City Hiking At Turtle Lake

Hello friends, hope you are all doing well out there. Today I want to share with you all an amazing experience that I had with my friends last year.

This small trip has given me a lot of memories which I will share with you in a little while. Hiking is an activity that you do outside the city where you have a special place meant to do that but this trip of mine is special because we did some hiking within the city.

It was a bright sunny summer weekend in Tbilisi. During summers the sun use to rise earlier than usual in Tbilisi therefore me and my friends awoke a little early than usual. As we didn't have anything much to do in that weekend we just thought of going out somewhere. We didn't actually decide a place to go. The day started with a plan and we thought to leave from home after lunch. As it is summer the sun won't set till 7pm and we were sure about it.

We started cooking some spicy Indian chicken curry and ate a hefty lunch after which we had to relax a bit as we were not in a position to move an inch. After 30 minutes we started to get ready and we were all ready in 15 minutes. We left our home and made our way to the bus station discussing where to go. One of my friend suggested Vake Park. As no one had a better option than that we agreed. The bus station for the buses to Vake is a bit far from our home.

We slowly walked our way to the bus stand. As this is just a city tour we didn't plan of buying anything to eat like we do when we visit outside Tbilisi. We reached the bus station in about 10 minutes from our home. We were waiting for the city bus with a number 140, 88 or 87 and in a couple of minutes the bus arrived. We hopped on to the bus and started our journey to the vake park. The bus travelled through the busy streets of Tbilisi to reach Vake which is an important place in the city. The bus stopped in the bus station in front of the park and we all got down.

Vake park is a large park located in a place called Vake in Tbilisi. This place is popular within the city as it is considered to be a prominent place in Tbilisi. Vake park is a public park that covers a large area with a wide variety of trees. The park also has a central fountain which showers water upon you if wind blows when you are standing beside it. To enter the park you will have to walk down the steps from the bus station which will take you to a centre path. Both sides of the path are bordered by finely grown hedges.

In the centre of the park you will see the fountain which I just described above. Four paths converge at the central fountain. One is the path that we came, the other three are in the west, east and north directions. If you take the path on your left side which I consider to be the west you will reach a gate after passing through a series of trees and children play zone. If you take the path towards your right which I consider to be the east you can walk quite a distance among the trees where you can even see an abandoned amusement park like set up. There is also a child play zone in this part of the park. If you move forward further which I consider to be the north you will reach a series of steps which you will have to climb to reach the statue called as the "Mother OF Georgia" which in Georgian language is called as Kartlis Deda.

After climbing the first level of stairs you will be in a place which has a fountain with a year marked in it. From here begins another level of stairs which you must climb to reach the second level. Here there is a small concrete bridge that overlies the fountain which you saw below. Third level of stairs begins from this place which are steep and you must climb these stairs to get to the statue. The statue of "Mother of Georgia" is a gigantic figure that stands tall and can be seen from the road. She holds a wine bowl in one hand which symbolizes her hospitality for her friends and in the other hand she holds a sword which symbolizes her bravery for her enemies. We just sat down near the base of the statue to get some rest after climbing so many stairs at a stretch.

As we were sitting and talking with each other we just made another plan to hike our way uphill to reach the Turtle Lake which is also called as Ku Stba in Georgian. This was the first time we are going to climb this way to reach the top of the hill where Ku Stba is located. We started our hike and began to climb up the hill. After climbing a small distance we were able to see a series of stairs laid for us by the roots of the big trees in that area. It was really beautiful to walk over them. The slope of the mountain was not so much steep. After walking a particular distance the mountain became leveled and then again begins to ascend. The first slope was made easy with the help of these roots of trees.

The second slope was a bit steep as we had to walk through a rocky slope of the mountain. There were numerous small rocks rolling down as we were climbing up which made us to remain cautious. It was a energy consuming walk and after few minutes we were at the second level of the mountain. Here we saw a mountain bike track which is being used by mountain bikers. Crossing this track we could see our third slope to climb. It was a bit difficult to climb this at the beginning as the path was narrow and we couldn't find anything to hold on. However, we managed to climb by holding to some small bushes found there. Here we saw few Georgian people camping. There was a tent and people in front with a campfire cooking something. We didn't actually want to stand there longer and we started climbing the slope. Now it was not that hard as it was in the beginning to climb this slope. From this point we were able to get a clear look at the city of Tbilisi.

The whole city appeared like a toy city made of building blocks. We were also able to see the football stadium. From above it appeared as if there was a match on that day but during our ascend we were not able to see any players on the ground. Then we had to pass through a forest like slope which has a lot of trees. We had an amazing view here, there was a tree that was completely broken by the wind and the tall stem of the tree is balanced by the other trees as this tree is stuck within the branched of other trees found in this area. We continued our travel and finally we made it to the top of the mountain. It had a road here for the automobiles. This is the road that is used to access Turtle Lake.

