At some point in the night we were joined in our hostel room by a fourth person. We knew he was coming but it was still odd to see him in a previously vacant bed. That morning was spent on tip-toes as we packed up our things since we didn’t want the first and possibly only impression our roommate had to be a bad one!
Since we didn’t manage to park our car in the hostel parking despite our best efforts, we had to lug all our stuff down through the old town and back to where our friend in Hi-Vis was amazingly still hanging around. This guy must not sleep! We saved him goodbye and navigated Tblisi’s one-way streets straight into nothing rush hour traffic.
There’s the bare minimum of signage on Georgian roads and even in the city there’s no indication of where your lane might take you, so last minute lane changes seem to be a way of life. We took a few wrong turns but eventually ended up on the highway heading east and on towards the town of Sighnagi.
We spied the town through the trees on a ridge road opposite Sighnagi, looking picturesque sat on a small hill in the midday sun. We had to take a windy road away before swinging back to climb the hill to the town, the whole thing having a very Italian feel. We parked for free in the town carpark, avoiding large coach loads of people going to and fro.
After a long ride we needed to use the facilities, which were watched over by one woman who let you in and gave you a few sheets of loo roll for what amounted to about 70p for the three of us, though Tom and Paul weren’t offered any loo roll. The urinals were covered but also leaking and the toilets threatened to unleash flies if you made any sudden movements, no pun intended. We were in and out in seconds before we could notice the state of the rest of the toilets and began wandering around the town, mingling with tour groups and taking photos of the scenery and architecture.
We had read about a restaurant in the town which we meant to be very good and went on the hunt. We weren’t disappointed. The Pheasants Tears is almost hidden behind some unassuming blue doors under a large but subtle sign. The doors were closed but we peeked round and we invited in by one of the staff and given the choice of sitting in the quirky little garden amongst the earthenware or inside. We sat down at a nice table with a rug underneath glass and ordered from the set menu but added two wine tasting courses for Paul and Katie since the country is famous for its wine. The food was excellent and each glass of wine came wine an explanation of how it was made. The White and Black wine was voted the best, with the amber tasting a little cheap and the red bring a bit generic.
Overall we were very satisfied with our find and as Tom doesn’t drink, he drove a dozey Paul and Katie on towards the border town of Lagodekhi near where Georgia and Azerbaijan meet. We arrived at a reserve north of the town at the foot of the mountains and scouted out a good place to set up camp. With the tents set up, including Katie’s new purchase from Bulgaria, we had a simple meal on the stove and opened a bottle of the black wine we had tasted only hours before, just to check it was the same quality of course.
With hardly any artificial light to keep us up we read for a bit by the light of head torches but eventually gave in and went to bed by s very noisy little stream.
Team Yes We Khan 