One road in, open about twelve weeks a year, and no way out except back over it. Past the pass there is no mobile network, no hotel and no shop. Four days of the country as it was before anybody arranged it for visitors.
- The pass in a prepared 4x4, driven by someone who lives past it
- Omalo and the Keselo towers, empty in the evening
- Guesthouse cooking, sheep cheese, no menu to choose from
Day by day
- Day 01
The pass
Tbilisi to Alvani in the morning, lunch, and then seventy kilometres that take five hours: the Abano pass, 2,850 m, single track, no barrier, cut into the slope. Your driver has crossed it a few hundred times. Omalo by evening, and the silence is the first thing you notice.
- Day 02
Omalo, Shenako, Diklo
The Keselo towers above Old Omalo at first light, then a walk east: Shenako with its Russian-built church, Diklo on the ridge looking into Dagestan. Cheese and bread wherever we stop, because that is what there is.
- Day 03
Dartlo
The best-looking village in the Caucasus, and the claim is not ours. Dry shale walls, a tower above it at Kvavlo an hour up the slope, and a hundred and fifty people at the height of summer. Nothing is scheduled after lunch.
- Day 04
Back over
The pass again, in the morning while the road is dry, then Alaverdi in Kakheti on the way past to remind you the country also does soft. Tbilisi late.
What is included
- A prepared 4x4 and a driver from the far side of the pass
- Your tamada, and a satellite messenger for the days without network
- All meals - there is nowhere to buy any
- Full refund or a moved date if the pass is shut
What is not
- Flights
- Travel insurance
- Helicopter out, if the weather closes the pass behind you - we arrange it, you pay it
The practical part
- Where you sleep
-
Guesthouses in Omalo and Dartlo. There is nothing else past the pass, and building something else there would be missing the point.
- When it works
- Mid-June to early October, and only if the pass is open. It is closed by snow the rest of the year and no vehicle argues with that.
- The pace
- Two hard driving days at either end, two easy ones in the middle. You do not need to be a hiker; you do need to be all right with heights.
The Tusheti Crossing
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