30 Aug 2014
14. Georgia
Entry into Georgia was different, firstly from the rather cool looking border building but also as I had to walk with my bike through the building, as opposed to passing through with the vehicles. Queues of people at several passport inspection booths more-so resembled an airport terminal, eventually it’s my turn and I’m stamped into the country. To be honest, and it’s usually best, I new nothing about Georgia, so I was well and truly entering into the land of the unknown!
A few kilometres down the road and I pass a Christian church…an Allah free country??....RESULT! Hopefully no more ridiculous-o-clock calls for morning prayer….for a while at least! A little further down I pass a shop openly selling alcohol....yeh most defiantly an Allah free country!
At a water-spring I meet a couple of Russian cyclists - Natalia & Vadim - also heading toward the Black Sea eastern costal resort city of Batumi - from where I’d planned to obtain my visa for Azerbaijan as it’s apparently quicker than obtaining from the Embassy in the capital city of Tbilisi. Being on a two week tour around Georgia they new a great place to free-camp a few kilometres out from the city, en-route to the spot we pass the airport, being dusk the buildings ‘illumination’ was on, more-so resembling an entrance to a Disney theme park ride than anything else, myself being an LED lighting junky was certainly impressed and was to soon see further such offerings.
After pitching our tents we drink some locally brewed ‘cha-cha’, being in a re-used cola bottle I correctly assumed what was coming, think vodka mixed with rocket fuel and you’ll be close! It’s that aggressive that after downing you munch on an apple to ensure your throat doesn’t get too blistered. A couple of those and I was in my tent!
The following day we head into the centre, just as we reach the beach-front promenade area we’re hollered at by some other cyclist’s. Holly + David are cycling from UK to Oz and had met Tom, a Lithuanian who was on a two-year, five continent tour. We all decide to find a café for some beer, conversation, ice cream and internet connection. Here we’re introduced to a Georgian dish Khachapuri, basically bread, served with a runny egg and knob of butter melted in when cooking and then cheese on top, yummy!
A happy customer ;-)
A few hours later and Natalia and Vadim continue north while we start to look for a suitable hostel.
The following day’s task was bicycle maintenance; tyres swapped around, chain cleaned and a general all-over wipe-down then hand-wash a few clothes along with a shave. Being the weekend we had yet another day to wait until the visa application process - and it is always a ‘process’! - so on the Sunday we had a wander around the city, it had a pleasant charm of old Vs new, Russian tourists galore, high streets with expensive shops and side / back-streets selling everything from fruit and veg. to metal merchants and cobblers, not much in the way of supermarkets but lots of smaller shops selling different goods which always makes shopping more of a task when you’re new in town. Across the road from the café we’d visited we saw a lady sat behind a large yellow tanker-like trailer, she turns out to be a street vendor selling Brac (Kvass). This is a fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread, considered non alcoholic (by Russian standards) as has typically 0.05 – 1% content.
In 1921 Georgia was occupied by Russia and became part of the Soviet Union but gained independence in 1991, suffering from civil unrest until 2003 upon which democratic and economic reforms started to transform the country. It’s a relatively cheap country to visit with a great history. The currency is the Lari, equal to approximately £0.35.
Georgia has long been associated with the legend of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece, a myth derived from the local practice of using fleeces to sift gold dust from the rivers. The fleece became flecked with specks of gold giving it a rich, glamorous appearance. This statue was in one of the city’s squares.
This following tourist-pamphlet text gives a brief summary of Georgia’s history.
When I first saw Georgian writing on a sign at the border I wasn't even sure if it was writing!! It is a language written in its own unique system. The paragraph shown below is a Google translation of the paragraph you are presently reading.
როდესაც მე პირველად ვნახე ქართული წერა ნიშანი საზღვარზე მე კი არ ვიცი, თუ ის წერდა !! ეს არის ენა დაწერილი საკუთარი უნიკალური სისტემა. პირველი პუნქტით ნაჩვენებია ქვემოთ არის Google თარგმანი მუხლის მე თქვენ ამჟამად კითხულობს.
