Mestia, Friday

1442 I am stood on the wooden observation platform at the top of the hill overlooking the town with a cross on top. Phone GPS says this is an altitude of 2212m. Guide book says it is 900m above the town. It feel likes I've just climbed Mt Elbrus. The view is stunning, and insofar as I was able to concentrate due to being a) knackered and b) lost, was stunning most of the way up. Given a couple of extra hours you can walk on to Lake Koruldi (I think; there is a signpost to it anyway) but I am not doing that, I don't want to push the daylight on the way back. Anyway, shall enjoy view and take loads of photos before I go back down.

1454 On adjacent hilltop, 2263m. No more!

1825 Back at hostel, been back maybe half an hour, haved shaved. (Bathroom very dingy, one bulb is out, so who knows what it will look like, but still?)

I think it's full board here some come down into dining room.Dinner seems to be on the table but no one is eating or sat the the tables. I don't know if I am supposed to have given advance notice if I wanted to eat or not. Wait and see what happens. From a distance the food looks palatable anyway.

I got lost on the way down the hill. Well, I didn't, but I paid overmuch attention to the GPS track I'd recorded on the way up. As I was going along what I hoped was the right track but wasn't sure I saw a dog over the crest. Then two. To be fair they showed no reaction but at a healthy fraction of the speed of terror I started to retrace my steps. The dogs sort of followed slowly. I eventually realised they were with two guys (possibly father and son, one was very young, the older didn't seem that old though). I stopped and waited for them to come up to me. Asked them if Mestia was 'down' and they said yes. So I got to retrace my steps down some slightly slipperly gravel-and-fortunately-dry leaf paths, slipping a few times. Probably serves me right for being scared by the dogs but they could so easily have been strays or something. After that I had no trouble with the directions but my feet (and ankles, probably from 'braking' myself) were killing me. I don't think tottering would be a bad word to use by the time I got down to the main street, and I was probably a bit wobbly walking along that to the hostel.

Will waffle about the ascent later.

Took loads of photos, especially at the top, hope to make some nice panoramas with them though probably not until Christmas; I suspect doing it on the netbook would be slow torture.

1934 Had dinner, come out, at very quiet Laila getting a beer. Have to be back by 10, think I made myself slightly unpopular asking if they lock the door then (they do). Also didn't go down well when they asked what time I wanted breakfast and I said 10. I offered to go earlier but they said it would be fine.

The town is dead (this is a Friday night, remember), I was so apologetic coming in here asking for a beer not so much for the usual language reasons as because I couldn't believe they could be willing to serve me. Don't think there will be much trouble getting back by 10. Bloke saw me writing this and told me wifi password, which was nice.

Owner asked me if I wanted dinner and invited me over to a table. Two middle aged German (I think) women there travelling together - they spoke English but we didn't really talk, except of the 'can you pass X?' sort. Joined by a middle-aged Chinese/Japanese looking chap with an enormous white walrus moustache. Still, it felt less awkward than breakfast even if we didn't chat much.

I wondered what etiquette was about getting up but the German women left with just a small 'excuse me', so I figured no big deal. They were sat outside smoking when I came out on my little expedition to see the nightlife. There are a couple of places calling themselves bars but all except one (not counting this one) were shut and the one that wasn't shut seemed to be a tiny room with 90%-empty fridges and a bored-looking woman at the counter.

Food was pretty good in general; a sort of serve yourself from a variety of dishes on the table. Naturally the first two I tried as they were nearest me were some sort of pasta salad which had a slightly foul thin sauce or something on it, then some kind of rice salad which had a really horrible white sauce over it. However, there were lots of other decent dishes, including a nice vegetable soup, something that rather reminded me of frijoles, a sort of yellowy-green mix of vegetables, some vaguely mini-pizza-esque things and some excellent slightly spiced (I think) pork wrapped in cabbage leaves. Good job the food is OK given I am not sure the options for dinner out of the hostel would have been great.

Anyway, the ascent. I went into the tourist office, wondering if they'd sell me a map or tell me not to go up to the cross alone. The guy spoke English but seemed rather bored/surly. Only map he could show me - which I couldn't buy there, only at some other shop - was one I'd seen on wall in hostel, with various trails at a scale such that the one I did was about 4-5cm long. So basically as much use as a chocolate teapot for navigational purposes, so I didn't bother. Didn't ask any further questions as didn't see much point.

