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and i ride and i ride

Open Highways

A diagnostic and developmental reading program

Scott, Foresman and Company

Copyright 1968

Book cover design by Bradford/Cout Graphic Design

There was actually no good reason for me to buy this book other than I absolutely LOVED the cover design.

I've forgotten the precise location of this scenic portion of the Alaska Highway.

And so here is a closer view of one of the ancient Russian Lada cars. Isn't she a beauty? This one is probably the model VAZ-2101, which was introduced in 1970. The design is vaguely based on the Fiat 124 design, and a similar car was also made for a while in India called Premier 118NE. Lada is a brand of cars manufactured by the Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ based in Tolyatti, Samara Oblast. "Lada" was originally the export brand for models sold under the "Zhiguli" name in the domestic Soviet market after June 1970. Lada cars became popular in Russia and Eastern Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in former Eastern bloc countries. AvtoVAZ exported the original Lada in sedan and station-wagon versions to many markets, and with over 20 million units sold before production ended in mid-2012, it had become the highest-selling automobile to be produced without a major design change. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Nikon FM2 | Lomography 100 ISO

Chesnee, SC - Spartanburg County

© 2010

The scenery on the road to Kazbegi/ Stepsandminda is to die for! Just a few kilometres past the Jinvali/ Zhinvali water reservoir is another lake with the fairy tale like Ananuri Fort complex, which you see right here. This is actually the Ananuri – Mtiuleti – Fortress and Central-Domed Church built between the 16 th and 17 th century AD. This is an architectural complex which belonged to the house of the Eristavi of Aragvi - a violent local ruler. The characteristic architectural design of the late medieval period includes a fortress, two churches, an old watch tower, prison and civic buildings. Located on the famous Georgian Military Highway this picturesque Ananuri fortress stood as a guardian to the Northern boarders of Georgia. A picturesque view of reservoir spread bellow opens from the base of the fortress, which is what gives this fairy tale view. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Nevada Magazine's March/April 2012 issue

Photo by Adam Smith

www.theadamsmith.com/?page_id=28

An autumn scene of Valley of Fire State Park and its brilliant red sandstone formations.

So here then is a far shot of the Ujarma Fortress, in the Kakheti region of Georgia. Established by King Vakhtang Gorgasali in the 5th century, Ujarma Fortress was the second capital of Georgia until the 8th century. King Vakhtang Gorgasali is believed to have died there after he was wounded in battle against the Persians. (Ujarma, Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Now I hate politicians, especially aggressive ones who make fiery speeches and try to stir up a storm, and dislike them even more if they are super aggressive and female. My taxi driver eventually decide to leave some half an hour later. The poor chap who has been made the standing example of the pint she is making now appears to be thoroughly perplexed. In the end, my taxi driver had had enough. We had to politely ask a few oldies who were leaning on the car to make way and we finally moved off. The woman was still talking when we left. Most of the audience appeared to be super old out on an evening walk. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Bored listeners as the local woman politician makes a fiery speech and stirs up much animosity outside what looked like an abandoned school or theatre in the village where my elderly taxi driver's house is located. Now I hate politicians as a rule, especially those who stir up animosity, and especially those super aggressive female politicians (call me misogynist if you will!) and urged my driver to carry on. He was however totally transfixed and refused to budge for nearly half an hour! (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Closer view of bottles of local Georgian wine inside the stall. Georgians are very proud of their wine, and sell and consume it by the gallon! Georgia is one of the oldest wine regions in the world. The fertile valleys of the South Caucasus house the source of the world's first cultivated grapevines and neolithic wine production, from over 8,000 years ago.Due to the many millennia of wine in Georgian history, and its key economical role, the traditions of its viticulture are entwined and inseparable with the country's national identity. Among the best-known regions of Georgia where wine is produced are Kakheti (further divided onto micro-regions of Telavi and Kvareli), Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, and Abkhazia. UNESCO added the ancient traditional Georgian winemaking method using the Kvevri clay jars to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

The longer my elderly taxi driver took in retrieving his tools from the crew of the other car, the more I was enjoying this mountain scenery. And just when I was wondering that in the event of a land slide, the little town will be washed right into the river below, I was totally spooked when I noticed a road running down from the little town, steeply inclined downwards on the face of the canyon and running right down to a bunch of houses located right on the river itself! It must be quite a drag for the people of this little town to get anywhere during the winter with heavy snow and steep hill roads to contend with. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Having made several photo stops on the way to Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, and having got enough shots on my memory card, we drove past all those sites- the mountain pass, Gudauri, Ananuri- the whole lot. We did not have to stop for dinner as well as I had decided to pick up a khachapuri (cheese bread- a Georgian staple) upon hitting Tbilisi later in the evening. So these last two photos are taken from the running car. Here is a herd of cattle coming down a steep mountain slope to bed down for the night. I know goats are amazingly sure footed, and some of them balance precariously on narrow ledges of rock on impossible mountain slopes. But cattle? I was amazed that large animals like cows too can be pretty sure footed- their sheer weight and size notwithstanding. The wonder of nature! (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

