Day 26 18 May Back down the mountain, and on to the birthplace of Stalin

Photo above - the house in Gori where Stalin was born

Down to the valley

At 9am, we set off to drive back down out of the mountains via the so called Military road. We then joined the main east west highway through the fertile valley of the river Kura.

Stalin's home town

At about midday we reach the Soviet-style town of Gori (pop 50,000), where Georgia's most (in)famous son, Joseph Stalin, was born. This town was occupied by Russians as recently as 2008, when there were some bombings and fatalities.

We visited the museum and learned more about Stalin’s life. He initially began training as a priest in the Georgian Seminary before abandoning religion to join the new Bolshevik movement. It has been suggested that Georgia escaped the worst horrors of Stalin's regime because he was afraid of his conservative Christian mother. The museum is built around the remnants of the house that Stalin was born in.

Under Stalin’s rule and the creation of Soviet Union, thousands of Georgians became citizens of others countries as parts of Georgia were given to Turkey, Armenia and Russia.

The drive further south and east

After lunch in a town cafe, we continued in a south easterly direction, through flat fertile land, on a generally flat straight two lane highway, we then turned off the highway onto much smaller roads, where the towns and villages had a distinctly more working class look. Then suddenly we started to ascend a river valley, with forested hills all around. This turns out to be Borjomi National Park, the largest in the country, and the river was the Karu again. Coming out of the National Park, the forest gave way to agricultural land once again.

Arriving in 'newcastle'

We arrived in Akhaltsikhe (pop 17,300) at about 5.30pm. The town name literally translates as 'new fortress' (though ironically there isn't much that's new about this 12th-century town). The skyline is dominated by the imposing Rabati castle, and its old streets are home to a large Armenian population. In the forests just outside the town is the beautiful 10th-century Saphara Monastery.

Tomorrow we are off to visit a 12th Century cave town.