Cable car adventure

On Saturday 16th August, we awoke to our last day in Georgia. As we had a long day we had a relaxing breakfast at our guesthouse and didn't leave until about 11am.

Now it is possible to take a marshutra for 2.5 hours to reach Tbilisi but we chose instead to take the scenic route via a series of four cable cars once again following the advice of the amazing Wanderlush blog! The route follows an inverted V shape, travelling up then back down a mountain range between two valleys. At its highest point, the cable car travels through the Kobi Pass or Jvari Pass, which reaches 2,900 metres above sea level.

Step one was taking a Bolt taxi to the village of Kobi, located 17 kilometres south (20 minutes’ drive) from Kazbegi (this was 98 GEL, £27). As we were traveling during the summer the prices were 35 GEL for me (£9.71) and 25 GEL (£7) for Tiger. Kids under 6 years old ride for free. The cable car trip takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes in total, but we'd allowed 2 hours so we had plenty of time to admire the views!

Gondola 1 "Truso": Kobi (Truso) to Firni Middle Station. This stage of the cable car is purely for transportation. This station area is basic with no restaurants. The ride is the longest at 2,837 metres, taking 8-12 minutes on average to travel down to Firni Middle Station.

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Gondola 2 "Firni" : Firni Middle Station to Kobi Pass Middle Station. This one you pretty much get off one, and onto the next!

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Gondola 3 "Kobi" : Kobi Pass Middle Station to Gudauri Recreational Area (over the Kobi Pass). The top station at Kobi Pass is the most beautiful so we took a short walk around the area and played on some swings and a slide before boarding the next gondola. This gondola is called ‘Kobi’, is 2,271 metres long and takes around 7-10 minutes.

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Gondola 4 "Gudauri": Gudauri Recreational Area to New Gudauri Bottom Station (New Gudauri ski resort). This line is 2,360 metres long and took 7-10 minutes. I was quite relaxed by this point and it was actually lovely to see the ski resort come into view!

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When we arrived in New Gudauri, we met our GoTrip driver (Giorgio) at 14:00 at the Drunk Cherry Restaurant to take us the rest of the way to Tbilisi where I had decided to kill a few hours at the Tbilisi Mall. The journey was 222 GEL (£62) for 106km, and we arrived just after 4pm. I had read that the Tbilisi Mall had a play area called Magic City but this had gone! However, there was the Zootopia Contact Zoo which was an indoor petting zoo. This kept us entertained for a good hour and outside of it there was a soft play area for younger kids. There's even a 'Cavea' cinema which plays English films but we didn't have enough time to see anything and we even didn't get to the (very nice) food court as Tiger was too busy playing with a new friend!

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At 18:15 we had our final GoTrip transfer booked to take us from the Mall to the airport. This was with our driver Tengiz who had picked us up when we first arrived in Georgia! Tengiz met us right beside the Zootopia Zoo! This transfer was 120 GEL (£33) and took just under one hour.

We had already checked in with Easyjet and had our boarding passes so all we needed to do then was go through security. Before boarding we hung out a bit at the small children’s play area located within the terminal after security in the departure zone (go through turn right) ahead of our flight from Tbilisi to Luton 21:20-23:40.

I put Tiger in her PJs before we got on the plane, and she also had a Subway sandwich to use up the last of our Lari. On the plane she was tired, but did manage to stay away for the first couple of hours of the flight before falling asleep.

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Back on UK soil, we took a pre-booked taxi with Luton Airport Taxis (£12 + £5 barrier charge). Everything was easy except I needed to ask for a tool to change my SIM card back to my UK one in order to find the actual taxi! Finally we did manage to find our beds at the Luton Town Centre Premier Inn (£54) about 1am. Phew!

Thankfully our car with still intact in the NCP Car Park next door and we headed home, via Henley-on-Thames on Sunday. What a completely amazing first 'proper' backpacking trip. I am absolutely beyond proud of how Tiger managed it, carried her pack (sometimes) and embraced all the craziness of it all. Thank you Georgia and thank you Tiger!