Winter at Last: Etseri, Svaneti

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A few days ago we had a date unique in history, never to be repeated. Of course, you might say that about every date, but this one had some extra special features, all to do with palindromes, sequences which are the same when read forwards and backwards. You might be familiar with some of these in word or letter form, such as what the First Man might have said to the First Woman: “Madam, I’m Adam.” Or the potted history of the engineering project of a century, which cut two whole continents apart at their narrowest join: A man, a plan, a canal—Panama. (This one also has several much longer, and thus even cleverer, versions.)

So February 2, 2020 was a numerical palindrome by the reckoning of all 3 of the universal dating systems of the world (those agreeing on the BC/AD cut, anyway): 02/02/2020. There have been other palindromic dates in the last millennium, and there will be others in the future, too. But only this one, falling in a year with 366 days, can be described as being a palindromic number of days into the year (33), with the remaining number of days also a palindrome (333)! Unique indeed.

The month has also seen a sudden change, in Svaneti, from “hardly winter” to “definitely winter”. Not so much in terms of cold, which was normal or colder at the formal beginning of the season and since has been mostly mild, not far below freezing. But the amount of snow suddenly dumped on us in a single day, about 1 meter, forcefully reminded us of when we are in the year. More is coming as I write this, wreaking havoc on Svaneti’s power lines and electrical supply.

The tractor supposed to service our village has yet to appear at all, though it is rumored to be planning a working appearance today. High time. Current village roads here feature a set of 2 tire tracks with 20-30 cm of snow between them and over 1 m outside them; so if you meet another car, it might be catastrophic for either of you to avoid the other: you might swerve into a place from which no amount of winter tires of chains could extricate you. Partly because the temperature, and the particular structure of this snow, make it like driving through very soft sand.

I do need to drive down to the better-cleaned main road occasionally, to meet shop supply minivans which cannot or will not come up to us in such conditions. My new winter tires have so far saved me from getting stuck even once, and I haven’t put on chains at all, not even for the really frustrating last few meters, former years and other vehicles, of needing to back into my garage.

But at the moment there’s a 4x4 car parked in a cleared spot in our yard, outside the garage: my neighbor couldn’t get up the hill at 10 last night, and asked to park there. Another 4x4 waits outside the gate for its owner, a local guide, to return in a few hours from taking his party of 4 Brits on a skiing expedition: same problem. I don’t need to drive down for at least another few days, so, here’s hoping I can avoid the big bad roads until they’re a little tamer. I don’t relish trying my skills on them! But that tractor better be more than a rumor, or I’ll have plenty more questions for our mayor and the local government. Like: where’s the money for this item in the budget actually gone, now that we need it the most?!

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/

He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

By Tony Hanmer