At this point of our trip, we were somewhat worn out. The first day we had a rather steep walk to the cross (2200 m.a.s.l.). It may just be the most epic vista we have ever hiked to, 360 degrees of snow capped peaks. The second morning we had a short walk on the Transcaucasian Trail from Mestia. A number of people were starting on the 4-day hike to the village of Ushguli. That's all the hiking we were able to manage.
In the minibus on our way to Mestia.
From the minibus we see the first of many defensive tower clusters in these valleys.
The view from our guesthouse balcony was amazing. We could even see the Mestia Cross (6th below) way up against the sky. There was rain the rest of the day, so we spent a lot of time hanging our in our room and on the balcony. We did go out for veggies, eggs, and bread. The local bread ovens are very cool (4th below). The baker "sticks" the dough to the inside surface of the oven.
The walk up to the Mestia Cross was steep and always a great view just around the corner. We started from our guest house and soon were in the pastures headed up on the red-white trail.
After an hour the pastures were waaaaaay below and previously hidden-from-view mountains began to appear.
And soon we are taking a break on the raised platform behind the cross, with great views back down to Mestia and surrounds.
Then we left the platform and walked up to the next shelter where the double summits of Mount Ushba peaked out from the clouds for a few minutes.
The walk down was easy.
After dinner we headed out to see the lights on the towers.
The next day we walked out on the Transcaucasian Trail to the abandoned Soviet resort. There were some good views back to town.
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