Originally it was planned as a day trip to Dashbashi canyon near Tsalka, but at the end, we reached Buratino lake near Manglisi.
Let me explain, the previous week we headed up to Tskneti and further to Kojori, but discovered there is a road connecting Kojori to Algeti national park up from there, and we agreed to spend one Saturday or Sunday afternoon discovering the area.
From Algeti we are already familiar with Birtvisi canyon and Algeti reservoir. A couple of months ago a friend of mine told me
Our first stop - Visitor center of Algeti National park, a quick conversation with park rangers, and we are told to head to Buratino lake (at that time we didn't know the name) - not knowing actually where are we driving, we make a stop at some ruins and discover there is an impressive church complex on the other side of the road - Manglisi Sioni, what I find interesting - the coat of arms of Imperial Russia on the facade and Russian Orthodox cross atop of the church.
Our final stop - Buratino lake - The reason we wanted to get here is quite simple - to have an outdoor barbecue (for that reason we bought meat, barbeque grill and even charcoal while departed Tbilisi, at Tskneti), and to give a little swim to our 13-month old baby girl.(For the baby girl we have a floating ring we bought in Antalya, Turkey) We got both.
It should be noted that Buratino lake (at least during the high season) is for a fee - even for the entrance is asked 1 GEL, parking a car inside the territory some 2 GEL). The best - you can ask the owner (Shoti by the way) to grill meat for you