The beautiful blue bird weather saw us leaving Tbilisi for the countryside and the iconic Kasbegi Mountain, via the lush alluvial valleys and foothills of central Georgia. We were out of Tbilisi quite quickly and onto the E60, which I have just discovered is the second longest E road in the world running from the Atlantic coast in France to the Chinese border in Kyrgyzstan. In Georgia it takes traffic from the Black Sea through to Tbilisi and on to Azerbaijan. A turn off onto the Russian Military Road meant we were on our way into the mountains and onto one of Georgia’s most iconic roads. It began by passing through low villages with every second house selling overflowing buckets of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, stone fruit and local honey. Beautiful lakes, old forts and castles and lush greenery meant we felt about a million miles from Saudi despite being only 4 hours away by air. The scenery became more rugged with chains of mountains dictating our way slowly towards the Russian border. We passed through …

In September this year in a bid to escape the summer heat we spent 5 amazing days in Georgia. It was definitely not what I had expected although everyone we have met who has been there raved about it. Despite that, in some ways it was exactly the way I pictured it although it is a country that defies being neatly pigeonholed and I suspect that we have barely scratched the surface of this fabulous part of the world. We landed in its capital Tbilisi just before 5 am. It was windy and cool after the searing summer temperatures of Saudi. After picking up local SIM cards and our 4wd Pajero we headed for the city. After a short nap – the days start late here – we decided to get out and explore as the forecast was for   later in the day. We walked across the bridge and into the Old Town and found coffee and our first taste of khachapuri a type of bread shaped like gondola and filled with cheese and egg or …