, as it froze, gave me endless delight and photographs of the process

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Local guys and a moonshine still

Goats closeup, towers background

Tower in sunlight

Upper village and Mt Shkhara at sunset

Happy New Year!

The photos are from Ushguli, Svaneti, from a few weeks ago; Lali & I spent the New Year with her parents in Kakheti, in the east. Oh well, so photos & writing don't match so far, whatever. We had a great time - arrived on clean roads, left 3 days later in a lot of snow, driving carefully to get home to Tbilisi safely. We passed several vehicles whose owners hadn't been so slow on the road; and saw a near-crash of a 4x4 which had just passed us half a minute before, fishtailed, got itself into a 360-degree-spin and just about met an oncoming car. Never a dull moment!

The photos - a huge piece of ice from the always-running outdoor faucet; details, held up by Anzor, and another piece of ice used as a crown by Princess Lana.

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Top: View of the upper 2 parts of the village from its centre

Middle 2: a solar battery charging my cellphone, a gift from a friend in the UK this last summer (many thanks, David O!). A necessity in Ushguli during the all-too-frequent power outages

Bottom: Lali and Bebia (Grandmother) making chishdari, friend Svan cheese, superb with baked potatoes

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Top: Mt Shkhara, Georgia's tallest, at sunset, holding onto the sun long after the foreground buildings can on account of being much higher than they are

Middle 2: walking towards Shkhara

Bottom: a waterfall in central Svaneti on the way up to Ushguli