Desert in Georgia

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope that you all are doing fine!

In this article I want to tell you about this place in Georgia, where it’s like a desert and, in fact, it’s called a desert. However, if you imagine the desert just as it is in Sahara or whatever you have seen on TV, it’s not quite like that, because there’s not so much sand and dunes and everything. It’s not a desert like in Africa or in Australia or whatever. It’s a light desert, though the place is really amazing. There are some small lakes too, or maybe you can’t even call them lakes.

To be honest, I have been there just for some times, but people usually go there many times in a year and then they visit this Davit Gareja monastery complex, which is a great piece of architecture. Besides, there’s one sacred stone brought from Jerusalem by one of the saurian fathers called Davit, and that’s the reason why people say that going thrice to Davit Gareja equals to going to Jerusalem once.

So, people really like going to Davit Gareja, because it’s not far away and the monastery complex itself is very beautiful; besides, it’s really worth visiting once a year, maybe. You should definitely go there and see those wonderful masterpieces of architecture there. And then you can also enjoy the nature, as it’s kind of a desert with some trees and things like that. The village is called “Udabno”, which means “desert” in English, but I have been in that village only once when I was little. We were there with our national dance ensemble because we were going to dance there with some other people and we were really excited about that. And besides, it was our first time going together somewhere else for some purpose and we wanted to have a good time and have some fun, and at the same time, dancing so well that no one could say anything bad about us. We were supposed to dance in their school; the children there were very nice and we made some friends too. And though I don’t really remember what was the occasion and why exactly we were there, it was a great thing because they treated us very well and we also had a meal with everyone and we really enjoyed and had fun with the resident children in the gym where we could play some ball and climb the walls and everything. I remember that Udabno village very well and I have so many good memories from there. It’s known that there were not many photo cameras then, however, we had some and we could take some pictures there, which I still have and I have had them scanned too, so now I have them in my computer and I can see them whenever I want to remember that day. Google photos is a great thing where you can upload many photos and look at them from anywhere in the world.

Anyways, going to this desert is not very difficult. And as I’ve already mentioned, it’s pretty common going there; youth usually goes there from Kakheti or Tbilisi because it’s really close to these cities and it only takes 2 hours I guess, it all depends on where you are coming from. To be honest, it’s not that people want to see the village itself, it’s a usual village and nothing fancy, however, people go there to see the Davit Gareja monastery complex, to sit somewhere in the capture on their way back home, to have a meal or something and maybe even lighting some fire and have some mtsvadi made and things like that. It’s always a good idea to go there, however, there are some seasons or days when people avoid going to Davit Gareja monastery complex, because it’s known that there can be some snakes and animals like that and they can be very dangerous; especially when it’s hot and there is some grass. Of course, the snakes and those other animals can be anywhere and you can not always see them and then your visit may end up pretty bad; it’s always that threat. For this reason, you should be really careful and try not to go there in hot weather.

One of the main things about why I wanted to write about this desert in the East part of Georgia, and in Kakheti in particular, were those pictures that my aunt sent to me during the winter, when there was this huge snow almost everywhere and in the Udabno village too. She and her friends happened to be there at that time and they had those great pictures of snowy trees and bushes and there were these tree branches frozen and they seemed so beautiful in the pictures, that it was obvious that they should be even more amazing in the reality. She told me that there was only snow on the trees and their branches and on the bushes around but nothing was on the ground, which made everything look even more surprising and strange. I thought about how amazing it can be if you go to Davit Gareja in the winter when it’s snowing or has already snowed and everything is in white. It should be the typical picturesque landscape which all painters seek for.

Well, to be honest, I haven’t been to Davit Gareja many times (I think only three times), but I would really love to go there again. Though it’s really close to Tbilisi, only at 70 kilometres or so and we could go there whenever we want, it’s still not that common in our friends, I guess. However, there are those excursions and tours that you can book and go with your friends or family. They have those microbuses where the normal amount of people can be seated and they can have a good time visiting Davit Gareja monastery complex and making friends. It's always a good idea to go on tours like that, because you don’t have to drive your car; you can just sit there and relax and enjoy the view and everything outside during the trip and then enjoy being there in the nature and not to worry about driving back home, because you don’t have to.

I’m not going to tell you the history of the Davit Gareja monastery complex in detail, but since I’ve mentioned it, I do think that you should know a little about the monastery itself. First of all, I must tell you that there’s a kind of war going on between the Georgians and the neighborhood country Azerbaijan because they say that the territories there are theirs, while they are not; the thing is that the border is very close and they just want to have it all. The monastery itself was founded in the 6th century by one of the 13 assyrian monks called Davit and since then the monastery has been a significant place for Georgians and the country itself.

Well, that’s mainly what I wanted to say about our desert in eastern Georgia. It’s a really good place and if you are in Georgia, you should definitely visit it and be amazed by the Davit Gareja monastery complex architecture and the vast view of the fields of the desert. It’s really worth visiting the place and if you are not sure whether it’s a good time to visit it or not, it's better if you ask around because it can be really dangerous to go there in certain times of the year.

Photo gallery