Not as Easy as It Seems

Gergeti Trinity Church, at the foot of Mount Kazbek, near the village of Gergeti, Stepantsminda, Georgia

Summer is burning on. The gods must be angry – fires rage, floods inundate, disease ravages the world. Are these the end times? Errrr…. dunno! But what the heck, if the sky falls down, take it as a blanket. That’s what I used to say, when I was single and had no responsibilities. Now it’s a constant worry… when will the next Project come? Will I still have a job next month, next year??

Anyway, thank God, we’re still thriving even when we’re stuck in desert-land in friggin burning summer. How I wish we could (still) go for a holiday? But it’s only 3 weeks away to the start of the new school year, so, bye-bye holidays!

I’m back at holiday dreaming. Here’s a continuation of our trip to Georgia exactly 3 years ago, in 2018. By the way, my colleague just came back from a tour of Georgia commenting on what a good time they had there. …What nerves! That’s like rubbing salt into a wound. But let it pass, we have a higher calling, ahem – stopping the spread of COVID.

Back to our trip, here’s how we worked our way up to the Gergeti Trinity Church in Kazbegi (Stepantsminda).


Time to start our day. Anu at our guest house (Blue Caps) in the village of Gergeti. That’s the Gergeti Trinity Church, on top of the hill above Anu’s head in the photo. The church is visible all over Gergeti and Kazbegi. But how do we get there??? “Hello, ma’am, where is the road to that church there?”, I asked the landlady of the guesthouse pointing to the church. “Mmm-hmm”. “Can we go using this road?” pointing to the road in front. “Mmm-hmm”. Sounds like another cousin of Groot (the tree man from the Guardians of the Galaxy who can only speak 1 sentence). Oh well, “Madloba” (thank you). Oh, she’s better than Groot, she taught us this one Georgian word we learnt in our trip which is not a name of a food!


Oh, this looks like the way. The church is just there (top right)


There! A close up view. It’s a mighty cloudy day. Looks like we won’t be able to catch a sight of snow-capped Mt Kazbek after all. What a waste…


Uh-oh! No through road. Construction workers waving us to go back! Pointed us to go down…


Went back down all the way out of the village and took another road. Oh, this looks like it. Let’s go up… Oops, another no through road! – That’s yours truly with our trusty Great Wall 4WD (yeah, the Chinese car) which we rented from a local car hire shop near our guesthouse in Tbilisi. I hope it makes it (our Great Wall pickups in the Project I was on in the UAE, all had problems with the AC, but this one’s so far so good!). It’s an automatic transmission 4WD, not exactly my cup of tea. I’m more used to a manual transmission 4WD.

Here we go again, went back down the road, passed the river (Chkheri) and went further upstream.


Finally, WE MADE IT! Great Wall triumphs! Gergeti Trinity Church, Georgia – this road ain’t easy for the inexperienced – a steep road of wet soil and boulders – But I’m proud our Great Wall car made it. I saw many a Volvo and Audi SUV turn back down. Also, maybe, the countless times of yours truly driving up and down the wet and muddy hill roads of our Mizoram hill road project in the 2000’s paid off, haha! And mind you, those were on manual cars with no hand brakes. (None of the car hand brakes work in Mizoram, and nobody bothers. They just bloody well use the first gear and stick a stone under their wheels to park. The trick is when you start the car on a slope. You have to bloody well step on the brake and the accelerator at the same time with your right foot, while you control the clutch with your left – Interesting, ain’t it?)


That’s a view of the road we came up on (this was taken on our way down). Look at the wheels of that Volvo trying to climb a rock. I dunno whether he made it or not. The car of choice for the locals (and you wouldn’t believe it) – is the Mitsubishi Delica. They’re unbeatable in the hill roads of Georgia!






This is just amazing! Even if it’s cloudy – Gergeti Trinity Church, Stepantsminda, Georgia


Right behind us, if it’s a clear day, would be the snow-capped Mount Kazbek


A view of the town of Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) and the village of Gergeti from the Gergeti Trinity Church. I guess you can also hike up like these people in the photo, if you don’t wanna drive


Justin at the Gergeti Trinity Church, Stepantsminda, Georgia


Horse vs Mitsubishi Delica - who’d win? On our way down. There in front, is Kazbegi!