Georgia - Racha Region

The road to Racha region kind of reminded us of Val d'aveto road back at home apart from the hairpin turns at the beginning. 

We stopped by the road to fill the water bottles and meet Temuri, who started to chat with us in English and than turned out speaks several languages including some Polish. He totally caught us of guard offering us red local wine that he just went to get from the winery and than also gave us a bottle of homemade cha cha ( grappa).We weren't prepared for so much hospitality 🙂👍. Thank you Temu for being so kind to us! There are several wineries close to Ambrolauri but it was late and we just wanted to get to our final destination. We still have time to discover Georgian wine. Finally we arrived at Shaori lake situated at 1300 m. It is known for it's trout but looking at all the fisherman camping at the river bank with at least 3 fishing rods per person we weren't that convinced to give it a try.

 So instead we went cycling ,visited the local beach which even had it's own lifeguard🙂 ( 2 actually,busy checking their phones🤣), found mushrooms 

and look at that paw ....! 

Surely it's bear'! Racha has the biggest bear population in Georgia!It was nice 3 relaxing days away from the summer heat that caught us in the mountains.Yes the night were chilly but during the day the sun was mercifulless with almost 30°C at 2000 m. 🤔 Something rather strange don't you think?!We're heading to Rustavi, close to Tbilisi ( the capital) to visit or friend.There is only one highway in Georgia so it gets traffick jam quite quickly. Fortunately in the opposite direction 👍. Did some grocery shopping as well. It's a strange experience here in Georgia. There aren't supermarkets just small mini markets we would call them. Hardly anyone in them and things are quite pricey like in Italy. So I presume that most of Georgians do they shopping at local places.( The average monthly wage is under 500€.) We unfortunately don't because very often there are no prices and we easily get cheated and obviously it's easier for us to get everything in one place.It happened to us before but never say never maybe we should try again!