Inside Europe's HIGHEST VILLAGE (Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia)

This is just one of the most beautiful and remote places we've ever been. The roads are still pretty good and we just stopped to try some mineral water. So yeah, our driver gave us a cup to try. Let's give it a go. It's nice, it's a bit fizzy. It's not the same as Borjomi though, that's a lot cleaner taste. He said it's supposed to cheese... cheese? It's supposed to cheese... it's supposed to cheese and clean all of your insides. Perfect, hopefully it doesn't have the same effect as Borjomi did because we've got a long day ahead of us. So this is Rowan. You may recognize him because we met him in Gori when we were filming there and he's up here in Mesti a few for a few days so he's coming up to Ushguli with us. Yeah, just hanging out for a few days. I'm happy to be on this adventure with you. Our driver David is so nice. He's pulling literally every 10 minutes so we can take pictures everywhere and have a look around because it's just so gorgeous. We're stuck in a mountain traffic jam. Welcome to what's thought of is the highest village in Europe. We're up over 2,100 meters here and it's just... I can't even put into words how beautiful it is here. This is just one of the most beautiful and remote places we've ever been. It's so incredible. All the mountains on all sides all snow-capped. So this village is actually completely cut off for a lot of the year when the snow falls so the residents that stay here year round they have to live off of what they grow in the summer and David was saying that because of how high up we are here you only grow potatoes. Things like fruit and vegetables don't grow so easily in this atmosphere. So yeah, throughout the winter they're living off whatever they've grown in the summer i.e. the potatoes and stuff. It's been a hard life. David, our driver, was telling us that he was here a week ago and he's seen that literally up there there was a cow or horse dead and he's seen like five or seven massive eagles eating it up. It's pretty incredible. So David was saying that where we're heading up to now is Queen Tamara's winter residence. She used to come down here and stay in the winter and then there's one up high on the mountain there which was her summer residence. So obviously she would go up into the mountains even higher during the summer when it would get too hot down here in the village. The whole area is called Ushkuli and it's actually split into four little villages and the highest one where we're at now is protected by UNESCO. So David was telling us that the entire population of the Ushkuli area, so the four villages, is about 300 and something now. There was a lot more in the past but because of a landslide, a lot of people died in the area because of a lot of the unsafe ground, the Georgian government made the decision in about the 80s to move a lot of people out of this area of Svanetia. So actually where we were the other day in Udabno, the guest house we stayed in, they were Svans that were moved there in the 80s from this area. So since then the population of the village has depleted a lot and you can see a lot of empty homes as you walk around. Hopefully tourism makes things a little bit better and the population can start rising again, people can start living better because the tourism industry here seems to be thriving as it is down in Mestia. So fingers crossed. Kamadzhova! So we've looped up the village and we're going to loop around across the field and I think David's waiting for us with the car to head back toward Mestia. Mind your head. This is definitely one of the most incredible places Ivaros has ever been. It's so beautiful. All you can hear is the river as well. So quiet. They are so tiny! I don't think I've seen a piggy so small. We're back in the car and now we're going to head back. We just pulled over on the way back to have a look at the lake. Oh my god, that is the most beautiful colour I've ever seen. A nice snorkel. It's nice. Tastes like water. Also that's nice because it's blooming hot today and I think we both got burned. Thanks, see you later.