Davit Gareji Vacations, Davit Gareji Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

Davit Gareji Vacation Guide

Davit (David) Garedji, is a holy site that is very sacred to Georgians. It is on the boarder with Azerbaijan. The drive takes about 2.5 hours. There is no public transport to the site so from Tbilisi you normally take a marshrutka to a small town and then hire a taxi to take you out and wait.

You wind tour way through the kakheti (wine region). The roads transition from paved to barely paved to gravel to dirt and back again.

Along the way were the most breath taking views of the countryside. There is green a far as the eye can see, a consistent green. It is like a child being shown the color green for the first time.. There is a gently undulating landscape that creeps up to the lower mountains with the majestic, snow capped Caucasian mountain ranges behind them. In fields we saw animals grazing. The further into the rural area the more you see. At first it was mostly cows with an occasional donkey or horse. A couple of herds of goats and sheep began to appear accompanied by their shepherds and their dogs. Some of the shepherds were on horseback like cowboys.

At points the herds were in the middle of the road can become difficult to drive through them. It can seem like literally a sea of animals. One was larger than a sheep and a breed specific to Georgia.

The geography gradually becomes more barren and the trees got smaller and then disappeared along with the green of the fields. It transitions to a more dessert like topogphy. As you approach the Davit Garedja site you are able to overlook the valley we have come from. They land had dramatic canyons with stripes of red and gray rock running along and jutting. It was a spectacular and such a contrast.

Walk up and over the peak to the south eastern facing view. There is a steep drop several thousand feet to red and brown desert like terrain for quite a distance. This view is Azerbaijan. Standing there, Azerbaijan is 30 meters east. There are two problems to achieving setting foot on Azeri soil the several thousand feet down and the military base that was just within the Azerbaijan border was surely watching us.They would not take kindly to your tourist desires.

Climbing up and down along the Azeri facing cliffs there are many caves created for the monks to live in. There worn frescoes 1600 years old that still make their impact on the devoted that come here in this modern time.