Grigoleti

Grigoleti lies eight kilometres north of Ureki, and the main difference between them is the number of people. The same black magnetite sand, the same flat shelf into the sea, but fewer guesthouses and no music in the evening. Anyone who finds Ureki loud ends up here. The unusual side of the village faces east rather than west. Behind Grigoleti, across the road, the Kolkheti lowland begins: marshes, peat plains and river deltas that form part of Kolkheti National Park. This is one of the largest peat massifs in Europe and a wetland protected under the Ramsar convention. What that means in practice: - Birds — in spring and autumn Grigoleti sits under a migration corridor, and raptors, cranes and ducks pass in numbers - Mosquitoes — a serious matter on summer evenings; sitting outside without repellent is not realistic - Humidity is high, higher than in Batumi The mouth of the Supsa river is a couple of kilometres north, where the water loses itself in sand and the shoreline stays wild. Grigoleti was built out over the last decade, but the scale has stayed small: two streets, a few dozen guesthouses and one shop. Anyone looking for rides, restaurants and nightlife will find none of it here, which is precisely what the people who come are looking for.

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