David Gareja

David Gareja lies south-east of Tbilisi on the Gareja ridge and looks nothing like the rest of Kakheti. Instead of vineyards and forest there is semi-desert: treeless, rolling, green for a few weeks in spring and a bleached yellow-grey for the rest of the year. The complex was founded in the sixth century by David Garejeli, one of the Assyrian Fathers, and grew over the centuries into dozens of separate monastic units scattered along the ridge.

The main and most accessible is the Lavra — a working monastery of terraced courtyards, cells cut into the rock face, a bell tower and David's tomb. From the Lavra a path climbs to the crest of the ridge and drops down the far side to the Udabno complex, where cave walls keep frescoes of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. The round trip up and back takes roughly an hour and a half over steep, loose ground.

The landscape here is the attraction in its own right. From the crest an apparently endless steppe opens out, covered in flowers in April and May; tortoises, snakes and birds of prey are common sights. Spring is by far the best season — mild and green. A summer midday is hard going: there is effectively no shade and temperatures reach the high thirties.