The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. ~ Proverbs 18:10
We recently returned from a week-long trip to the northern region of Svaneti. Svaneti is west and north of Tbilisi, and the Greater Caucasus Mountains form the northern border with Russia. It is a special place unlike any others in Georgia. It is unique for its culture, people, high mountain peaks, breathtaking beauty, remoteness, and ancient watch towers.
Until this year, the road to Svaneti could be described as “in shambles.” The capital of the region and main city of Mestia is approximately 500 kilometers from Tbilisi. That’s just 310 miles, but it takes 10 hours or more depending on your mode of transportation. With the road being partially redone, it took us 10.5 hours to get there because of all our photo, restroom, and food stops. We cut it down to 8.5 hours coming back to Tbilisi. One can only imagine how “quick” the trip will be when the new mountain road is complete. We have a friend who has made multiple trips to Svaneti over several years, mostly on mini-buses and on bad roads all the way. This kind of transportation takes more like 14 hours…that’s one long and rough ride! God bless this man (and now his wife) who are so committed to ministering among these people! Besides the new road, there is also the option of flying to Mestia to the new airport that opened earlier this year. It has one little terminal.
We traveled in 2 cars…4 Americans in one and 4 Georgians in the other. We stayed at a guest house in Mestia, except for one night when we camped out in Ushguli. We hiked to a glacier, hiked up to see 3 lakes on top of a mountain, and captured fantastic photos of Mount Ushba (4,700 meters; 15,400 feet) and Mount Tetnuldi (4,858 meters; 15,900 feet). When we traveled to Ushguli, we also took in Mount Shkhara (5,068 meters; 16,600 feet) as we camped near its base. This is the highest peak in Georgia. Ushguli is cut off from the world almost half the year due to snow and terrible roads. They don’t appear to be upgrading this road any time soon. It was 44 kilometers from Mestia and took us 3 hours to drive there on narrow roads with many drop offs along the way. We did not even see one guard rail! Interesting fact about Ushguli is that it is one of the highest settlements in all of Europe.
And just to make our trip even more interesting, the first lady Sandra Roelofs came to visit us in Svaneti. Ok…not really, but she really was there while we were and she and her entourage passed us on the way from Mestia to Ushguli. A police vehicle and multiple black Toyota Land Cruisers whizzed by telling us to “Stop machina! Stop machina!” And no…that was not a typo for machine…they said machina.
The entire region is filled with watch towers…in every village, at every house, and on random high places. It is like an identity trademark for the region today, but historically, they really were for protection. A vacation such as this certainly lent itself to much reflection and thought on the greatness of our God…our strong tower! A few of those towers date back to the 7th century and many to the 12th century. They have stood the test of time and war and all elements that could come against them, but even these towers of refuge will crumble one day. Our Lord will not crumble in battle! He is the shelter that we can run to and be saved. The chorus from “Strong Tower” by Kutless seems appropriate as you gaze on these towers:
You are my strong tower
Shelter over me
Beautiful and mighty
Everlasting King
You are my strong tower
Fortress when I’m weak
Your name is true and holy
And your face is all I seek
For as mighty as the towers seemed, and even mightier and impressive the mountains, our God is bigger and greater! It’s more than our human minds can comprehend! Guess that’s all the words we can try to use to describe and talk about this amazing place. We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, even though the pictures are but a glimpse into the beauty found in Svaneti.