The fairy tale view of the Ananuri Fort which you saw previously can be had as you are approaching the fortress by road, over a bridge. I loved the view so much that after getting off the car and getting a couple of shots of the fortress, I simply had to walk up the bridge once again to get the view, this time on foot. The sun had come out a bit at that point, and hence a slightly better lighted view. Detailed notes about the Ananuri fortress appeared earlier on in this album. The characteristic architectural design of the late medieval period includes a fortress, two churches, an old watch tower, prison and civic buildings. Located on the famous Georgian Military Highway it stood as a guardian to the Northern boarders of Georgia. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Ok, normal? (my taxi driver's standard word for good, fine, beautiful or OK) my taxi driver said handing the camera back to me. But while I headed back to the car, he went the opposite way, climbed a short mound of earth, braving loose earth in the process and stood looking towards the water with his hand on his hips. It's only a good couple of minutes later on seeing his hand motions that I realized he was peeing. Well, curiosity got the better of me, and I looked out from his vantage point as well. And this is the view I got. But don't worry, we are high up in the mountains and the lake is at least a couple of kilometres downhill. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

The Georgians were surprisingly very cool about my photographing the border. I generally avoid photographing sensitive spots like this, taking only a grab shot at the most. But here, my elderly taxi drive had me get off- no problem, photo no problem he said, driving away to find parking. Two uniformed chaps standing nearly gave me a glance or two but were generally not really bothered. From far, my driver, who had met someone he knew, gesticulated again- no problem, photo no problem. In fact a young couple who walked past- who probably work at the border crossing- gave me a sweet smile and asked me if I want them to take my picture against the border. Now how cool is that! This is the only legal border crossing point between Georgia and Russia and can handle up to seven thousand people as well as 50 buses and cars a day. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Border visit done, it's now back to Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda for the long two and a half hour long drive back to Tbilisi. Actually Kazbegi itself has little to interest the casual tourist excepting the weather, and it's being a hop off point for trekking in the mountains all around. And then of course there is Mkinvartsveri, a mountain in Kazbegi, and the highest mountain in Georgia, it is 5047 m. high. There is also a glorious Gergeti Holy Trinity church (2170 m. high) that overlooks Kazbegi with the background of Mkinvartsveri The mountain itself is now under cloud cover, but here is a far shot of the Trinity Church, which was built in the 14th century during the reign of Giorgi V (1318-1346). Gergeti church is the main chapel of of the Khevi area. To get to the church, you can take a 4x4 taxi part way up the mountain and then walk up to the church. It is a popular place with trekkers. It's dusk now, andthe dark clouds either indicate impending rain, or snowfall, neither of which had come on the following day. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, ((Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Now here is a kind of stall you find in traditional markets all over Georgia- perhaps the most eye-catching Georgian food of all, churchkhela. Most tourist sites had them, and the water travertines were no exception! These are the lumpy, colorful confections hanging in storefront windows, which tourists often mistake for sausages. (see top shelf). Making churchkhela takes patience and practice: Concentrated grape juice (left over from the yearly wine harvest) must be poured repeatedly over strands of walnuts. Each layer is left to dry until a chewy, waxy exterior envelops the nuts. Packed with protein and sugar, churchkhela have even gone to war alongside the Georgian military, which relied on them as a source of shelf-stable nutrition. Also seen here (on the lower shelf) is the Tklapi. Flat, colorful, and over a foot in diameter, this peculiar Georgian specialty is actually a Fruit Roll-Up at its most primal: puréed fruit, spread thinly onto a sheet and sun-dried on a clothesline. Though delicious, it's quite hard on the teeth to bite a piece of the rather tough fruit-pulp disk! (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