Guide book had directions. Started out all super precise - follow this street for n metres, go under an arch and walk m metres. Then it says something like 'keep taking the upward path to the right, eventually the path joins a jeep trail which you can follow up to the summit'. Frankly I am not sure I saw any sign of this jeep trail except right near the summit where I stumbled on it by sheer luck and followed it up; on the way down I left it at the same place since I wanted to retrace my steps with the (essentially sensible, but undermined by overtrusting the GPS track and my fear of dogs) intention of avoiding getting lost on the way down.

Anyway, I hove off to the right along some path. Maybe an hour later - perhaps a bit less, but I think it was at least half an hour - after scrabbling up some precarious slope and getting serious nerves not so much about the ascent but about getting down the same way without slipping and going over the edge (I reckon the general slope was about 45 degrees) I decided to give up. I was sort of intending to just go home but I did also start to think it had taken me too long even for that 'eventually'. Returning to the bit where I'd turned right before, the track did sort of continue very steeply up the side of the hill - frankly I am not sure that was a jeep track. Anyway, I pushed on upwards that way, avoiding the most ridiculous looking inclines. The paths were generally OK if a little nerve-inducing with thoughts of the descent (as turned out to be a fair assessment). A couple of times I nearly gave up as the route ahead seemed infeasible or fenced off, but luckily I pressed on and eventually I did stumble across a jeep track. A minibus type van came down it as I was following it upwards; I didn't see another soul on the way up, and only those dog walkers on the way down (not counting the still-very-steep bit where I was on named streets on the descent, when there were some farmers moving hay-type-stuff in both a truck and a sled dragged by two cows). The ascent once I got off that bit where I'd turned right for half an hour was quite pleasant; it was tiring but not too steep (the bit on those named streets near the start of the ascent was pretty heavy going, perhaps as bad as it got, though at least there there were no foothold or going over the edge issues). I wasn't sure I would get up to the cross - even when I did I was slightly surprised, though once I hit the jeep track I was fairly confident - but the views were still good and it was a nice and not too dangerous-feeling walk. I did nearly turn back once or twice, so it was lucky I didn't, though as I say I think there was a bit more luck than judgement in it.

Views from the top were frankly stunning and I felt it was well worth having come to the country just to see it, also the sense of isolation was quite nice. (There was a shack at the top, on the hill just above the cross which was as high as I went, amazingly enough. No sign of any people though.)

On the way down I was quite relaxed, even with the odd worry about going over the edge of the path if I slipped (it wasn't a sheer drop, but it came damn close at times and even where it was 45 degrees I think you could have been looking at nasty injuries if you did go over, I don't think sliding 10-20 metres down an intermittently rocky and tree-covered slope would be healthy), until I got a bit worried I'd lost my way and then the incident with the dogs. "Shit, shit, will I ever get down?" sort of thoughts.

Views were very good from the bus on the drive over, though not as good as the ones from the top of the hill and my left leg was giving me a bit of gyp from being cramped up on the drive.

Tv here showing a near-miss of a child (? - security camera footage so not super clear) falling onto track on Madrid metro and just being dragged clear a second or two before a train hit it.

One table of three customers leaving, I wonder if they will close. I will have another beer if I can but if I can't no big deal.

Video of some clever automated expanding table on TV reminds me that at the Zugdidi Dwhatsit museum they had a table (very artistic, tiled or whatever, can't remember right now) said to be made without any nails. Not exactly super exciting but FWIW.

2010 Just got another beer, not sure if the 'just 1' I got back in response to my 'is it OK?' was just a clarification on the order or a "one and no more!" indicator. Don't want any more anyway, will get back in good time and try to upload some photos.

Should say this hostel (it's more of a guest-house) is super clean and 'slick'. The single room (shared bathroom, they all are) is tiny, just bit enough for bed, bedside table and a chair, but very tidy etc and for all the dinginess with the bulb out the bathroom (both of them actually) very smart.

Three or four, no, maybe five, new people just came in. I am not staying after this one even if I could, I just wanted to come out and see what it was like out at night and take a small break from being in the hostel.

Anyway, let me shove some random notes down from conversation I had with Maria at hostel in Zugdidi. Obviously I might have mangled or oversimplified her points:

- the first thing people think of when they think of Georgia is Stalin (I admitted this was true, but added 'and mountains')

- mixed messages on the safety of Abkhazia (which is scarily close to Zugdidi). I think she said three people had gone there from the hostel recently, and as long as you didn't enter Georgia via Russia and Abkhazia you were legally fine. But she did also say there were three deserted regions before you got to the capital, and they were overrun with bandits and essentially lawless.

