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Trip to Vashlovani National Park – 3 days
For everyone who wants to spend the weekend actively in a quiet environment, away from civilization, the trip to Vashlovani National Park would be a right decision.
Founded almost 100 years ago, Vashlovani National Park with its 84 square kilometres of strictly protected area, offers visitors endless wide-open spaces, pure freedom and wild and romantic nature in its original form.
Located in East Georgia, Vashlovani National Park is a mixture of sandstone cliffs, arid steppes and semi-deserts with deep gorges and swamps, rolling and sloping hills, black earth fields, African savannahs, ancient pistachio trees, pomegranate trees and endemic juniper forests.
Vashlovani National Park is also very rich in fauna, it is home to different animals, which include: Cane cats, wolves, gazelles, brown bears and even Persian leopards. There are also storks, eagles, griffon vultures, as well as pheasants and black grouse.
The surrounding agricultural area of the park is about 250 square kilometres and it is here that most of the shepherds spend the winter with their huge herds before heading back to the mountains in the spring.
Itinerary:
Day 1: Drive to Vashlovani
Around 9 and you will be picked up at your hotel in Tbilisi and transferred east to Kakheti region. After 3-hour drive we will reach small town Dedoplistskaro. Here we have to make registration for national park and at the same time we will buy the supplies for the next few days.
After about an hour drive, we will reach the Vashlovani National Park and take a longer walk around our bungalow.
Driving distance: 220 Km
Overnight: Bungalow (bathroom/WC in the house)
Meals: Dinner (common preparation)
Day 2: Explore Vashlovani National Park
We first head towards Black Mountain (Shavi Mta), which got its name because of its black color. The mountain is only 800 meters high, but offers fantastic views of almost the entire national park. From here you can also see the biggest reservoir of Azerbaijan MingÉ™çevir.
Then we will go down to "Kaklis Khevi" to the longest river of Georgia - Alazani, which is a natural border between Georgia and Azerbaijan. Here we can walk along the river and enjoy wild romantic landscape of the park.
Around noon our short trip through Vashlovani will bring us to the highlight of the national park - Minshniskure. We can enjoy walking and crossing idyllic lunar landscape with juniper and yew forests.
Our last destination is - Bugha Moedani, translated in Georgian - The place for cattle and then we will go back via Pantishara gorge to our bungalow.
Daily distance: 70 kilometers
Overnight stay: Bungalow
Meals: (Common preparation)
Breakfast - Picnic - Dinner
Day 3: Mud volcanoes of Takhti Tepa
Throughout the whole Vashlovani trip, but especially today, you will experience the scenic backdrops that you would never have imagined in Georgia.
First, we drive to the Dali Reservoir and from the dam we pass through a beautiful hilly landscape with an endless expanse to the Takhti Tepas mud volcanoes, which look surreal in this lunar landscape.
The Takhti Tepa mud volcanoes are about 30 different sized active mini-volcanoes that spew out small amounts of cold mud and petroleum. Some mud volcanoes are large, some are very small, some are bubbling heavily, others in contrary look almost extinct and all this together makes perfect photo motifs.
It is important to know that gas and petroleum, which leaks from the gray mud here, are harmless to humans and nature.
At the mud volcano, or at the reservoir, depending on time, we can have our picnic and then drive back to Tbilisi.
Driving distance: 280 kilometers
Meals: (common preparation)
Breakfast - Picknick
Included services:
Transportation by comfortable four-wheel drive car
Overnight stays: Bungalow in the national park x 2
Meals: Common preparation.
Breakfast x 2, snack x 2, dinner x 2.
English-speaking Driver/Guide
Price:
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