Vashlovani Protected Areas, 8 - 9 May 2010

Dima asked the locals in Kasristskali, on how to get to the park centre. Their advice gave us some trouble!


And then we were stuck for good.


It took us more than an hour of pushing to get up of the hole.


A toad living in the water filled track observed our work.


The view over the park from the "wrong" entrance.


The Azeri farm, where Dima asked for direction, but they never had heard about the existence of the park.


At last ready to explore the park from our bikes


In Vashlovani the most characteristic plant is the Pistado tree known among the people as "sagsagaj" - an Azeri name. They grow here at natural intervals of 15-20 meters. Due to such wide spacing, as well as its resemblance to apple trees the site was given a name Vashlovani, meaning in Georgian garden of apple trees.


Characteristic for Vashlovani is cliffs-of-the-canyons, known in the area as the "Sharp Walls"


Among the many species of small birds are the colourful Bee-eaters


Sunset over the park


Sunday morning we were on our bikes again at sunrise.


In the background the newly build Visitor centre.


One of the rangers advised us not to bike because we would be attacked by snakes and the big herding dogs, which can scare the common wolves away. We did not see any snakes but he was right about the herding dogs. Here a more peaceful one.


One of the rare animals that has not disappeared before you have your camera ready.


Vlado and I had for some months planned to visit Vashlovani Protected Areas in the very Eastern part of Georgia, surrounded by Azerbaijan. We started Saturday morning at 6 am because we wanted to use the weekend efficiently. We wanted to cycle in the park so brought our bikes with us in Dima’s Ford Transit.

Vashlovani Protected Areas is notable for its unique, bad-land-like areas of desert and semi-desert steppe vegetation and arid and deciduous forests. It's also home to the great cliffs-of-the-canyons.

The park administration is situated in Dedoplistskaro 70 kilometres from Vashlovani Protected Areas. In the park administration we got the permit to enter the area and rented bungalows in the Visitor Centre situated in the centre of the park. She also explained Dima which way to drive there, but not very successfully as we found out later.

The 60 kilometres from Dedoplistskaro to the last village before the park, Kasristskali was a time consuming and not so pleasant part of the trip. The road had been covered with asphalt in soviet times, but now only deep potholes remained, so it.

When we entered Kasristskali, we could choose between several different dirt tracks. Our map of the reserve informed to drive through the town and continue, but a sign at the entrance to the town recommended us to drive to the right instead. First we tried one of the dirt roads according the map but it ended in a farm. So instead of trying one of the other dirt roads in the same direction we decided to follow the advice of the locals and the official sign.

It had been raining heavily the previous days so after a short while we reached a section where the dirt road tracks were filled with water. Dima speeded up to get through but the result was that we got stuck in the middle of the water hole. After more than one hour of pushing we miraculously managed to get the car free, just to get stuck in another hole a few minutes later, and here none of our efforts could help us up.

Fortunately four drunken men in a soviet Gaz jeep appeared, and without any discussion they stated helping us up by dragging and pushing our car.

Soon after the road ended at a ranger station where the park started. The rangers told us that it was not possible to get to Visitor Centre through the park from there, and that we had to drive back, and soon after we were stuck in the same (second) mud hole. Luckily the same Gaz jeep (now only with two drunken men) appeared again and dragged us free.

We avoided our first mud hole by taking a shortcut to the dirt road which leads to the Visitor Centre.

Shortly after we reached a farm (which we later found out was the last before the park), and Dima asked three women at the farm if we were driving in the direction to the park centre. The women were Azeri, and did not understand Georgian very well and did not know about the existence of the park. They informed Dima that as far as they knew the road lead to Azerbaijan. Fortunately a Georgian couple in a four wheel drive stopped to help us. They said that they were also on their way to the park, and we were on the right track. They drove ahead, and when we got stuck for the fourth time they dragged us up.

At last after a 12 hours trip we reached the nicely situated Visitor Centre with a friendly ranger and nice bungalows.

Vlado and I immediately got on our bikes and managed to do a couple of hours cycling in the fantastic nature before it got dark.

Next morning we started again at 6 am to enjoy the sunrise and after four hours of cycling we packed our things started our trip back at 11 am. At 4 pm we were back after 5 of driving instead of 12.

The park was just as fantastic as we had expected. Here the steppes turn to shrubbery, deserts transfer into light forests. The big diversity in the natural conditions high productivity results in a high diversity and density of plants, insects, reptiles, birds and mammals.