Zedazeni Monastery

The Georgian Orthodox monastery Zedazeni is situated on the top of the Zedazeni mountain north-east of Mtskheta. The monastery was founded around 540 A.D. by Saint John, one of the 13 Assyrian monks, to establish Christianity in the region.

The monastery was abandoned during the Soviet era and was not repopulated until the 1990s. The widely visible metal cross that was erected nearby dates back to this period.

The monastery itself is quite simple and unimpressive, but the view over Mtskheta to Tbilisi is all the more spectacular.

From the small village of Saguramo, a small dirt road leads up the mountain to the monastery. Even under normal circumstances the road is quite adventurous. But at the end of January there is more and more snow the higher I get. Finally, the path gets so muddy and slippery that I decide to park my motorcycle and walk up the rest of the way. But also this turns out to be not easy thanks to the muddy road, especially because I still have some kilometres ahead of me. But luckily an SUV suddenly appears, which also struggles up the mountain. I hold out my thumb and the driver stops and takes me with him. 
The ride is quite adventurous, as we are constantly in danger to slip off the road despite the 4x4 drive. But in the end I'm really glad that I hitchhiked, because the distance turned out to be much longer than I thought.
On the way back, I am lucky again and an SUV with two construction workers takes me all the way down to my motorcycle.