The Batumi Hostel proved a great choice. Our dormitory was like a small flat with two rooms, each with four beds (Holly + David took one room and Tom and I the other) along with a small kitchenette area that was great for breakfast / dinner, and a fair sized shaded court yard area with seating and space for the amounting bikes. Chocy was the hostel's guard dog….well, he chased the occasional passing car and that was about it!
When the Monday finally turned up we head to the Azerbaijan consulates office to apply for the visa. The consular was a relatively relaxed guy and the process as expected with additional faffing around obtaining some extra paperwork. The fee for British nationals was a rather high £72, as always proving to be the expensive side to international travel.
როდესაც მე პირველად ვნახე ქართული წერა ნიშანი საზღვარზე მე კი არ ვიცი, თუ ის წერდა !! ეს არის ენა დაწერილი საკუთარი უნიკალური სისტემა. პირველი პუნქტით ნაჩვენებია ქვემოთ არის Google თარგმანი მუხლის მე თქვენ ამჟამად კითხულობს.
The Batumi Hostel proved a great choice. Our dormitory was like a small flat with two rooms, each with four beds (Holly + David took one room and Tom and I the other) along with a small kitchenette area that was great for breakfast / dinner, and a fair sized shaded court yard area with seating and space for the amounting bikes. Chocy was the hostel's guard dog….well, he chased the occasional passing car and that was about it!
When the Monday finally turned up we head to the Azerbaijan consulates office to apply for the visa. The consular was a relatively relaxed guy and the process as expected with additional faffing around obtaining some extra paperwork. The fee for British nationals was a rather high £72, as always proving to be the expensive side to international travel.
A few days later we meet Jose, a Spanish cyclist also heading into Asia, our pack grew from four to five.
The next day we get introduced to three Manchester cyclists. After completing university Jake, Mark and Russell decided to cycle to Australia and had been on the road for almost a year. So now the previous day’s five had become eight! so with all of us heading the same way through Georgia we decided it would be great to ride together.
Jacob, Mark and Russell. Their facebook page is here and main blog here
Batumi’s beach-front promenade was packed with tourists ambling around along with further cool L.E.D. decorated buildings and fountains, here are some of them;
Batumi’s beach-front promenade was packed with tourists ambling around along with further cool L.E.D. decorated buildings and fountains, here are some of them;
Anxious to continue, to avoid wasting precious time in Batumi visa-waiting we decide to continue to Tbilisi and for one of us to bus-back the following week to collect them, this would save us a few days and halt the boredom that soon settles in.
On the morning we depart, just a few kilometres down the road Mark’s (of the Mancunian three) rear wheel started playing up, after some brief brain-storming we realise the hub’s bearing are at fault and would need a new wheel, basically he couldn’t free-wheel (stop pedalling), luckily we was just a few hundred metres from a bicycle warehouse, the replacement wheel he bought was a cheap and cheerful 60 Lari (£20) one, but able to continue all seemed okay.
With our eight-strong group agreeing upon the route the gentle gradient soon leads us into the greenery of Georgia’s southern mountain range.
The day’s stop point was at the town of Khulo, here we met two Armenian mountain-bike tourers who informed us the road past the town, up to and over the mountain pass and back down was too difficult for our type of bikes and we’d also be attacked by the mountain dogs and should head back down…erm, having previously cycled through the Congo I took it all with a pinch of salt, advising the others not to let the scaremongery give them nightmares. Soon we transformed the town’s park area into a temporary campsite, cooked some food then crashed for the night.
Sure enough, the next day the tarmac petered out into gravel, rocks and pot-holes and made progress slow, but onward and upward in true British style. A few kilometres out of town and guess what??...we meet two more tourers, just walking out from their camp spot! Youri + Isa were from the Netherlands and presently on the third year of their tour. Also heading for Tbilisi they join forces, here we all are at a bridge crossing that was just long enough to fit us all in.
‘Fill her up mate’.
Holly battles for pole position.
Chased by a Lithuanian, Spaniard, Oz and Brit!
On some sections there proved little speed difference between walking and cycling, and taking into account the extra strain the bike takes I, along with a couple of others, when the gradient and bumps became excessive walked.
