Sue arrived, not without drama but she made it to the hotel and our adventure began.

In essence the tour started with a welcome meeting in the evening followed by dinner at a local restaurant. Pavel, our tour leader, escorted us to Sahil where we were treated to a sampling of delicious local cuisine, Share plates were named and explained and the ten of us had the opportunity to begin to get to know each other. Ten ..6 from Australia 2 from the US 1 from Wales and another from Dubai.

The day began well. My luggage arrived!

Breakfast followed by a guided walk into the old city with Akshin, whose effort to chronicle the convoluted and complex story of this city and county in the Caucasus was commendable. It’s not easy to wrap up a couple of millennia in a few minutes.

It was hot, seriously hot and humid. We were suffering. The first to escape hid behind what may have been a legitimate excuse but I for one was secretly envious, Next to succumb confidently chose common sense and coffee in an air-conditioned café. Hats and umbrellas, long sleeves and shorts were no match. Trees and shadows welcomed and teased. Akshin did extraordinarily well to keep us forging ahead.  We even continued to be quizzical and curious. Our English/Australian/global citizen appeared to be melting when our trial came to an end. We were released and determined to revive with couple of cold beers. Wonderful!!

The best was yet to come….the hamam. It was ladies’ day. The anteroom led into the ‘wet room’ where three alters welcomed the offerings and echoed the sounds of women gossiping and laughing. Our inhibitions fell away as easily as our outer-ware and five strangers became a little more familiar than they first expected to. We were steamed, soaped, scrubbed and scraped, pummelled and pampered A glass of tea with sweet jam completed our experience.

Laurie and Josie had already sussed out the area and enticed us in to a wine bar where we sampled pomegranate wine and Sangria.