Tbilisi to Kutaisi (via Sataplia)

  1. The capital’s central station did everything to ensure that it would never be found. The facade is cluttered with signs, but there’s no hint of trains.
  2. Inside, it’s even worse. Don’t look for a platform yourself, don’t tempt fate. Ask the old-timers, they’ll show you the way.
  3. Georgia is a country of cars, get over it. Train lovers like me are doomed to pain and humiliation.
  4. There’s no direct connection between Tbilisi and Kutaisi, what the hell is it for? My personal life hack is the tiny Rioni station near the city.
  5. After lunch in Kutaisi, I head to the Sataplia Nature Reserve with its incredibly endemic Colchian forest. What is there just isn’t!
  6. A hawthorn, for example.
  7. One can also find a rather convincing triceratops here. The fence and pedestal are delicately crafted and almost invisible.
  8. Possibly a pteranodon. There are some artistic licenses (the massive body, for example), but what a dynamic!
  9. The T-rex, like its neighbours, is full of life: it opens its mouth, roars menacingly, blinks and wags. Overall, it’s much cooler here than in Bucharest.
  10. Any sounds are fantasy by definition: we don’t know what they sounded like. But if you want to awaken interest in palæontology, it’s here.
  11. Then perhaps the footprints of a predatory satapliasaurus in Jurassic limestone will look a little less like “a chicken ran across concrete”.
  12. But the most powerful impression in the reserve was left by the Crystal Bridge, a glass balcony over the abyss.
  13. Below, it looks like this.
  14. And up ahead, it’s like this.
  15. A beautiful canopy over the famous karst caves.
  16. Welcome to the underground world (360 m above sea level).
  17. The Sataplia Caves were discovered exactly one hundred years ago by teacher and naturalist Petre Chabukiani.
  18. Here, as usual, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, boulders and other interestingness grow in abundance.
  19. There used to be bees in these caves, but they got fed up with the light show and just up and left. Now it’s spiders, worms, and tourists.
  20. To be fair, only one of the five caves is open to the public; speleologists and palæontologists work in the others.
  21. Dracula approves.
  22. In my humble opinion, a moderate and neutral lighting would be much more suitable for the great creation of time and space.
  23. Natural sculptures are beautiful in themselves, why the hell paint them?
  24. A moment of monochrome.
  25. The cave exit blends gracefully into the natural environment, and thanks for that.
  26. Goodbye, Sataplia.
  27. Sasha Korban’s mural is about the selfless love of our closest ones: it manifests itself in small things, seems natural, and often goes unnoticed.
  28. David Gogichaishvili’s Colchis Fountain in central Kutaisi, inspired by Georgian Bronze Age jewellery.
  29. The neo-Renaissance Drama Theatre of Lado Meskhishvili.
  30. Good night, Kutaisi.