ELEVENTH DAY: THE LEGEND OF GOLDEN FLEECE.

People gathered in Greece in order to go on the journey to acquire the Fleece. They were lead by a noble young man called Jason, he had built a ship and named it Argo. 

The travellers sailed unknown seas for a long time. They had to get through two large rocks which closed and opened. Argo barely made it through. The rocks crushed the tip of the steering wheel. After many adventures, the travellers finally reached Colchis in the Caucasus. The king of Colchis had promised Jason the Golden Fleece if he could do the prepared tasks. He was certain that Jason would die while doing the tasks. The king’s daughter, Medea, decided to help Jason and gave him a magical ointment. Jason used it and obtained superpowers: his legs became as strong as copper poles, his hands as strong as pliers. The king’s servants let loose two enormous oxen that breathed fire. Tilting their horns, they started attacking Jason, but he didn’t even budge. As the king had ordered, Jason captured the oxen, harnessed them, ploughed the field and sowed dragon’s teeth in the soil.

After that, an iron clad army grew from the field. They attacked Jason, but he threw a rock between them and then they started attacking each other. Meanwhile, Jason killed them all. Although Jason had succeeded in the task, the king did not hand over the Golden Fleece. Medea used magic to lull the dragon to sleep and the argonauts stole the Fleece. The king chased the ship with his army. The argonauts barely escaped and made it back to Greece”.

This myth is from around year 1400 before Christ.

This legend might have come from the ancient tradition of using sheep fleece to acquire gold from mountain rivers. It is still done today in Ushguli, but Svan people prefer not to mention it, because it is illegal. 

There are ~45 km of offroad from Mestia to Ushguli. The greatest problems are posed by the wet, clay covered road and the huge Caucasian mountain dogs, which chase us with only one thought in their minds: to bite. They can run with a speed of 30 km an hour and follow us for around 300 metres. In these moments, we have to drive with a certain risk, because we have to be careful on the clay and try to escape the dogs. We don’t usually go higher than third gear and usually drive standing up. This would be a fairytale if our motorcycles were lighter, but ‘adventure’ rides aren’t bad either. Normunds is struggling with his BMW 1200 GS. Bido, an Ushguli local who owns a tower says, that president Saakashvili had planned to build a road here, but his authority ended. 

The aim of building a road here is not clear to me, because Ushguli would need investments for basic needs first. For example, they are in need of a sewerage system, because currently all sewerage is dumped in the local river. When you get to the town, you feel like you have travelled in time, and this is Ushguli’s greatest charm. If they would build a new road here, the village would lose some of it’s primordial charm. 

Rain. The grey, centuries old towers greet us just as tepidly as the villagers. In the house, there are many electric heaters, and there are handmade electric devices in the kitchen which are used to prepare food. We has already noticed this in Nunu’s home: no one worries about electricity consumption. As it turns out, electricity is free for Svan people! As they explain this: The HEGS was built on our river, Inguri, so we shouldn’t have to pay for electricity. We are continuing our journey to the mountain pass which is 7km from here and connects Ushguli with the Svaneti city Lantekhia.

The news are upsetting. The mountain passage is covered in snow and can’t be passed. We still want to check, even if it’s just for the great view of Georgia’s highest peak, Chara (5200m) which can’t be seen often in this season. 

A great part of our day is spent filming the village and the mountains. Oskars and Normunds remove their rear boxes, but i have to leave mine on for filming equipment. The seven km up to the place where snow covers the road is even better than the road to Ushguli. The peak of Chara is visible and the view is wonderful. We are around 3000m high. One thing is clear: this mountain passage can’t really be passed by motorcycle before July. We’ll go back in the direction of Zugdidi, where the road turns to Kutaisi. The Polish cyclists said that ~30 km below Mestia, there is a village called Skormeti and the local people know a forest track that leads to a lower mountain pass which is not covered in snow. This path would give us a chance to get to Lantekhi, but it can’t be found in any of our maps. We’ll still try it.

Two kilometres below Ushguli Normunds slips in the mud and a bad fall follows. He has injured his ankle and we aren’t sure how bad the injury is. On our way to Lengheri we meet a Georgian TV group, they are making a feature about the infrastructure of mountain villages. We share our thoughts. 

The nightfall pushes us to make decisions- tomorrow we’ll go to a hospital in Mestia, so they can do an x-ray on Normunds’s ankle. We’re trying to think positively.