This is the only road between Georgia and Russia

Of the ten international border crossings between Georgia and neighboring countries, I had to cross nine. Only through the only Russian-Georgian crossing in Upper Lars has never passed in my life. Every time something bothered me: the village went down and the border was blocked, then the flight from Vladikavkaz to Moscow was canceled eight years ago and I considered it best to fly from Tbilisi, then I forgot my Russian passport at home and did not dare to go into Russia with a Ukrainian document. But finally I got to the very border crossing and saw it with my own eyes. No, that’s not how I imagined the main and only trade route between Georgia (plus Armenia) and Russia. Absolutely inadvertently broken dirt road for about the last five kilometers, and before that a narrow highway in one and a half strip width where two wagons do not part. We add shaky, honestly supported piers and bridges of the Soviet era and get a kind of extreme, more reminiscent of the countries of Africa.

Actually, the normal road ends immediately after the village of Kazbegi (Stepantsminda), 15 km from the border, and then short stretches of asphalt are replaced by a primer, and the latter is larger.

In June 2016, here and in the Daryal Gorge, another and far from the first mudflow came down, because of which the road was covered with a multimeter layer of dirt and stones. About three weeks later, the border was closed while special equipment cleared the highway and actually re-built the entire road infrastructure destroyed by the elements. More recently, a stormy stream raged here, demolishing power lines, buildings, bridges on its way. And even six months later, the way from Georgia to Russia looks like it was covered with an atomic bomb.

Interestingly, this excavator is busy raking the blockage, or is he the victim?

It was thought that every time this unique road is blocked (and this happens almost every year and often more than once), Armenia is the first to suffer. Indeed, for them, Russia is the main trading partner and there simply is no other way, since the borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey have been closed since 1993. Thousands of heavy trucks get stuck at the border for long weeks, food spoils, deliveries are delayed. Is there really no way to build a road that will not be washed away by the next stream? After all, it is in the interests of all three states: Russia, Georgia and Armenia. But no, instead of learning from previous mistakes and seriously investing in road infrastructure, for example, by building a tunnel or at least raising a highway over the Terek riverbed, they are repairing the old road again. And it will be demolished again in six months.

Five hundred meters before the border crossing, the asphalt has already been laid again. The photo shows the Georgian customs terminal, and the Russian one is located about two kilometers north, in the depths of the gorge.

The bed of the Terek and the mighty river itself. Sounds like a joke, yes, about the "mighty" river? Locals say that when snow melting in the mountains begins, the river fills the entire riverbed with a turbulent dirty stream.