Night trekking around Mount Kazbek - Kazbegi, Georgia

Seb and Sam look onto our challenge

As we watched the sun slowly going down over the majestic Mount Kazbek, we continued to march/stumble closer and closer to our goal. We were determined to reach the snow near a neighboring summit, something that, in our delusion, seemed to be achievable before night fall, it wasn't.

Having arrived in Tbilisi only a day previous, I and both Seb and Sam were still feeling the effects of my initiation into Georgian drinking culture. 

I arrived at Why Not Hostel at around midnight and drank vodka (my thanks to Misha,  the legendary owner of the Hostel and great troll hunter) until around 4. The following night seemed to continue along those lines and it was that morning that we decided to take the 4 hour journey up to Kazbegi to seek mountains.

Therefore, arriving at Kazbegi around 4pm, having had very little sleep, and no food, armed only with a bottle of water and a small morsel of food from the local bakery, we took to the mountains.

9 hours later we sat down on the balcony back at the guest house where we were staying, and looked up at the silhouette of the mountain that we had just climbed. We were foolish to say the least, but it felt incredible.

As it transpired, when we eventually reached to snow area, which looked so much closer than it was, the summit was a very short climb above it. As the decision was made to climb, the shadow of Mount Kazbek was beginning to block out the grassy path that we had trekked up to that point. As we reached the point where climbing on rocks became rock climbing on a very unstable almost vertical scree slope, the sun was no longer in sight, but the summit was.

The view, even in the twilight, was incredible. Out of shear relief, joy and lack of food and water, I decided to get naked. A liberating feeling, but then we realized that soon there would be no light and we had to descend back down the same treacherous slope.

The most hair raising moments were when one of us managed to dislodge a rock further up the scree slope and watch it tumble towards the other further down. It became a great game until the rocks got a bit bigger. 

Then even when we made it back to the grassy path, with only the light of a dying I Phone and the moon shrouded in mist, it became disturbingly easy to walk of the edge of the ridge and down a 1000 meter drop. 

However, with choruses of Disney's Mulan (primarily 'let's get down to business' - 'be a man') we made it. At one point we passed some campers on the flatter land before the road to the town. As we emerged out of the darkness, with very concerned looks, the campers asked us if everything was okay, to which we answered in unison ' yes thank you.' 

Minutes earlier we had been discussing if anyone had sent out a search party for us, but clearly when we made it....it was all part of the plan.

A huge thank you, however, must go to Kjartan Aarsand, the Norwegian who accompanied us on the first leg of our climb, but wisely decided against the second. Staying in the same guest house as us and waking up at 11.45, with us still not back, he decided to go and look for us. Luckily he saw us on the way back and provided us with a banana and a couple of oranges and some beer...hero. 

We agreed that we do not regret the naked night trekking, but in the future the views would be better during the day.

Having joined Seb and Sam only a few days ago, we are now in Baku and are preparing for our boat trip tomorrow to Turkmenistan. Hopefully the boat will behave, as there is no timetable and it has been know to be delayed for days.

Seb will blog about the rest of Georgia and Baku soon, but now we are off to the oil fields where the James Bond Film 'The World is Not Enough' was shot. Apocalyptic vistas...but who knows what will greet us as we cross the sea to the East. 

Me on the Summit

The Easy Part

The Snow

Me and Sam with Mount Kazbek

The Summit 

 P.S.

The President (for life) of Turkmenistan banned Opera and Circus because it was not Turkmen enough.

He renamed the months of the year after members of his family.

He built a giant golden statue of himself that rotated in order to be permanently facing the sun.

: )