Saturday, 27 June, 2015

Today we are to have a “Breathtaking day trip to Ushguli, a series of 4 villages standing at 2100 meters above sea level and inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage list as the oldest inhabited village in Europe”. We have hired two of the Hotel’s 4WD and drivers for the trip.

First we have to negotiate the first 30 minutes on the crap road we entered from last night. The 4WDs did not do much better than Besu from yesterday. Then we get on the real road which, while an improvement, was not exactly a super highway. Once we start going well up the hills into the mountains, the road deteriorates to the same standard as we started, or worse, with lots of pot holes, mud slides, running water, narrow roads etc.

After bouncing around for 2 1/2 hours, we finally reach our village at the top. Julie wanted me to take photos of how dangerous the roads were but I could not do it.

The total trip was supposed to take 3 hours but was in fact 4 1/2, a large part because of photo stops demanded by our interloper.

One thing I forgot to mention about the roads was the animals on them. Early in the trip it was mostly cows but as we got further West, there were more and more pigs. Also there were dogs and goats, few sheep. They all were unafraid of the cars and would slowly move aside if at all, mostly the drivers had to find a way through them.

Any way, we finally get to the bottom, another 2.5 hours and out on the open road. We then have the drive back through the initial bad road. My estimate is that this trip in all took about 3 3/4 hours, forgetting the planned stop. This was because of the absence of photo stops on the way back.

As it was, we stopped at another guest house and restaurant not too far from the Grand Hotel.

That was it, we get back in the 4WDs and take the short, but still slow journey to the Grand Hotel for the night. The Internet had stopped working in the morning and was still not fixed. Another utility failure. We will not have very good memories of the Svaneti area.

So what does all this have to do with the Headline of this post? By my calculations we had 6 hours driving on crappy and dangerous roads. At 11 kilometers per hour average speed, this would mean 66 kilometers or just about 40 miles. Probably not many of you remember the late 50s when Duane Eddy and his twangy guitar had a few instrumental hits e.g. Rebel Rouser. Well, one of his hits was “40 Miles of Bad Road” and I reckon that what today was all about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Miles_of_Bad_Road

You can listen to the song at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z7nAaTr6JQ