Bread and Ashes

Tony Anderson set out in the summer of 1998 to walk from the Caspian to the Black Sea, along the southern crest of the Caucasus. He was pulled along in the wake of the many tribes and peoples who had passed through the mountains, leaving behind a whisper of their deeds and names. He wanted particularly to visit the Georgian mountain tribes - Pshavs, Toush, Khevsours, Ratchuelians and Svans - to discover if they shared a common culture and to test the old idea of the Caucasus as an impenetrable barrier from sea to sea, with ancient tribes living in isolation from the outside world.