Sataplia Nature Reserve

Western Georgia


The star features of the 3.3-sq-km reserve, 9km northwest of Kutaisi, are a couple of dozen 120-million-year-old, fossilised dinosaur footprints (well displayed in a protective building), and an attractively lit 300m-long cave with a small underground river. The reserve is covered in thick, subtropical Colchic forest and has a couple of panoramic lookout points. It takes about an hour to walk around the main visitor route.

A taxi round-trip from Kutaisi combining Sataplia with Prometheus Cave costs 35 GEL to 40 GEL. Public transport is awkward: marshrutka 35 (0.40 GEL) goes from the west end of Paliashvili to the end of Javakhishvili on Kutaisi's western edge, where marshrutka 45 leaves for the remaining 5km to Sataplia when the driver considers he has enough passengers (four is usually sufficient).