- her husband is chief of something in local government and he only gets 600 GEL a month, which is nothing (I think she said their electricity bill was something like 150 a month, though that's possibly for the hostel, not their house)

- they live off the premises in part because it's a not a good environment for their son (who I saw with them); hearing so many languages all the time is responsible for him starting to speak very late.

- there's no central heating there, though there is gas being put on so it might be an option (the pavement up to near the hostel was pretty good but had a badly filled in trench down the middle, this was from putting the gas pipes in). In winter if it's sunny it is warm, but if it's cold it may not get below zero but it's so humid it feels really cold.

- the younger (20-30 year old) Russians they get can be a bit arrogant (my word), expecting hotel like service and getting worked up about queues for showers etc. Older Russians are fine. Most guests are IIRC from Poland, Israel and maybe somewhere else - *not* German, IIRC.

- hostel is very busy in summer. She has a sort of ethnic tour property 30km outside Zugdidi where tourists get to "be Georgian for a day"; this was popular but she temporarily let it stop to build up the hostel business. She thinks tourism is very important but the local government is useless, they just don't do anything, won't even produce maps or anything for tourists.

- she did English language and literature at university, most of her friends who graduated have left the country. Apparently a lot went to London in 2000 when it was for some reason easy (I said the economy was good then); they miss the food and the weather. She said she was 34 and unusual in staying in the country, and also moving out to Zugdidi where she had some kind of roots despite having grown up in Tbilisi. She said Georgia is short of professionals as so many skilled graduates leave the country.

I think I got sunburn on my head from the walk today; my mistake and not a big deal. It was warm; I took a jumper out and wore it over a T-shirt under my coat, but I basically did the whole walk up and down in T-shirt with other stuff in bag. Great weather really. I had never quite done anything like that with all the snow-covered mountains around but so nice and warm and green/orange/red (autumn) around. Torres del Paine was probably equally stunning but I couldn't walk that, only do that whistle-stop day tour, which had a different vibe and also I don't think the conditions would necessarily have been so pleasant for walking had I done it. Other 'big' walk I did was Isla del Sol which was obviously very different. I guess I haven't seen the Alps, which might offer a similar kind of experience. Nonetheless, it was great (up until I got panicked on the descent).

I think the other people in here might be locals, but not super clear. Street door is shut when it wasn't as I arrived, but that may be to keep heat in, I don't know. It was pleasant in T-shirt+jacket on walk over here.

Lots of dust in street, at least one old woman sweeping dust+leaves up (she was at it as I tottered back to hostel after trip up hill and still at it when I came out after dinner) and one car just coated in dust. Not entirely sure why there should be a lot of dust here, but there does seem to be for some reason.

I think I will end up paying extra at 'hostel' for breakfast/dinner but I think it will still be relatively cheap and as I say there are not many alternatives anyway. The 10pm curfew is theoretically annoying but in reality it's slightly health-inducing and/or irrelevant as I doubt I'd really want to be out after 10 anyway given how dead it is here.

Oh, on the walk earlier, I did wonder if it was foolish to go up on my own and without fancy equipment and without checking the weather. On the one hand, I do tend to worry and I was never out of sight of the town and there was mobile reception all the way. On the other hand, I remember watching 999 as a kid and also Gary/Patrick at work talking about idiots walking in the Lake District in just jeans and a T-shirt and how stupid that was, so the fact that you don't think an environment is 'extreme' doesn't mean you can just not worry about safety. I suspect I was OK but who knows? I did at least have GPS on the phone, a torch, a mobile signal and several layers of upper body clothing to put on had it been necessary. Maybe even that was overkill, I don't know.

Vague plan for tomorrow is the 6h round trip walk to the glacier mentioned in guide book. Not sure what getting lost potential that might have but I hope a bit less, and I see no point buying the useless map I saw at the tourist office. I will at least try to remember to check the weather forecast before I go.

There was no signage at all on the walk up the hill today, except for the signpost up by the cross which kind of doesn't count. A couple of trees/rocks had small white and/or orange splashes of paint but these were both un-keyed and so rare as to be useless.

My feet/ankles feel a lot better now, by the way.

Oh, I might also pop into the tourist office and see if I can find out what kinds of flights and to where might be available from the local airport, to help plan onward trip. (The walk to glacier goes past it, and I could see it from the hill today. It's not that far outside town, not that the town is huge - it seems to consist mainly of one long street.)

