Don Curry does not tend to dramatize things. He writes about his experiences in a realistic style, sometimes seasoned with a little bit of humor. But exaggerated self-presentation or bragging doesn't suit him at all, it's far from his intentions. However, if he chose a - admittedly - quite sensational headline today, it is because the main part of today's schedule is often labeled with this dramatic title, and also because there was a certain danger of death that was much stronger than in everyday life.
In the early morning, the day started completely harmless. Don Curry looked from his balcony towards the Caucasus and didn't see it. Thick clouds had covered it. That didn't fit at all with Don Curry's plans for later. But he still had time, for example for breakfast at the ARGE hotel. This one was clearly more Georgian in style than his other accommodations. Here he could try, among other things, the Imeretian khachapuri, and there was also Lobiani, a kind of khachapuri with bean filling. Well-satiated and overall very satisfied, Don Curry left the nice family hotel, but not without having two liters of his two favorite wines from the previous evening filled up: the amber-colored Rkaziteli and the semi-sweet Saperavi. He received four 0.5 l bottles of each, which he found very practical. Then he started the fourth attempt to finally visit the Neues Schuamta monastery. Three times it was on the schedule for the day, three times it rained so heavily that Don Curry didn't feel like leaving Xerra. Today it didn't rain, although thick gray clouds dominated the sky. After 10 km, the destination was reached, the monastery parking lot was completely empty, and it still wasn't raining. The only thing that slightly clouded Don Curry's joy was the 'No Photography' sign that already adorned the outer monastery gate. And since he would be the only church visitor, the attention of the potential watchdog nun was solely focused on him. There was a watchdog nun. But when Don Curry gave her a friendly nod of greeting, she beamed at him warmly, but accompanied him into the otherwise empty church. Neues Schuamta was once one of the most important monasteries in Georgia. The remains of the colorful frescoes still testified to this significance. Unfortunately, they only survived on a few wall surfaces, having been destroyed multiple times. But Don Curry liked the existing frescoes so much that he had to take pictures of them. He pulled out his cell phone, took a picture, and didn't receive a rebuke. So he extensively captured the old monastery art and thanked the understanding nun, who then beamed at him again very warmly.
Don Curry finally crossed Neues Schuamta off the list of worth-visiting cultural monuments in Georgia. Now he had to take care of some practical matters to make the next three days successful. First, he bought some drinks and snacks at the Carrefour supermarket in Telavi, withdrew some cash from the ATM, and filled Xerra's tank completely. With that, the preparations could be considered completed. But before he headed to the actual destination, Don Curry made a short stop at the Ikalto Monastery, which probably had an attached academy in the Middle Ages and could therefore be considered as the intellectual center in eastern Georgia. Numerous ruins surround the monastery church, which still has a beautifully decorated central tower. However, the interior of the church is characterized by numerous steel beams, without which the building would be highly endangered by collapse. The only interior furnishing of the monastery church is an improvised iconostasis, so that passing Orthodox Christians can light a few candles.
Now though! The lunchtime had already begun, and Don Curry saw with great satisfaction that the Caucasus was gradually getting rid of its cloud cover. That's where Don Curry wanted to drive today. The rest of the day was solely dedicated to the journey. But what a journey it was! It led over the Death Pass. More accurately, it led over the Abano Pass, the highest drivable pass in the Caucasus of Georgia at 2826 meters. Don Curry would start at 450 meters above sea level; that makes it clear what efforts Xerra and he would have to make. However, the more serious fact is that the entire 70 km route over the pass is not an asphalted road, but a hardly paved track that only all-wheel-drive vehicles can handle. Luckily, Xerra happens to be exactly such a vehicle.
Don Curry found the first section of the total route the most unpleasant. Due to the heavy rain of the last few days, he struggled with extremely muddy road conditions. Xerra slipped to the side again and again and sometimes had problems handling the steep inclines on the smooth surface. Don Curry quickly gained altitude. Soon the track led high above a mountain river along a mighty rock wall. The entire route was generally designed only as a single lane, only occasionally there were expansions so that cars could pass each other at these locations. Don Curry considered himself lucky that he only encountered oncoming traffic twice during the 70 km; in both cases, avoiding each other was quite unproblematic. Encounters with two herds of cows and one herd of horses, driven by shepherds up the track to their summer quarters, proved to be more problematic. Since many calves and foals belonged to the herds, the animals reacted particularly nervously as Xerra approached. Avoiding the animals by driving around them over a wide area was impossible. So Xerra joined the herds and fought his way forward, surrounded by the animals, centimeter by centimeter, until the leading four-legged ones were overtaken. Sometimes the shepherds also helped by pushing individual animals to the side. After the muddy section along the gorge, the region of serpentine roads with endless hairpin bends began. Many consider exactly this part of the total route to be the most frightening and dangerous. The track was hewn into huge mountain slopes and always abruptly dropped on one side into a great depth. Don Curry deliberately avoided looking to the side. He didn't want to know if it was 100, 200, or even more meters that Xerra would plunge uncontrollably if he didn't stay exactly on the narrow road. There were no safety precautions whatsoever. In addition, the track was not laid out evenly, but sometimes so slanted that Don Curry feared Xerra would simply tip over. But Xerra held up well. Don Curry could clearly feel the increasing tension and the highest concentration that this drive demanded from him. He noticed it because he repeatedly clenched his toes, as if he wanted to ball them into fists. He often encountered memorial plaques with the names and faces of people who had already lost their lives on this route. Truly a Death Pass!
