Glacier hike @ Mestia

The forecast predicted rain, but when we saw some sunshine coming through the morning fog, we decided to go on the hike to the Chalaadi Glacier, and drove the dirt road up to the start. You first cross the river over a hanging bridge and then walk through the forest, until after a bend, the glacier comes into sight.

Crossing the river looks promising 😉
No need for a map, the route is straight forward
Hiking upstream, along the river coming from the glacier

The tongue of the glacier is about 6 km long, but the hike takes you just to the ice wall at the bottom, where the river emerges from under the ice.

What looks like a stone wall is actually ice!
Taking a souvenir

It was quite dangerous to get to the spot where the river emerges from an ice cave, as rocks on top of the ice were dropping down as the ice was slowly melting underneath them. We heard them coming down around us, but couldn’t resist to get close anyway and take a quick selfie!

After we returned to the bridge, we followed the signs to the cafe, where we got a real treat just as the rain started to hit us, we had made it just in time!

Coffee and cake are getting served
Flower of the day

Looking at the weather forecast again, there was one single sunny day coming, which we want to use to go to Ushguli. Only a long dirt track leads there and we were curious, if we would be able to do this route with our car. More on our next post!

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