My elderly taxi driver was now clearly in a hurry. He was speeding up, and was going on in Georgian all the time about bbq and madam. Normal? he asked me now and then, his word for good, nice, ok or fine, something he repeated several hundred times that day. But no, there was another stop to make. He needed to pick up something else, which I gathered later was bread. GAZ, he shouted out to me as he jumped out of the car and rushed off into a nearby shop, pointing to this vehicle parked between two buildings. Indeed, this is a GAZ 1969 light truck, another Russian classic. Notes about this car appear in the next caption. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Fortunately for me, there was an Arab tourist with his family waling by in the opposite direction on the bridge, so I requested him to take a picture of me against the fairy tale view of the Ananuri fortress. And this is the result. Not a very good view, as the kind gentleman was distracted by his family and their talking to him. And since the X-A1 is a dSLR, there is no auto zoom- you need to zoom with your hand by turning the focusing ring on the lens. So after struggling for a minute or so with the camera, he took this picture and handed my camera back to me. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

It was a bonanza of antique Russian vehicles that morning, and they kept appearing quite unexpectedly from inside one of the car reapir shops in that cluster. With a rough road and uneven terrain, I could not run ahead to get a close view. This is an old Russian UAZ 469 jeep. The UAZ-469 is an off-road military light utility vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armed forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service in state organizations that needed a robust and durable off-road vehicle. Standard military versions included seating for seven personnel. Developed from the GAZ-69 and UAZ-460, the UAZ-469 was introduced in 1971 to replace the GAZ-69. It was powered by the same 75 hp 2,445 cc engine as the UAZ-452 and was able to run on gasoline with an octane rating as low as 72 (although 76 was preferred). The UAZ-469 presented two great advantages: it was able to drive in virtually any terrain and it was very easy to repair. The vehicle was originally not available for purchase by the public, but many were sold as surplus to private owners. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Mercedes is the most popular model of automobile in Georgia, in fact I though one car out of five or six was a Merc! Someone also told me that a Merc was the cheapest car to maintain in the country as spares and repairs were dirt cheap due to the sheer number of vehicles around. But while most Mercs were saloon cars or estate cars, here is a microbus. As I was taking pictures of the rugged mountains from the viewpoint we had stopped at, this blue Merc micro bus stopped by and asked my elderly taxi driver for his tools so that they could repair their own car. Three mighty Georgian ladies got off that blue micro bus and were hanging around waiting for their crew to finish repairs on their car using the tools from ours. Our car is the silver Merc with it's boot open. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Emboldened by the uniformed guys ignoring me, and the young couple who probably work at border control offering to take my picture, I decided to venture a little closer to the border. The modern Georgia–Russia border was drawn with the proclamation of the Georgian Democratic Republic on 8 June 1918. From 1921 to 1991, it was an internal border within the Soviet Union. The border was changed during 1944–1958 to include part of the territories of the deported Chechens and Karachai into Georgia (now part of Karachay-Cherkessia, with cities Teberda and Karachaevsk, and the highlands of modern Chechnya). After 1958, the border reverted to following the Caucasus range. With the independence of Georgia in 1991, the border became an international one. After crossing the toll and a further three kilometres drive it would be Russia. I hear you cannot actually walk across to Russia as there is a long tunnel on the Russian side till the first border town. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

And while I was at it, I tried to take a selfie against the mountains. Sadly, since I could not look into the viewfinder, and I'd have to point the camera downwards to get that town across the valley, this is all I could get. Pointing the camera down would have focused on my crotch or my shoes. Oh well. My driver guide had already taken one shot of me on this viewing platform, and at any rate he was totally pre-occupied with the crew of the other car who was using his own car's tools to repair theirs. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

So here it is, the actual Georgia–Russia border. Cars line up to cross into Russia. This state border between Georgia and Russia runs mostly along the Caucasus range and thus closely follows the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia. Peaks along the border include Shota Rustaveli Peak, Dzhangi-Tau, Shkhara, Dzhimara, Kazbek and Tebulosmta. Today it connects Tbilisi to the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, in the North Ossetia region, and was only named “military” after Russia annexed Georgia to its territory in the 19th century. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

The Kakheti region of Georgia is well-known for wines. It is located on the eastern part of Georgia, bordered by the small mountains province of Tusheti and mountain-range of Greater Caucasus to the north, Azerbaijan to the east and the south, and the Georgian province of Kartli to the west. Here, in Telavi, a local restaurant celebrates the wine of the region by using old wild amphorae as planters. The restaurant was closed, and I did not want to tresspass, so I decided to take this far shot. There is a lovely view of the valley beyond the restaurant. (Telavi, Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Not from the ski slopes of Gudauri is this structure- the Russia–Georgia Friendship Monument or Treaty of Georgievsk Monument. This monument was built in 1983 to celebrate the bicentennial of the Treaty of Georgievsk and ongoing friendship between Georgia and Soviet Russia. Located on the Georgian Military Highway between the ski resort town of Gudauri and the Jvari pass, the monument overlooks the Devil's Valley in the Caucasus mountains. As you can see, the inside the monument is decorated with a large tile mural that spans the whole circumference of the structure and depicts scenes of Georgian and Russian history. The views from the monument are said to be spectacular, but I did not go in as I had already seen those spectacular views, minus the crowds, further down the road. As my taxi driver was not quite inclined to go out there and hunt for parking again, I had to download this picture of the monument from the web. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016) (Photo by Michael Allbritton on flickr on Creative Commons)