Then it happened, what Don Curry absolutely wanted to avoid. At higher altitudes, he got into the clouds. Now his view was not only reduced by the numerous mud splashes that completely disfigured Xerra by now, but was limited to a few meters in front of him due to the thick layer of clouds. Actually not bad, Don Curry thought, at least the view to the side is not so frightening anymore. Another challenge were the numerous narrow mountain streams, sometimes up to 2 meters wide, that crossed the track and flooded it. Sometimes Xerra had to drive through waterfalls rushing down from the mountainside, and plunging directly into the valley right after the track. It was a good thing that Xerra is a real heavyweight that couldn't be swept away so easily. At one point, Xerra even had to pass a waterfall that poured onto its roof from above; a natural car wash that thankfully completely rinsed off all the mud splashes from the windshield - until the next ones landed on it sometime.
Suddenly, Don Curry saw a tiny chapel by the roadside, and he discovered that from here on the track went downhill. That could only mean one thing: he had reached the Abano Pass. Don Curry treated himself and Xerra to an extensive break and took in the splendid view in all directions until he began to shiver in the rather fresh air. Here and also on the just completed stretch of road, Don Curry repeatedly looked at large snowfields at the edge of the track. From October to May, the entire pass route is completely closed to traffic because ice and snow would make it impassable. Now it was downhill, but that didn't make driving much easier. On the contrary: from now on, Don Curry had to almost continuously work with his brakes to prevent Xerra from gaining too much speed. By the way, the average speed on the entire route was 15 kilometers per hour, more was not conceivable given the brutal road conditions. Already on the Abano Pass, a sign announced that Don Curry had now arrived in Tusheti. This most remote region of Georgia has a continuously high mountain character. Accordingly, on this side of the pass, only about 1000 meters of altitude had to be descended. After a few hairpin bends, however, Don Curry reached the elongated valley of a mountain river again, which he could now follow. Unfortunately, the problems from the very first part of the track now returned: the track increasingly presented itself as muddy. In between, Don Curry encountered a single horse trotting eagerly along the track. Only after many attempts did Xerra allow the overtaking. Somehow, the dirty, noisy thing made him uneasy. Then Don Curry finally arrived in Tushetian landscapes: wide green hills amidst dark forests, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Don Curry marveled at meadows dotted with many wildflowers, where horses grazed, and occasionally a few colorful houses rose on a mountainside, forming a small settlement, but keeping a wide distance from each other.
Finally, after more than 4 hours of nerve-wracking driving, Don Curry reached the capital of Tusheti: Omalo, which has the same character of a scattered settlement as the previously seen villages. Don Curry's pre-booked room was supposed to be located in the Alt-Omalo district, above the modern town at an altitude of over 2000 meters. And so Don Curry ended up in a small village of maybe 20 houses, all standing close to each other and connected by footpaths. Pure country life! Here the cows moo, here the horses neigh. Hardly any of the sounds of our modern civilization reach this far.
In the middle of the village stands a low defensive tower built in the typical Tushetian style entirely of dark gray stone slabs; at the tower, Don Curry immediately noticed a sign "Hotel Tusheti Tower". This had to be the place. His hostess had already noticed Xerra and greeted Don Curry with a few broken English phrases. She asked if he wanted to sleep in the defensive tower? Don Curry couldn't resist this opportunity. Even when he noticed that the access to the defensive tower was only 1 meter high and that he had to squeeze through it to reach his room, that didn't deter him from his wish. If he was already in Tusheti, then he would do it properly! His simply rustic room included a private bathroom with a shower; however, hot water is only available on days when the sun shines. Since Tusheti is not connected to the electrical grid, many residents now generate their own energy through private solar systems; there's always enough for lighting, but only on sunny days for hot water.At 7:00 pm, Don Curry requested dinner. Today he would be the only guest; the other tourists went hiking to the neighboring village and would spend the night there. So Don Curry had the entire dining room right next to his residence tower to himself and was served a lavish meal. There are no choices here. The guests probably get the same food that the host family eats for dinner. A lot was spread out in front of Don Curry: a bowl of vegetable soup, a basket of bread, several plates filled with large slices of tomatoes, seasoned cold spinach, Badrijani (cold fried eggplant rolls), Tushetian cheese, and potatoes sticks fried in oil (Tushetian fries?). Finally, another bowl was brought to him, which consisted mainly of large, fatty, and cartilaginous pieces of beef. Don Curry decided to become a vegetarian from now on, in order to be able to forego this dish while saving face. By the way, there were no drinks, but Don Curry had stocked up well on wine at the wine hotel after breakfast and would simply drink the wine after the meal. But before that, he wandered around this miraculous place in a wonderfully beautiful environment a bit. This really formed a completely different world than the rest of Georgia. To a large extent, this was due to the Death Pass, the difficult accessibility. Only extremely tough travelers reached here under these road conditions.Was Don Curry one of them? He had imagined the Abano Pass as a real adventure that he wanted to face. He trusted himself to do it, he thought during the planning of the trip. This self-confidence suffered noticeable shocks during the seemingly endless drive over the track. Don Curry had the idea of simply staying in Tusheti forever, so that he would never have to drive back the same route. Or he considered hiring an experienced driver in Tusheti who would take him and Xerra back to asphalted Georgia. He didn't need this 70 km long ongoing nerve-wracking with an increased risk of death. But he also didn't want to miss the many fantastic impressions during the high mountain drive through an untamed and dangerous nature. And the destination, Don Curry realized, made him forget the endured fears and hardships very quickly. Tusheti is a dream! And he would be able to continue dreaming about this dream all day tomorrow…
