Urek’d Again

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It was long-term friends of ours who recommended us their favorite place to stay on the Black Sea coast of Georgia, and we followed their suggestion with no qualms, meeting them there. All I’ll say at this point is that it’s near Ureki, with fir forest to camp in less than 100m from the water itself, hardly another soul in sight overnight and not that many beach enthusiasts during the day either. (If I told you more, I’d be tempted to silence you somehow to keep the secret!) Ureki itself can be quite noisy during the long tourist season, even now with almost all of its international clientele unable to come. The night clubs or restaurants offer live or recorded music at volumes not exactly conducive to a quiet family stay. But from where we were, this faded and echoingly distorted itself to less than a dull roar, more a dull white noise of sorts.

There were hardly any mosquitoes at all, shade from the trees, ample fallen wood and cones to start a fire with, a near-constant breeze the origin of which swung around from the sea in front to the forest behind and which helped to keep things cool. We agreed that it was a bit of paradise, and persuaded the friends to stay twice as long as the couple of days with us that they had available, changing their schedule to make this work.

Swims three times a day: early morning, late morning and early evening. Followed by watching the sunset on the sea’s horizon. Schools of fish darting about in the early hours, as well as occasional dolphins and seagulls harassing them. Small white herons too, fishing at the water’s edge.

Ureki’s beach is sand of a dark gray color, and the entrance to the water is very shallow, both things in its great favor. Further south, the shore is mostly rounded rocks of various sizes, with an angle into the water which sees you neck deep within meters as opposed to Ureki’s seeming knee-deep-for-100m approach. But Ureki’s water is also seldom as clear as elsewhere, a minor point against it. It can also be deceptively inviting, occasionally offering most unwelcome riptides to pull you out to sea if you’re not careful. So each location has its pluses and minuses, but in general this campsite was really ideal for us.

We had packed a small gas bottle to cook on, a folding plastic table for up to six, folding chairs, and the tent from my recent Big Svaneti Circle walk. This is only just big enough for two sleepers, so my wife and I kept our luggage in the much more ample space of the 4x4. We could put everything but the tent back in the car to drive, and come back with nothing disturbed. The odd restaurant meal, fish-buying excursion or other trip took us away for a short while, but we returned magnetized to this wonderful refuge.

A young man on a jet-ski, the water version of a snowmobile, was persuaded to stop and give my wife, behind him, then me solo, a spin at 20 GEL for 5 minutes, which we felt was good money for the speedy thrill. She ended up rethinking the boat-towed parachute ride, though, seeing another enthusiast failing his first attempt to get skyward and crash into nearby people in the water. He managed flawlessly the second try, but she’d seen enough. I too declined, not having anything like the waterproof helmet-mounted GoPro still and video camera he took up, and feeling that the experience should only be done with such filming possibilities available.

It was to this same place that we returned for our last night, after our friends had left us and we had tried a few other locations to the south. They all had other positive qualities but the original spot beat them, and it is there that we shall return next time for a cheap, wonderful break from the mountains which lack only this, some seashore, and anyway, it is reachable in three hours for us from home.

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer 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