While the ski slopes sans snow are a distance behind me, up ahead is the valley over which the paragliding takes place. A distinct haze in the air and a somewhat cloudy setting had my elderly taxi driver guess that we may get snow later in the night or overnight, so while staying overnight was never on our agenda, the snow did not appear during our return trip back to Tbilisi later that day. One batch of paragliders had just come in and the second batch was still preparing to take the plunge, so there are no paragliders visible at the moment. You can however make out part of a parachute at the extreme centre left- that chap was adjusting his parachute and was preparing to take the plunge. He didn't for the next five minutes, or at least he hadn't till I left the place. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Last picture of the beautiful mountainscape on the Georgian Military Highway, on the road from Tbilisi to Kazbeti/ Stepantsminda. Just look at this beautiful scene- a wild river in the foreground with a rather rocky bed, pine filled mountains, agricultural fields, meadows for grazing with haystack pyramids, and cool, clean and fresh mountain air. Too bad so many Georgian males are heavy smokers though, which, if any of the residents here are, will sure pollute the clean and crisp mountain air here! (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Though this is not the Dariali Gorge itself (t is is close by), the nasty land slide on the Georgian Military road near the Russia border has taken out a large Hitachi excavator, which still lies in state at the site. Note the large rock lodged firmly in the operator's cab- I only hope the poor chap survived that. I had to get out of the car despite the horrific dirt, and talcum powder like fine dust and the rough terrain as I have never seen a disaster zone at such close quarters. Getting out of the relative security of a car braving the rough conditions and surrounded by formidable mountains and loose rock was a bit of an adrenaline rush. I only hope there were no casualties in this accident. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Despite the communication barrier, and at times outright greed exhibited by my elderly taxi driver by asking for more and more over and above my already generous fee and tip, he did take me in as family that day. We had a nice bbq meal that day. The two blokes you see here are probably his sons or sons in law, couldn't make out much due to the language barrier. The elderly man you see at the far end was really old, he hardly spoke, and walked with a very slow gait. They called him pappa and treated him with a lot of respect. He shook my hand, and gave me a faint smile, and also had a couple of pieces of bbq. Really old he was. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Winters in Georgia can be nasty, and really, really cold, especially in this area, which is surrounded by mountains and is so close to the border with Russia. To protect themselves from the harsh winter, locals wear long coats like this one made out of sheep skin, with a sheep skin cap to match. While I could not see the coats on sale anywhere, I did note sheep skin caps on sale in many tourist locations. Some locals were making a living offering photo ops to curious tourists who wanted to see how they look wearing the ethnic sheepskin winter wear. A large group had gathered there, with families taking turns in posing in the ethnic wear. I would have had to wait pretty long for my turn, at any rate I did find it rather touristy, and cheesy, and decided to pass. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

I fired off a couple of shots of this pristine (but for a broken indicator light) GAZ light truck while waiting for my driver to return. The GAZ-69 is a four-wheel drive light truck, produced by GAZ (ГАЗ, or Gorkovsky Avtomobilnyi Zavod, Gorky Automobile Factory) between 1953 and 1956 and then by UAZ, in 1956–1972, though all of these vehicles were known as GAZ-69s. Extremely popular in the Soviet Union, the design was copied by a number of foreign companies. Although a handful of GAZ cars are used by civilians, the GAZ-69 had basically been the basic light off-road vehicle of the Soviet Army, replacing GAZ-67s and Willys Jeeps, before the army adopted the UAZ-469. It was also used as the basis for the 2P26 tank destroyer, as well as for the GAZ 46 MAV, a light 4x4 amphibious vehicle inspired by the Ford GPA Seep (sic). (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

