So, like Erik wrote, the rest of Turkey was kind of boring. I had hoped that our few days there would ease us into the real trip, allowing us to land and relax, but it didn’t.
Georgia however is everything I hoped for so far, and more. And it started at the border by meeting the first other biker Rasti from Slovakia. But the first perfect day of this trip was 28 May: our journey from Batumi to Vardzia. It was our first really beautiful road, including our first stretch of about 70 km off-road (or actually unpaved road) with water crossings and muddy patches. We even saw some snow!
Here we used what we learned in our training sessions in Holland. We thought of you, Albert, Werner and Bert. Thank you, we used what we learned!
Adjusting our handle bars for the off-road stretch:
23 degrees Celsius and snow:
The road we traveled:
Repairing some minor damage:
Lunch with Elena and Jean:
After the second water crossing, right when we felt hungry and thirsty, we found this great little shed where an old guy served us some BBQ skewer, salad and lemonade. Here “overlanders” Elena and Jean, our 4×4 driving friends from Luxembourg, joined us for this well-deserved lunch. We would see Elena and Jean several times after that and probably will later on as well. Funny to share this adventure with other travelers.
To complete the perfect day, we also mixed in visits to some sites (waterfall, fortress, monastery) and finished sleeping in the open air, trying out our sleeping bag and air mattress. All in one day.
Makhuntseti waterfall
Rabati Castle:
Sapara Monastery:
My bed for tonight:
And the view from my bed:
I was hoping to get these experiences during this trip, and there they all were!
Of course, the next day couldn’t be perfect. That would be boring…
So, after my GPS broke down, now my intercom set stopped working and my iPhone fell, breaking the screen.
And it rained.
It came pouring down the whole day, soaking us through and through. Everything was wet. But I guess that is part of the deal too. We were happy to find a nice little hotel in Gori, Stalin’s birth town, where we could dry, having a warm shower and sleep.
Tomorrow Tbilisi.