8/31: Near Kutaisi: Walking on Thin Air in Okatse Canyon & Boat Ride in Martvili Canyon

Yesterday afternoon we’d made plans to go on a day trip today to some canyons and a monastery outside Kutaisi. Unlike most trips, this one didn’t begin until 11 so we had a leisurely morning exploring more of Kutaisi after a filling breakfast provided at the homestay.

Even though Kutaisi is Georgia’s second largest city, there weren’t a lot of sights in the city itself. We had chosen to come for three nights, rather because of what was available outside the city. The Kutaisi Synagogue, home to Georgia's largest Jewish community, was a few blocks away so we walked over to check it out since we had time on our hands. The sign indicated it had been built in 1886 and was recently renovated to honor someone’s grandparents.

Boris Dov Gapanov was a Hebrew writer and translator from Kutaisi who translated into Hebrew the famous Georgian poet's Shota Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther's Skin.

Walking along mostly deserted streets, we walked toward a church we’d spotted while overlooking the city from the rear of Bagrati Cathedral late yesterday afternoon. 

The Kharebis Church, built in 1850, may have shown signs of age with cracked plaster but the scent of incense being used by the priest, the melodic refrains being sung or chanted by women in the choir loft and the fervent worshippers made me appreciate this much simpler church far more than the supposedly grander Bagrati Cathedral.

It was the tall dome that we'd seen the previous day that encouraged us to come take a closer look that morning.

We detoured through the city market again to get a sense of what it looked like in the morning as opposed to late in the day. Far more people were there that morning.

Oval-shaped cantaloupes!

I don’t remember seeing such huge slabs of frozen meat before and wondered what they were and thinking someone would need to have a large fridge to put that slab in to defrost it!

We joined six other people on the canyon tour: couples each from Belarus, Romania and Poland. We were all very fortunate that the Belarus woman spoke Russian and English as she was able to translate what the driver said the rest of the day when we got to each spot. 

On the way out of town, we passed Georgia’s Parliament Building saving ourselves a trip later as we’d wanted to see the unusual building that opened in 2012 when the government was moved to Kutaisi from Tbilisi in an effort to decentralize power. The impressive looking building was controversial right from the beginning as a WW II memorial was blown up to make way for it and members of Parliament would like to move it back to Tbilisi as it is so far from the executive arms of government still in Tbilisi.

Okatse Canyon, located an hour west of Kutaisi and up a steep mountain road, was our initial stop. Though the day trip was supposed to include all transportation costs, once we got to the park’s visitors' center, the driver indicated we all then needed to hire what he called a ‘jeep’ to drive us several kilometers to the entrance as there wouldn’t be time to walk there and back. 

The so-called road was one of the worst we’d ever been on with huge boulders strewn across it and it was also incredibly steep. Oh, and did I mention it was a one lane road which created havoc when cars came from the opposite direction?! I don’t know how the car’s suspension managed several trips a day on that road! I was just so glad no one was carsick especially since there were eight of us sitting in just seven seats!

To get to the canyon, we again faced a huge series of steps, something we were fast becoming used to in Georgia! Even if we'd been inclined, we didn't have to count this time the number of metal stairs leading from the entrance down as the caution sign listed there were 988 of them! 

Once on the narrow path, we could feel it jostle when other people moved quickly on it. It reminded us of being on the narrow paths far out from the safety of terra firma last December in Brazil’s Iguazu Falls. Being on the hanging cliff walkway would have to be a worst nightmare for anyone suffering from a fear of heights! 

I could see why the visit to Okatse Canyon would be cancelled in bad weather!

You can see where we were heading!

When I was all the way out on the edge of the viewing platform it was exhilarating but also nerve wracking looking so far down at the waterfalls even though I’m not normally afraid of heights.

It was a long, long ways down to the bottom of the gorge. I didn't look down more than once or twice, much referring to look out, not that I was scared, of course!

Neither of us felt like standing out in the middle of thin air for long, let me tell you!

The canyon views were pretty spectacular, don't you think?!

If you look closely, you can see part of the one kilometer-long walkway about halfway across the picture that we'd just walked across.

