A puddle on a mountain track, two loaded touring bikes and a perfect reflection: Rafał and Aleksandra’s photographs from their June ride across the Georgian Caucasus are full of moments like this. The couple travel by bicycle to remote places to photograph landscapes and cultures, and in Svaneti they found medieval tower villages, high passes and generous hosts.
The route: Jvari to Ushguli and over Zagari Pass
The pair began in Jvari, in western Georgia, and rode up into Svaneti, avoiding big cities and staying in the high mountains. Their goal was Ushguli, the village community at the foot of Shkhara, which at 5,201 metres is Georgia’s highest mountain. From there they crossed the Zagari Pass, topping out at 2,616 metres. The pass lies under snow for about six months of the year and the road is often impassable, which makes early summer the earliest realistic window for a bike crossing.
The tower houses of Upper Svaneti
Upper Svaneti, on the upper Inguri River between the Greater Caucasus and the Svaneti Range, was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1996. Long geographic isolation preserved its medieval villages and their distinctive defensive tower houses, most of them built between the 9th and 12th centuries. The towers usually have three to five floors, with walls that thin towards the top for a slender, tapering profile. They served as homes and as refuges in times of conflict. The attached houses are typically two storeys, with a ground-floor hall around an open hearth and a wooden partition separating people from their livestock.
Chazhashi, one of the villages of the Ushguli community at the confluence of the Inguri and Black rivers, keeps more than 200 medieval tower houses, churches and castles. On a hilltop in neighbouring Zhibiani stands the 12th-century Lamaria church, with frescoes from Georgia’s Golden Age. Ushguli sits at about 2,100 metres and is often described as one of the highest permanently inhabited settlements in Europe.
Svan people, language and hospitality
The Svans are a subgroup of Georgians, mostly Georgian Orthodox Christians, and most speak both Georgian and Svan, an unwritten language of the Kartvelian family. Svan three-part polyphonic singing is considered one of the most archaic traditions of its kind. Rafał and Aleksandra did not share a language with many of the people they met, so they communicated by gestures and mimicry. Their photographs of meals and warmly lit interiors show how much of a cycling journey happens off the bike.
Planning a bike trip in Svaneti
Svaneti is among the most mountainous regions of Georgia and the highest inhabited area of the Caucasus. Winters bring heavy snow, frequent avalanches and snow cover that can reach five metres, while the higher valleys have only short, cool summers. Mestia, the main town of Upper Svaneti, is the usual base for supplies and guesthouses. Plan for summer, carry spare parts and food for remote stretches, and ask locally about the state of the Zagari road before committing to it.
For two different ways of recording a long journey, explore an Appalachian Trail portrait time-lapse and Travis Burke’s van photographs.
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