Day 8

We woke to lovely morning views of Holy Trinity Church and Mount Kazbek.

This was to be the day of our longest hike, from Juta to Roshka going over the Chaukhi Pass in the High Caucuses. It was a superb walk in fine weather and our guide was especially good. He carried Camilla’s rucksack when she started struggling with the altitude and helped us all down the long and tricky traverse across scree after we had left the top of the pass. It was good to see the white, blue and green Abudelauri Lakes although the last two were rather distant jewels in the valley. The drive down from the finish of the walk was decidedly bumpy on the unmade road. We were late in the year for wildflowers but we did see many trumpet gentians to remind of our Swiss holiday earlier in the summer.