The Okatse canyon walkway was an incredible feat of engineering and also imagination! After climbing lots and lots of steps back up to the entrance, I think we were all relived that our jeep driver was waiting for us and we didn’t have a steep hike back to the park entrance in the heat, even if we did have to hang on for dear life on the hairy ride!

I was sort of relieved I hadn't seen the diorama of the canyon walkway before we went on the hike as I might have thought twice about going!

Around 2:15 we left for Martvili Monastery 30 minutes away. The cross was in the town of Martvili. 

Yeah – more steps to climb to the monastery!

The word 'Martvili' is of Greek origin and means 'martyr.' The Monastery was originally called Chkondidi, meaning a large oak tree because, according to tradition, the church refectory was arranged at the foot of an oak tree where a pagan temple had once stood. 

The tree, worshipped as an idol of fertility and prosperity, was where infants were once sacrificed. After the conversion of the native population to Christianity, the ancient tree was cut down so it could no longer be worshipped any longer. 

The monastery complex was large with many chapels but nothing was marked and of course we had no guide to indicate what we were looking at. This small chapel had steps going down into the worship space containing beautiful frescoes.

The main Martvili Cathedral was reconstructed in the 10th century after invasions that destroyed the prior church that had been originally constructed in the late 7th century on the roots of the old oak tree. 

Photos from two chapels in the Cathedral:

The frescoes were stunning and looked new or possibly recently touched up.

Enormous amounts of time and effort had to have gone into creating the exquisite door.

Are you thinking this was a stairway to heaven as I did?! 

Actually the steps led to the monastery's Bell Tower!

Another exquisitely carved door was at the base of the bell tower.

Steven couldn’t resist ringing one of the bells as they seemed they were just begging to be rung! 

The whole religious complex was a perfect place for quiet reflection on a lovely summer’s day even if we didn't know exactly what we were seeing because of not having a guide.

The 2,400 meter-long Martvili Canyon was our next stop. The canyon became popular in 2010 after an university expedition visited to study probable dinosaur footprints. It had a depth of between 20-40 meters and a 25 meter-high waterfall in the middle of the canyon. 

Photos from two different overlooks onto small falls: 

The jade-green colored water reminded me of Lake Louise in Alberta.

We walked along the short Dadiani Trail whose limestone stairs were used by the Dadiani noble family to get to their favorite bathing place. According to a popular legend, there was a dense and popular forest here where robbers would ambush, attack and loot anyone passing by. 

The place came to be known in the local language as 'the spot that must be quickly run by!' Later, attracted by the beautiful river gorge, nobles used the area for feasting and bathing. Even the last queen of Samegrelo used these stairs to go bathing here.

According to another tale, long before the Dadianis, Georgian King David the Builder used to bathe here as a child while being tutored nearby.

All eight of us on the tour had opted to pay extra so we could take a brief raft ride through the gorge.

The views through the canyon were very, very special.

I read that the canyon's limestone walls had fossils of invertebrates - shells of nautiluses, sea urchins, etc.

Four of our group were on a separate raft on our far too brief boat ride down the canyon: the two from Poland in the front and back with the Belarus couple in the middle.

Even though there was a constant stream of rafts on the river, it was still a very peaceful and relaxing time. Steven helped to row the raft for a bit to help out our boatman in the back. I was content to just sit back, admire the gorgeous views and take photos!

The man from Belarus knew there was a waterfall and a swimming hole near the canyon so he asked the driver if we all could stop there rather than returning directly to Kutaisi. None of us were in any hurry so we were glad to add another stop to the day. The clouds had started to roll in so I wasn't sure how much swimming the fellow might get in, though.

On the way back to Kutaisi, our driver had to exercise great caution on the roads in the smaller towns because of wandering cows and pigs, too, I kid you not! We were glad we had chosen to explore both Okatse and Martvili canyons and the monastery on our first day trip from Kutaisi.

My Georgian dinner that night was a delicious tomato and chicken concoction that was half soup and half entree! Steven had meat cutlets of some sort - he wasn't sure what was in them.

Next post: Prometheus Cave, a nature reserve and yikes, more monasteries!

Posted on September 6th, 2018, from Baku, Azerbaijan.