“Come and meet the unknown Adjara”

Every day we start  our working day, when  the morning sun is out, here we spend less time in the village with us. Whether the sun rises or not, the village starts working process. In the morning I ‘m looking at the garden first, so I will understand what my activity will be today, mowing or weeding the grass, or something else. Which activity I will start with , depend on priority,  maybe my help is required for  bees, tobacco, vineyards or anything else, so my daily schedule is almost  different.

13 or 14 years ago my village, Gobroneti, was the first to start th touristic  business. “Why Gobronet anyway?” Was the question everyone asked me. The answer is simple: first because I was born and raised here. Of course, every village is beautiful in its own way, but my village is special. Only three or two villages in Adjara will have such a view. If you stand in one place, you will clearly see 29 villages , like the palm, like you are watching the valley from a helicopter. 6 km from the village, there is a mountain bordering the Kintrishi Protected Area, which is a buffer zone and is characterized by amazing beauty.

All my life I wanted to do something that would be close to tourism. When I arrived in Montenegro as an non professional beekeeper, I wanted to shout like Newton, “Eureka,” and I changed my mind, I decided to dedicate my time and energy to village tourism. Beekeeping was already developing in Georgia and I said: “We will save the villages –with the help of  rural tourism.” However, that time tourism was tourism was not popular in villages , so everyone was laughing at  my initiative, they were saying –  ‘whowould come here’ … However, the years passed and my dream is still alive and Im hosting tourists from different countries of the world.

Today is a special day, as  German traveler, Mogeli, who is originally from Georgia, should visit us and get acquainted with the beautiful nature of Gobroneti. The village is only 4 km away from the central road, but probably, like other tourists, our guest stops at every corner and captures the beauty of nature in the pictures. Two hours later, Mogeli entered our family. Of course, we hosted him with traditional Adjara dishes. Adjarian dishes are very nutritious, probably because in ancient times a people needed a lot of physical work and that’s why food had to be nutritious.

When Mogeli had a little rest, I decided to show him the bee hives. We put on a special uniform and went to visit the bees. Mogeli liked a lot  beekeeping and my stories. The story I saw in Montenegro was just an outline, after that  I was inventing all the activities for tourists myself. I decided to involve tourists in beekeeping process  and till now most of them life this activity. Many more exciting days were were waiting for Mogeli, among them Chacha distilling, wine tasting, fruit picking and a master class of Adjarian dishes, which was the idea of ​​me and my wife.

After that, I invited Mogeli to take a look at my collection of ethnographic items, which consists of up to 100 items, most of which belongs to my family, and since childhood I have kept everything, which I found interesting. Mogel especially liked my grandmother’s barn, which was my grandmother’s dowry and is about 200 years old. Mogel’s special attention was drawn to  farriery , which I have built myself and is included  in the fifth grade textbook.

After visiting the ethnographic items, we started baking bread with Mogeli in the evening. First, with the help of a mug, we put the corn in the pot and after delivering it to the mill, we grind it. Mogeli took out the ground corn and we started to dry it now. After serving, with the help of my wife, Mogeli also kneaded the dough with this flour and baked delicious breads.

The hall, which I built myself as well, can accommodate up to 60-70 people, turned into a great wine tasting place. Me,my wife and Mogeli gathered around the table. We set the table with Adjarian traditional dishes and started to eat and drink tastily , after being tired of work during whole  day. However, Mogel clearly felt that the bread baked with his own hands tasted the best.

I watched as my guest happily spent time  with us and my  heart was  filling with joy. I wanted to scream to the whole world: – “Come and meet the unknown Adjara.”