Vashlovani National Park - truly wild Georgia

Wednesday, May 29, 2024, day 4 of 13.

We had already been warned: today's tour would take us to Vashlovani National Park. It is located in the southeast, on the border with Azerbaijan, and offers unusual landscapes, pristine nature, and pure wilderness. Just the thing for wolf lovers. First, we submitted our prepared applications for access to the national park administration, which is partly a restricted area administered by the military. Everything had already been prepared by our tour guide. We got into four four-by-four vehicles and set off through vast wheat fields and then on dirt roads over hill and dale further east. The landscapes turned back into green, flowering hills and finally a wilderness began that thrilled the tour participants, as, for example, imperial eagles appeared, rollers, bearded vultures, and many songbirds, such as rose-breasted starlings, larks, bee killers, and finally nightingales and cuckoos. In the wadi, Asmus found a small turtle, and in a rocky valley, a bearded dragon. Gradually it became clear that the landscape could hardly be explored in any other way than by four-wheel drive minibus with sufficient ground clearance. Tamarisks were blooming everywhere in the wadi and seemed to glow in the backlight of the blazing midday sun. Towards the evening, when the sun was lower, the rock structures became more clearly visible. After leaving the dry wadi, we came across a lime-green expanse that was covered in fragrant mugwort. Finally, a group of gazelles were spotted a few hundred meters away. Everyone followed the beautiful animals quietly and intently. In the background are the mountains beyond the Asani river border with Azerbaijan. We visit the border posts as agreed and the friendly soldiers seem to be happy about the change in solitude. They keep dogs with cute puppies. We continue to curve endlessly through dry streams and also encounter broken-down vehicles. A high-tech Unimog has problems with the fuel supply. Our drivers keep their nerve. A final meeting of the drivers with a happy greeting and we return to the park administration late but happy. One group was actually able to observe a lynx - what an experience!