Gombori Pass

Gombori Pass is the point where Kakheti suddenly begins. There are two roads from Tbilisi to Telavi: the long one across the plain through Sagarejo and Bakurtsikhe, and the short one over the Tsiv-Gombori range. The second saves about an hour and is far more interesting to drive.

The climb starts after Ujarma. The road leaves the Iori valley, works up through oak scrub into beech forest, and the air cools noticeably as you gain height. The pass itself, at 1,620 m, is almost entirely wooded, so the view is not from the summit but from the first bends of the northern descent: the Alazani plain below, vineyards in long straight blocks, and behind them the main ridge of the Caucasus.

That view depends entirely on the air. On a summer afternoon the plain is hazy and the mountains barely register. On an October morning, or an hour after rain has cleared, the sight line runs all the way to snow. This is the argument for setting off early.

The road was rebuilt a few years ago — wide asphalt, painted lines, crash barriers along the exposed sections. Technically it is now one of the better mountain roads in Georgia, though the descent is long and slow lorries hold up traffic. Near Gombori village there is a former military base, and on both sides of the summit vendors set up tables of honey, pickles and churchkhela.

It is worth stopping for ten minutes in its own right. The temperature is often seven or eight degrees lower than in the valley, and in the shade of the beeches it stays cool even in August.

The pass is also a real botanical boundary: dry oak and scrub on the Tbilisi side, tall beech and hornbeam on the Kakhetian one, and the change happens within a couple of kilometres of the summit.