GOHIKE Travel Journal · Georgia · September 2026
There is a particular feeling that comes with arriving in a new country after spending weeks on the road.
The landscape changes first.
Then the language.
Then the architecture, the food, the faces, and all the small details that remind you that another border has been crossed.
After travelling through Xinjiang and Kazakhstan, our journey has carried us farther west.
This time, to Georgia.
And almost immediately, the atmosphere felt different.
From Central Asia to the Caucasus
The journey into Georgia feels like entering another chapter of the same enormous story.
Behind us were the vast landscapes of Central Asia — high mountains, alpine lakes, long roads and places where settlements could disappear for hours at a time.
Ahead of us were the Caucasus.
Georgia sits between Europe and Asia, squeezed between the Greater Caucasus to the north and the Lesser Caucasus to the south. Geography has made this small country a crossroads for centuries, and traces of that history seem to appear everywhere.
But our first impressions were not really about dates or maps.
They were about stone, mountains and sky.
Tbilisi — Looking Across Centuries
One of our first stops was the Chronicle of Georgia, standing high above Tbilisi.
It is difficult to understand its scale from photographs.
Massive dark columns rise from the hillside, covered with sculpted figures and scenes from Georgian history and Christianity. Walking between them, people suddenly become tiny.
From a distance, the monument looks almost ancient.
Up close, it feels monumental and strangely timeless.
Through narrow openings between the enormous stone structures, you catch glimpses of people walking across the courtyard. Beyond them lies the city.
It is one of those places where architecture changes your sense of scale.
You stop looking at the monument.
You start looking through it.
A Hillside Filled With Swords
Then the landscape changed again.
Green hills rolled beneath a sky moving constantly between sunlight and heavy cloud.
And across the hillside stood enormous swords.
Not one.
Dozens.
Some rose alone from the grass. Others disappeared down the slope toward the forest. From certain angles they seemed almost surreal — as though someone had taken the weapons from an old Georgian legend and planted them directly into the mountainside.
The contrast was beautiful.
Cold metal against green grass.
Dark forest against bright sky.
History against landscape.
It was the kind of place that made us stop walking simply to look around.
The Weather Never Quite Made Up Its Mind
The Caucasus already seemed determined to remind us that mountain weather has its own schedule.
Clouds moved quickly across the ridges.
One moment the hills were bright green under direct sunlight. Minutes later, shadows covered entire valleys.
Then another patch of blue appeared.
For travellers coming from British Columbia, there was something strangely familiar about it.
Mountains.
Forests.
Fast-changing weather.
And that instinctive habit of looking at the sky and wondering what it might be doing an hour from now.
Some outdoor habits apparently travel very well.
Something Familiar in the Backpack
And yes — after travelling all this way, there was still something from Canada buried inside the pack.
PEAK4RATION came out for another photograph among the Georgian hills.
At this point it has become something of a running joke on the journey.
Different country.
Different mountain.
Same emergency food somehow appearing in the photograph.
But that is also part of travelling.
Your backpack gradually becomes a tiny collection of familiar objects moving through unfamiliar places.
A jacket.
A water bottle.
A camera.
A snack you have carried far longer than expected.
Little pieces of home travelling with you.
Not Every Journey Needs to Be an Expedition
Our previous days in Central Asia included some genuinely demanding terrain.
This day was different.
There was no race against daylight. No remote campsite waiting at the end of a long trail. No need to count every remaining food supply.
Sometimes travelling outdoors is simply about wandering.
Stopping somewhere because the view looks interesting.
Walking farther because there seems to be something beyond the next hill.
Standing beneath an enormous steel sword because, really, how often do you get the chance?
Not every adventure needs to become an expedition.
Sometimes the best days are the ones where curiosity decides the route.
The Road Continues
Georgia is only beginning.
Beyond Tbilisi are valleys, forests, old villages and the enormous wall of the Caucasus Mountains.
There will be more roads ahead.
More walking.
More unexpected stops.
And probably more photographs of emergency food appearing in increasingly improbable places.
For now, though, we will remember this day for something simpler:
green mountains, enormous swords, ancient stories — and the feeling of arriving somewhere completely new.
The road continues.
— GOHIKE Outdoor Journal
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