Kazbeg isn’t the highest mountain in the Caucases but, at over 5000 m, it has snow on the summit and glaciers flowing from it, all year around. It is one of a group of dormant volcanoes but, fortunately for us, hasn’t erupted in nearly 3000 years. It does lie along a fault, though, and the area is prone to small earthquakes. The Devdaraki glacier, which flows down from an ancient volcanic caldera towards Stepantsminda, is supposed to descend to 2 300 m above sea level, though the tongue currently seems to be at over 3000 m – presumably its losing volume at the same sort of rate as other glaciers, globally. It is not a very stable glacier, perhaps because of its shaky tectonic underpinning, and is prone to surges and collapses causing catastrophic mudflows in the valley below, damaging the Military Highway and sometimes causing loss of life, as happened in 2014.

Getting to the top of Mt Kazbeg is way beyond our level of fitness and expertise but it’s possible to hike up to a saddle below the summit and get some amazing views. To give ourselves a head start, we got Sachit to give us a lift up to the car park by Gergeti Trinity church, on a rocky outcrop some 400 m above Stepantsminda. We wanted to leave too early for a hotel breakfast so picked up coffee and fresh breads from a bakers in town. Choosing between brioche filled with chocolate, jam or honey and walnut wasn’t easy!

The church was in the cloud when we arrived and very atmospheric, with only two other visitors there. It’s an iconic Georgian sight but I suspect that’s partly a case of, “Location, Location, Location”!, though it does feature some beautiful exterior carvings. Building a structure like this, 2170 m above sea level, in the 14th Century was no mean feat.

Leaving the church behind, we struck off up the steep ridge beyond, into the cloud, saying in cloud much of way up the mountain. We’d chosen the ridge paths for its promised views of the church from above, and of Mt Kazbeg, and of course these didn’t materialise. Brief windows in the cloud did give us enticing views of Mt Elias on the other side of the valley, though.

The lower parts of the ridge path through scrubby birch trees were incredibly muddy and slippy but I couldn’t have been more wrong about it being too late for alpine wildflowers. Stepantsminda is at a similar altitude but around four degrees further south than Pontresina in Switzerland, where I was a couple of months ago; the same sort of difference as between Durham and London in the UK. This might be part of the reason for its still being warm enough for plants to flower – there are also plenty of pollinating flies, butterflies and bees around. I suspect Georgia’s location, on a narrow isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas also moderates the climate.

I was surprised by the size of the gorgeous lilac flowers of Caucasian scabious, Scabiosa caucasica, as well as the yellow flowered S. ochroleuca, so like what I grow in the garden at home, which made me reflect on the origins of some of our common garden plants. Katherine Swift reminded me, in The Morville Hours, just how many of these were first brought to England by 17th Century travellers – think Tulips, Hyacinths, Lupins, Michaelmas Daisies and Sunflowers, for a start.

We made it as far as the appropriately-named mountain hut Cafe 360, at 2950 m above sea level, for coffee and a toilet with fabulous views of the Devdaraki glacier when the cloud lifted, briefly. The large flasks of fruit flavoured chacha on display were easily resisted at this altitude!

We’d climbed nearly 800 m from the church by this stage and decided to go no further, having had no chance to acclimatise to the altitude before starting walking. We ended up accompanying a group of three Israeli girls back down as far as the church – they’d gone a bit astray on their way up and had struggled. The cloud lifted and the sun came out as we started back down the ridge, finally giving us great views of the church and Mt Elias to the east but the cloud came back in over Mt Kazbeg and we saw no more of it, or the glacier. There was enough sunshine, though, to ensure that the clumps of purple and sky-blue late flowering Gentians, which had remained stubbornly closed on our climb up, opened wide to bask in its warmth.

We rested briefly near the church, watching six or eight large birds of prey, maybe Lammergeyers, circling around Mt Elias. We then dropped down below the church on a very steep path of loose slate to Gergeti village, on the opposite side of the road to Stepantsminda. We were glad of our decision to get a lift up to the church when we saw how hard the path was – a real energy sapper. It was bad enough walking down!

We arrived back at the hotel mid afternoon, feeling well exercised, and I spent some time going through my plant photos. There’s a German plant book for the Caucasus region in the hotel, which is proving very useful. Some plants very familiar from the alps seem to be slightly different, Caucasian, species but I am confident identifying everything to genus level, at least.

We’d planned on eating Thai food for a change from Georgian food tonight but the restaurant was closed (most places here seem to close on one randomly-chosen, different day of the week). We ended up at the Bollywood Masala Indian restaurant instead, which was mildly chaotic but generally good.

Today’s culinary highlights were our breakfast breads and the excellent vegetable pakora at Bollywood Masala.