We sat down in a rail on the corner of the road to take some rest as we were really exhausted after climbing so far. We were able to see the abandoned cable car station located in the top of the hill. It is being said that cable cars operated between Vake and Turtle Lake in the past and it was recently stopped. We were really disappointed about stopping the service. We were also little thankful for stopping the service because if in case the cable car functions we wouldn't have gained such an amazing experience.

After reaching the road we had to follow it for quite a small distance to reach the Turtle Lake. The Lake was quite amazing. We didn't know so far that such a beautiful place lies on the top of the city. As we reached the Turtle Lake board there was a group of models who were performing a dance to popularize a women product. There was a big ancient clock that displays time when you stand in it with the help of your shadows.

There are two ways that move from this point. One goes through a small arch which will take you around the turtle lake to the other side of it. Some people climb to the top of the hill located on the other side of Turtle Lake. We moved in the opposite direction to it. There were numerous restaurants and shops to buy a plenty of food stuffs. We continued to walk on the track moving around the borders of Turtle lake where we came across an amazing stage built on water in which were held a number of cultural event. There were chairs for the audience to sit and watch on the bank of the lake. There are even sun bath chairs for the visitors to relax themselves. As we walked along the bank of the lake we came across a boating center which was giving pedal and row boats for rent. The rent money was just 5GEL for 30 minutes. We were really excited on hearing this as we really wanted to do some boating in the lake. We sat on a bench that was placed near the lake relaxing and boosting up our energy. The lake was pleasant and beautiful. The water was green and clean.

It also has a good vegetation all around it. During winter the lake gets frozen and it is only during the summer months the lake is open for public. We paid the boat man 5GEL and we hired a pedal boat in the form of a dolphin and my friends were pedaling it for the first half. We chose the boat because of the design but only after pedaling for a little distance into water we came to know that the boat's lever was not functioning properly which made it impossible to steer the boat. When we steer the boat in one direction it moves in the other. When we told from the middle of the lake that the boat was broken he couldn't really understand us and it took us almost half an hour to manage with this boat to go for a single round around the lake. We had to return back to the shore as the time got over. We were a little disappointed in the beginning however we had fun in the boat. After finishing with boating we saw a restaurant that is built over the water in the lake with a bar. There was a barbecue vendor who was preparing some delicious barbecue's near the lake. On the bank of the river we could even see some table tennis tables that was for hire.

Some started to play in it after hiring them. We walked a little distance in the lake which took us back to the same place where we started. As we didn't have enough time we were unable to climb the mountain on the other side of the lake. We walked back along the road through which we came up. We again decided to hike our way down to Vake up in the same way we came up. The first part of the journey was smooth. After passing through the zone of trees we ended up in the place where we were able to see the football stadium again. This time the match has started and it was a match between Japan and Georgia. We can't stand and watch the whole match from here as it is already late. Then we had to climb down a small steep narrow path. We were now at the second level from the top.

Here we came back again to the mountain bike track which we had to cross to pass through the second slope. It was quite steep and made of rocks. There were small slippery stones in numerous numbers which made it more difficult for the hikers. After sometime we reached the second level and the third slope started following it. We had to walk through the stairs made from tree roots to reach the base of the Mother Of Georgia statue. Here we sat for a while and took some pictures. We also started to chat about all the fun moments we had up in Turtle lake. After sometime we climbed down through the stairs near the Mother Of Georgia statue.

When we reached the base of the statue we knew that a marvelous trip has almost reached its end. We walked through the vake park to get near the entrance. There is a long subway connecting vake park with the other side of the road. We had to walk through this subway to reach the opposite side of the road where we had our bus station. We waited for our bus to arrive and when it arrived we all boarded the bus and made our way home. In home we had a look at all the pictures that we took during this small hike.

Though our journey was not a tough one it gave us some happy memories. Just a sudden plan to roam around the city made us do something which we never expected. This trip made our boring day a memorable day. Both Vake park and Turtle lake are two cool places to visit within Tbilisi to have some fun with your friends and also to enjoy the beauty of Tbilisi from a distance. We had some excellent fun combined with some real adventure. If you don't want to hike your way up to Turtle Lake you can hire a taxi to reach Turtle Lake and it will cost you around 5GEL. The taxi will take you directly to Turtle Lake and you can have some fun by boating, playing games etc in Turtle Lake. If you feel that you are having a boring day in Tbilisi and if you need an instant solution just try the same thing we did. I assure you that you wouldn't regret it. Thank you for reading it patiently and if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to mention it below...! Till I meet you with my next article keep smiling and cheers :) :)