We are back in the main town square of Kazbegi/ Stepantsmindo now, but unsuccessfully having spent nearly an hour to only find a seat in a restaurant earlier in the day and then having to back track some 15km just to have a meal, we did not stop for photos. This picture is therefore downloaded from the net. (acknowledgement appears at the end of this caption.) According to tradition, Stepantsminda, literally Saint Stephan was named so after a Georgian Orthodox monk Stephan, who constructed a hermitage at this location on what later became the Georgian Military Highway. It came under the control of a local feudal magnate, the Chopikashvili clan, who were in charge of collecting tolls on travelers in the area in the late 18th century. After the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Kingdom of Georgia in the early 19th century, the people of the region revolted against Russian rule. However, the local lord Gabriel Chopikashvili, son of Kazi-Beg, remained steadfast in his loyalty to Russia and helped to suppress the revolt. In return, he was promoted to officer in the Russian Army. He adopted the surname Kazbegi, and the village under his control was also frequently referred to as Kazbegi. The name was officially changed to Kazbegi already under the Soviet rule in 1925. Gabriel Chopikashvili-Kazbegi's grandson was the famed Georgian writer Alexander Kazbegi, who was born in this town. In 2006, the town reverted to its original name of Stepantsiminda. Almost all locals refer to the town as Kazbegi though. You can see the Gergeti Trinity Church high up on the hill in the far background in the middle of this photograph. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016) thealoof.com/a-brief-trip-into-the-amazing-caucasus-mount...

Before leaving, my elderly taxi driver wanted to call at his house again, so we made a small detour off the main road into the bumpy road that led to his village. He offered that I come in, but I politely declined- I'd spent enough time there earlier, with the lunch and nap. So I waited outside in the car while he said hi to a local store owner, picked up something there, and went bank into his house to deliver it. After that, we saw this local woman gathering stirring up animosity outside an abandoned theatre. More on that in the next caption. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

After dropping me off to take pictures, my elderly taxi driver drove off to find a parking spot. I was so enamored with the fairy tale view of the Ananuri fortress that I simply had to take this picture of the rear of it, from the parking lot, partially also to remind me of the name of the place, which is mentioned on the white sign advertising a nearby hotel. The Ananuri fortress or Architectural Complex, one of the best monuments of the late feudal period. It assembles national, military and cultural structures. Most of Ananuri monuments represent a grandiose castle. The oldest building of the castle is 20 mtr. long Guard Tower. The complex also houses a small church, which the local Ananuri villagers call “The Healer”. The most important architectural building is the temple with a large dome, it was built in 1689. In 2007 Ananuri Castle was put in UNESCO World heritage list. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

I simply couldn't get enough of that fantastic view and kept envying the fabulous location of that little town you see at the centre of this picture. While the overall situation in winter might be rather bleak, with icy cold winds and heavy snowfall, by summer the setting is magical, don't you think?(Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Since the repairs to the other car were taking a while, and since we could not leave until the other crew returned the tools of our car to my elderly driver guide, I went back to the viewing platform to take another shot of that beautiful scene. I really loved the location of that lovely little town at the far end! (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Don't I simply suck at selfies! I had been so very much enamored of the fairy tale view of the Ananuri fortress that I simply had to walk up that bridge once again to take that view once again. Having done that, I tried to take a selfie. I had a large Fujifilm X-A1 mirrorless camera on my hands, and so this is my first disastrous attempt at taking a selfie with this large camera against that fairy tale setting. Now where the hell is the water? Don't I simply suck at selfies! (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

Apologies to the squeamish, but this is the interior of the composting toilet. I only had to pee, so it was a quick one minute job. The toilet was surprising not smelly at all. Well, at least not noticeably smelly. (Kakheti region, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

A far view of the super smooth and grassy slopes of the Caucausus mountains at Gudauri, a popular ski resort in Georgia. It was amazing how the mountain slopes were free from obstructions like trees or rocks, which make them ideal for skiing when there is snow. Snow was expected over the next couple of days. The cloudy weather in fact made my elderly taxi driver predict snow coming in as early as that evening, but of course that did not happen. This is a far view of the ski slopes taken from the far end of the paragliding station. The cars and crowds you see at the far end have all come in for the paragliding. (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)

This the main town square of Kazbegi/ Stephantsminda. Barring a museum, there is not much of interest in the town itself to the casual tourist, except as a hop off point for treks into the surrounding mountains, or to get to the Trinity Churh way up on top of a hill, which you can see faintly at the extreme right. The absolute minimum recorded temperature is -34 degrees Celsius and the absolute maximum is 32 degrees Celsius. The town is dominated by large mountains on all sides. The most notable mountain of the region, Mount Kazbek, lies immediately to the west of town. The second most prominent peak, Mt. Shani, rises to an elevation of 4,451 meters (14,600 feet) above sea level, 9 kilometers to the east of Stepantsminda. The town is located 10 kilometers to the south of the famous Darial Gorge which we will see later. (pictures follow) (Kazbegi/ Stepantsminda, Georgia, Sept. 2016)