Tusheti on Horseback

We collect you in Tbilisi at 7 am and drive east across Kakheti to Kvemo Alvani, where you switch to a 4x4 with a local driver who knows every bend of the Tusheti road. From the Alazani plain the track climbs through beech forest and past waterfalls, then clings to cliffs above a deep gorge before reaching the high point of the Abano Pass, close to 2,850 m. Expect two or three photo stops and at least one shrine where drivers pause by custom. On the north side the road drops through open pasture to Omalo, the main village, at roughly 1,900 m. You reach your guesthouse in the late afternoon in time to meet your horseman, check the saddles and stirrups and eat a first Tushetian dinner.

After breakfast you start with a short lesson: how to mount, how to sit on a steep descent and how much rein a Tush horse needs (very little, as they know the paths). Ride up to Keselo, the cluster of restored defensive towers above Upper Omalo, for the view over both valleys. Then follow a forest trail down to the river and up the far side to Shenako, a quiet village with wooden balconies and a 19th-century church. Lunch is a picnic on the grass. In the afternoon continue to Diklo, set on a spur close to the border with Dagestan, and climb the last stretch on foot to the ruined fortress on its rocky outcrop. A vehicle brings you back to Omalo while the horseman leads the horses home.

Today you ride from Omalo to Dartlo, about 13 km, on an old path that keeps above the river for much of the way. The route passes the village of Kvavlo and its towers before descending into Dartlo, one of the most photographed places in Tusheti. Its stone houses with flat slate roofs were mostly rebuilt in the 19th century and several have been restored as guesthouses. In the centre is a ring of stone seats where the village council once met and judged disputes. Spend the afternoon on foot, either climbing to the Kvavlo towers for the evening light or wandering down to the river. Dinner is at a guesthouse in the village, often with fresh trout or lamb.

The longest day in the saddle heads deeper into the Pirikiti valley. Ride past Chesho, whose towers stand on a ledge above the river, to Parsma, where a tight group of tall stone towers rises above the meadows. Stop for lunch by the water and let the horses graze. The valley narrows and the slopes grow steeper as you ride on to Girevi, about 20 km from Dartlo, close to the border zone. Only a few families spend the summer here, mainly shepherds and the staff of the border post, and the silence at dusk is striking. Your guide registers the group with the border police if required. You sleep in a basic guesthouse or, if it is full, in tents the team brings up.

Turn round and ride back down the Pirikiti Alazani with a different view of everything you passed yesterday. The horseman often takes a higher line on the way back, crossing summer pastures where shepherds and their dogs guard flocks of Tushetian sheep. Expect a stop at a shepherd's hut for fresh cheese if anyone is home. You leave the horses in Dartlo in the early afternoon and say goodbye to your horseman, then the 4x4 drives you along the valley road back to Omalo. In the evening your hosts may bring out Tushetian beer or chacha, and your guide can arrange a visit to the small ethnographic collection in Omalo if it is open.

Leave Omalo straight after breakfast to cross the Abano Pass while the weather is usually calmest. The drive down to the Alazani valley takes three to four hours, and the views of the gorge feel very different going downhill. At Kvemo Alvani you change to a regular car and stop for lunch in Kakheti, perhaps at a roadside restaurant serving mtsvadi and local wine. You reach Tbilisi in the early evening and your driver takes you straight to your hotel or the airport. If the pass is shut by a landslide, which happens a few times each summer, we wait in Omalo until the road crew clears it and adjust your plans at our cost for the extra night.