Nearing the mountain pass the clouds soon surround us, a welcomed change from the heat I endured in Turkey. Just shy of the mountain pass a young girl is selling fresh local cheese, not sure of what’s ahead we buy some.
Inevitably the 2025 metre mountain pass shows up, along with a small shack-like restaurant which we head inside to celebrate the team’s bumpy climb. The owner says we could camp next to the restaurant but decided it best to head down from the summit out of the damp cold clouds.
On a rough craggy mountain, finding a large enough space for ten people to pitch eight tents is a challenge, knowing we’ll never find the perfect spot we simply find an area that ‘looks okay’ and as far as finding a patch it’s a case of ‘every man for himself’. Russell, Mark and myself set up on one side of the road whilst the others the opposite side. We end the day with a camp fire, and the day ends the fire with rain.
After a while dithering around in the town and seeing Mark on his way we knock out another few kilometres until we find a reasonable riverside camp spot. Several times in the night a super-quick exit from the tent was required due to a touch of diarrhoea, on the third exit being simultaneously sick!! Crawling out of my tent in the morning I felt weak, a brief cold sweat flushes over me and had to sit down, Holly said I went as white as a ghost. A few of the others in the group had the same symptoms so we tried to find the common denominator, none of us shared our dinner and we all had water from different sources, either way we had to pack down and press on as we were miles from the nearest town and ideally needed to get bottled water and possibly advice from a chemist.
Back on the road, I still felt weak and had no appetite, with no enthusiasm we reluctantly plodded on, counting each kilometre that passed by. Upon arrival at the next town we buy some light foods, strangely enough ice-cream seemed quite pleasing to eat. At a chemist I buy some electrolyte powder, with just 36km covered and half of us feeling like it we decide it best to take an easy day and just out of town find a riverside camp spot.
The next day we pass this railway carriage bridge, I’d seen this on blogs from other people and had forgotten it was in this area, fortunately we didn’t need to cross over it!
Travelling in larger group inevitably means more starts ‘n’ stops, significantly reducing the day’s overall distance, riding with us for a few days Youri + Isa now decided to ride at their own pace and see us further along as and when our paths crossed. Tom and Jose’s following country was Armenia and the following day decided to head south, so now - with Mark taken the bus - the group size had dropped to five.
Tbilisi was still about two days away and with Dave + Holly needing to back-track to the Turkish/Georgia border town to collect a parcel from blighty so decided to take a lift to the capital, leave the bikes somewhere safe and bus back to Batumi. Their plan was to also collect all of our Azerbaijan visa’s then pop across into Turkey for their parcel, then bus back to Tbilisi – very confusing but it all makes sense!! So now we were three.
Springs in southern Georgia were few and far between so upon finding one we decide to cook an early dinner, I still felt weak and had no appetite but had to eat something. Joining forces in the ‘kitchen’ we make a tasty dinner and appeared to be just what the doctor ordered. That evening, after an excellent 8 km freewheeling descent we found a perfect camp spot, next to a crystal-clear stream.
Being a small group the next morning we pack down quickly and are soon pedalling the remaining section, on arrival in the city we celebrate;
Meeting up with Dave he explains that Mark and Holly had taken the bus to Batumi as they both needed to pop into Turkey to get parcels, Mark’s being a new (shimano) wheel. Dave led us to the accommodation he was in - a family house / hostel - a strange setup but with a bed, shower and Wifi all was good.
The city centre was similar to Batumi with a good mix of old and new, a cool designed glass-sided L.E.D. clad bridge takes pedestrians over the Mtkvari River.
Rike Park is on the opposite side of the river’s bridge.
A cable car ride from Rike Park goes up to the Narikala Fortress whereby a great view of the city can be seen.
Staying in the city for three nights Holly and Mark return from their ‘fun’ bus journey, Holly holding our Azerbaijan visa-clad passports and Mark with his brand new wheel.
On the third morning in the city, the six of us clip our panniers back on and ride out, a day and a half later we’re at the border. Georgia is most definitely a country I’d return to, unlike that of Azerbaijan where - in the name of Islam - cruelty to animals is standard practice, the word ‘democracy’ is nationally misunderstood, and the capital city is about as fake as it gets.
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