As soon as daughter and her boyfriend arrived we stated on the long and tiresome drive to Svaneti (11 hours). Mestia is the main city in Svaneti. It was a 10 hours drive (plus 1 hour breaks) to come to Mestia from Tbilisi, the last four hour from Zugdidi to Mestia on gravel roads with a lot of potholes.
Surrounded by 3,000–5,000 meter peaks, Svaneti is the highest inhabited area in Europe. Four of the 10 highest peaks of the Caucasus are located in the region. The highest mountain in Georgia, Mount Shkhara at 5,201 meters, is located in the province. Other prominent peaks include Tetnuldi (4,974m.), Shota Rustaveli (4,960m.), Mt. Ushba (4,710m.), and Ailama (4,525m.).
We headed to Union "Mountain-Tourism Center in Upper Svaneti" which arranges the trips, accommodation in families and guide services (http://www.svanetitrekking.ge/eng/index.htm). Due to some mistakes our trip was not arranged in advance, although we had exchanged several e-mail and phone calls but soon they had arranged the hiking and a guide as we wished and we were on our way to our very friendly host family. We had chosen the so called HORSEBACK TRAIL: Mestia - ZHABESHI – USHGULI as the main part of our hiking adventure.
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