Battery was down to about 20% by time I got back to hostel. Moderately impressive given I was taking a GPS trace all that time. I did have spare batteries in my pocket but wanted to avoid hassle of switching and then having to charge multiple batteries. When turned to go back uphill after seeing dogs did half wish I'd switched batteries before then. ;-)

I don't think this place is closing, given few new people in, but not sure. Not having another beer anyway, two a day is borderline OK (though doesn't allow much headroom for even minor excesses like that day in Tbilisi I had two at lunch and three in the evening) but more routinely would be pushing it. Just possibly I will have one back at the hostel (I see they have beers in the fridge in the "dining room"), but probably not anyway.

John Lennon's Imagine playing.

2057 Finished beer. Let's try to pay and go back to hostel.

2107 6 GEL for two beers. I had a five and 10 note handy. Sort of felt I shouldn't use the 10 so fumbled for change. Dug out a 1 GEL coin and woman at bar made 'yes, that one' kind of noise, so I handed her exactly 6. Not sure if tip was expected but it was table service so I felt obliged but had very little decent change, so left about 0.70 on counter and slunk out. Possibly that is insulting, I don't know, I fucking hate this tip business.

Am back at hostel. Few people sat round a table in dining room but hardly party central, I don't think it's just a question of shyness stopping me joining them. I have a feeling one of the staff gave me the stink eye as I came in and went up the stairs to my room, maybe I am just imagining this but after my querying the meaning of 'reception closes 10pm' and my request for breakfast at 10am (I mean, normally I just forgo breakfast if it's included but stops at a certain time) I feel a bit paranoid that I'm seen as a troublemaker. ;-)

Anyway, will see about picking out some photos to upload so I can maybe set that going then go have a shower. Might try to be down for breakfast about 9:30-9:45, then if that helps appease them all well and good, if it doesn't I can sit and play with my phone til 10.

Oh, didn't really feel sad sat on own in Laila with beer and almost continually tapping away on phone. As I say seemed very quiet and all the groups probably local and self-contained anyway. I was just some random lone tourist having a couple of beers and (as far as they were probably concerned) using the free wi-fi.

2141 Sorting through photos to upload I am reminded that in town at least there are numerous cows just sort of loose in the street, also a few bigs. The trails up the hills had a fair supply to mostly-dried-up what-I-as-an-urban-dweller-assume-to-be cowpats, though all the cows I saw up on the hill seemed to be fenced in.

2156 Hmm, weather forecase on meteo.gov.ge says today was 22C, no wind, sun. Tomorrow (and Sunday) are saying day temperatures of 5C with rain and 10-15m/s winds. I am not saying I won't try to walk over to the glacier tomorrow, because frankly what else am I going to do all day, but I may not make it and of course my willingness to get remotely lost will be significantly lower. (There is a museum or two in town if push really comes to shove, but it would be good to try for the glacier.) Good job I had the unexpected bonus of today (I didn't expect to get here until 1-2pm) with nice weather to go up to the cross. Monday looks slightly better (10C, same winds, no rain) and Tuesday better still (13C, sun, no wind) but nowhere near as good as today.

2209 Wifi a bit ropy. Trying to download hugin and struggling hugely, phone struggling to keep a connection. Not even started trying to upload photos yet. Not sure if it would be better down in common/dining area, maybe not, certainly not going to try that tonight.

Phone GPS says room (on first floor) is at an altitude of 1413m, which makes the vertical ascent today about 850m, which is not too far off what the guide book says I guess.

2243 Wifi seems to have jumped up a notch. Uploading photos now. Oops, spoke too soon, we're slowing down now. Oh well, see how it goes. Heard lots of people going to shower so not tried to go myself yet, should probably make a move in that direction.

2300 OK, bathroom was empty. (There's another one just off the dining room but I bet it's way less popular...) I forgot to bring my viscose towel and for the first time one isn't provided. I somewhat naughtily combined drip drying while cleaning teeth with light use of the hand towel in the bathroom and a light rub down with my already-on-its-second-wear white T-shirt. Meh, sue me. Also gave underwear a bit of a rinse in shower, might get another day out of it. (Must remember to stash it away in morning lest it be discovered damp in the room when/if they make the bed up.) There is a washing machine here and I may use it but probably not just yet. Generally I am fine for clean clothes after the wash in Zugdidi but always good to stretch things where conveniently possible.

Photo upload proceeding better than hoped anyway. Fingers crossed there isn't a wifi curfew and it gets turned off at midnight or something. ;-)

0053 Sounds of rain coming down. In bed. Doubting will be off to glacier but we will see. Did a tripadvisor review for hostel in Zugdidi, reading the other reviews I might have got name of owner wrong, might be Marika. No matter. Review was positive but honest, I feel a little bit bad about it but I guess it looks better to throw in a few small negatives rather than just gloss over them.