Mountain bike tour in Georgia: the horse shuttle adventure across the Caucasus

Gamarjoba! That's Georgian for hello, and you'll be saying it a lot. The moment you land in Tbilisi, the team takes over: bikes assembled, and time for a gentle warm-up. Our shuttles lift you onto the heights of the capital for easy first turns, with the old town below, its carved wooden balconies, the Narikala fortress and the domes of the sulphur baths that gave the city its name, « tbili » meaning warm in Georgian.

Legend has it that when God handed out the lands of the world, he gave the Georgians the one he had kept for himself. Tonight, on a free evening in the capital with your first melting khachapuri, you'll start to see why. Overnight at the hotel, on the eve of the great escape into the Caucasus.

This morning we head north! The road climbs in spectacular switchbacks into Khevsureti, land of the Khevsurs, proud highlanders who still wore chain mail and shields into the early 20th century. We settle into our charming guesthouse for a typical meal: welcome to the homeland of khinkali, generous mountain dumplings eaten by hand.

In the afternoon, 40 minutes of 4x4 and finally the first real turns, with a short hike-a-bike warm-up. The scenery sets the tone: high summits, mountain lakes, hanging glaciers and flowered plains laced with winding streams. From today's high point at 2'650 m, take a good look at the pass on the horizon: you'll cross it on day 6. Then the trail flows all the way down to the guesthouse terrace. Dinner and night on site.

Time to shift gears: one of the region's most beautiful high ridges, for a day of challenge and contemplation. After a 40-minute 4x4 transfer, hike-a-bike and pedalling lift you to nearly 3'000 m, under the wings of eagles and vultures, masters of the Caucasian sky.

Up there, mountain biking makes perfect sense: a long, rolling freeride traverse along the spine of a breathtaking crest. Dizzying flanks on either side, a summit ridge a few metres wide under your wheels with plenty of room to ride relaxed, and a 360-degree view that stays with you all day. The rare feeling of riding on the roof of the Caucasus, spectacular yet never sketchy.

In the last quarter of the route comes the big drop: a well-marked trail plunges from 3'000 to 1'400 m, bringing the day's total to 2'500 m of descending. Back by 4x4 to the guesthouse: slow-cooked lobio, bread hot from the traditional oven and mountain cheese, while the day's stories catch fire around the table.

The 4x4 drops us in front of a sweeping panorama over Khevsureti and yesterday's ridge. Ahead of you, a little over 900 m of climbing, pedalling and hike-a-bike, through a wild plain generously in bloom, dotted with ponds mirroring the peaks. Shepherds and caravans have used these pass trails for centuries to link the high valleys of the Caucasus.

At 3'300 m, the reward: your first Georgian pass. Wind, silence, and a new world opening up. On the far side, a flowy trail snakes endlessly toward the Kazbegi region, through ever-changing terrain and breathtaking scenery. Tonight you sleep at the foot of Georgia's most mythical summit.

A quick 4x4 transfer, then the climb begins, pedalling and carrying, with Mount Kazbek in your sights. Perched high above the glaciers, a centuries-old church watches over the valley: in a country Christian since the 4th century, one of the oldest in the world, nearly every summit has its stone sentinel. And what a summit: legend says Amirani, the Georgian Prometheus, was chained to Kazbek's flanks for bringing fire to mankind.

Picnic at the top, eyes lost between seracs and alpine pastures, then a fast, playful descent before the transfer back to our guesthouse in Khevsureti. A shorter day, perfect for recharging: the trip's two queen stages are just ahead.

A big first this morning: the horses enter the stage! To link Khevsureti to the Kazbegi region over a new pass, bikes and bags travel on horseback, Caucasus-style. You discover this ancestral way of moving through the mountains alongside horsemen who read the terrain like no one else, as the caravan climbs steadily higher. At 3'300 m, the reward: the very pass you spotted on day 2, strikingly beautiful, with an end-of-the-world feel.

The descent sets off through a lunar landscape, raw and grandiose: a short run of switchbacks to find your rhythm, then a long stretch of super-flow trail along the valley, framed by massive dark ridges contrasting with the green of the flowered plain. At day's end, transfer by car toward the highlight of the trip, waiting in the days ahead. The Kazbegi chapter closes; Tusheti is calling.

Up before dawn and onto an adventurous 4x4 track, the kind you earn: welcome to the gates of Tusheti, a region so remote it can only be reached a few months a year. Our horsemen and their mounts rejoin us for two days: time for the XXL version of the horse shuttles, the Kachapuride's signature, born of the great riding tradition of these roadless mountains.

The horses take the bikes, and off you go for 2'000 m of climbing through green valleys and plains, to the rhythm of hooves. At the pass, the trip's high point at 3'500 m, contemplation and bike reassembly, then the first runs down toward our base camp perched at 3'000 m. A night under canvas, a sky riddled with stars, grazing horses and murmuring streams: one hundred percent adventure, impossible to forget.

Sunrise gilds the summits, and you ride straight out of camp for the longest stage of the trip: 38 km of rolling, descending terrain through deep Tusheti. Rivers to ford, balcony trails, shepherds on the move, horses running free: not a road, not an antenna. Alone in the world. Above the valleys, the medieval schist watchtowers of the Tush villages have stood guard since the Middle Ages.

Late afternoon, first village and reunion with our drivers, then on to a family guesthouse, our home base for two nights. At dinner, a Tushetian feast: khinkali, guda cheese aged the traditional way and bread baked over the fire, served with the generosity that sums up the Georgian soul.

Thirty minutes of 4x4, then off for a superb loop on the slopes of Tusheti National Park, one of the wildest protected areas in the Caucasus. Along the way, a crystal-clear mountain lake: a swim for the brave!

Then comes the icing on the cake: an anthology descent on enduro-flavoured singletrack, to be savoured turn after turn. For this last night in the mountains, it's supra time, the traditional Georgian banquet: the tamada, master of toasts, raises his glass to the mountains, to friendship and to passing guests. Gaumarjos! The bravest will try chacha, the local spirit; the others will enjoy the house wine by the carafe.

You don't leave Tusheti without a parting gift: right in the middle of the transfer back, a 33 km descent on a panoramic track, 2'400 m of downhill facing out-of-this-world landscapes. One last chance to fill the memory card.

Then the road rolls on to the capital, and the contrast is delicious: after a week of stone villages and wild passes, Tbilisi welcomes you back with cobbled lanes, carved balconies and generous tables. Tonight is a free evening in the capital: the perfect occasion to toast with qvevri wine, made in buried clay vessels, UNESCO-listed, as Georgia has done for 8'000 years. Night at the hotel, stars still in your eyes.

Madloba, thank you in Georgian: probably the word you'll use most as you leave this country. Depending on your flight times, we bring you back to Tbilisi airport, your head full of 3'500 m ridgelines, Kazbek glaciers, Tushetian horses, melting khachapuri and toasts raised to friendship. Georgians say a guest is a gift from God: after 11 days at their side, you'll know it's more than a proverb. What an adventure!

Ready to live the Kachapuride? Spots go fast: book yours and join us on the most exotic of MTB traverses.