June 3rd – 50 kms, 1100+, Khulo
June 4th – 22 kms, 1035+, Goderzi pass
June 5th – 74 kms, 455+, Rustavi
June 6th – 54 kms, 1000+, Nakalakeno
June 7th – 70 kms, 1060+, Saghamo Lake
June 8th – 59 kms, 485+, Tbeti
June 9th – 43 kms, 485+, Manglisi

Nothing better than a good night of sleep to rest and to put our ideas together. We figured out that we were kind of lucky being able to fix the wheel on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere. We managed to solve this problem in a few hours instead of days, which is a pretty good thing. Pierre’s wheel is now a fragiled, but we should be able to move further. We felt relaxed from the stressful evening. After our breakfast, we started our 8 hours climb – nice program. During the evening, we were invited to stay at a farmer family’s house. We went with them to milk their cows and to see how they prepare their own cheese. Beso and his lovely family hosted us, gave us delicious home made food, a good bed and a beautiful evening together. They offered us a cold shower close to the cows run, kind of smelly but refreshing.

For breakfast, they prepared us a plate named “Furious”! Which is typical from this region. It is made with hot cheese mixed with butter and few water. Quite greasy. You eat this with bread, a bit like a “fondue savoyarde”. It is like a fat morning bomb. It gave us all the fat energy we needed to take the road and continue our uphill. We were ready to do what was supposed to be one of the hardest pass of the trip – the well known Goderzi pass. For around 30 kms we’ll have to go uphill, through very, very steep and bad shape roads. Gravels, pot holes, pebbles, sand. Fortunately, it was easier than what we expected, as the road was dry, or probably thanks to the fatty breakfast. Arrived at the pass, we stayed at the Goderzi resort as a storm was coming, which has the price of a resort, without the comfort…

The good think about uphill is that you know that you’ll have a downhill for reward. After the Goderzi pass, we had around 20km downhill through very beautiful landscapes. The road was in a slightly better shape than the day before, but still shitty. And some rivers crossing added some fun.

We kept on cycling through wonderful roads and were struggling to find water. We came in a village to ask for it and, as there was another storm coming, we asked the locals if we could put our tent in their garden. Without hesitating, Olia showed us the big storm clouds that were coming and invited us to stay at her place. She prepared us a comfortable bed and some home-made pasta with their own cheese, butter, garlic. And wine. Her husband made his own wine and was very proud to share it with us. As we set at the table, the storm started. Lots of rain, thunders and hail were coming from the sky. We can say that we were very happy to be in their place, sharing a delicious meal and tasting this good wine. Probably too much wine actually, we went to sleep quite happy. It was a good evening! Good surprise: the day after, no headache – the wine was good.

After breakfast, once again, we had one of those bittersweet moments. We feel so happy to find such good people on the roads, but also very sad to say goodbye. We kept on moving through Georgian’s mountains. We made a 40km detour to visit Vardzia, the “Cappadocia of Georgia”. Indeed, there’s an ancient city carved in the tuff, dating from the XII century. This site was able to host around 5000 people, and had a network of tunnels, churches and monastery. For the night, at first we wanted to wild camp. Then, a guide met us and told us about his guest house, Gocha Kavelidze. We were able to negotiate a good price and had, once again, a delicious homemade dinner, wine, chacha, good company with some Russian and a good night of rest.

After this alcoholic introduction of the country, we had to change our plans as we had to organize the shipment of a package from France to Armenia with some spare parts for our bicycles, so as replacement items for our tent and stove. Many material issues and many hours spent over the phone with multiple customer services, lovely. So we first headed to Tbilissi, capital of Georgia. From this date, our travel took another rhythm, as we had to wait for this package. And obviously, the package got lost in the gloomy world of international logistics. We would like to thank again all our friends and family involved in this shipment: Robin, Viola, Charles, Alexandre, Geoffroy, Melissa and her parents, Marie and Jean-Paul.

In the meantime, we went through small roads, around mountain lakes – beautiful landscapes. We were lucky to find good people on our way. We were invited for coffee, chocolates, fishing and for sleeping by a lovely family. And some vodka. But well, it was only 9:00am so we found this extra breakfast quite harsh. And we still wanted to cycle more than 3km that day. So we declined, escaping the morning vodka trap. During the evening, once again, the storms were threatening us. As we had a short break to get bred, a truck stopped in front of us. It was Florian, a nice French guy living in Georgia, who invited us for a tea and to stay at his place. Even if we could still cycle 1h or 2h, we accepted his invitation – we had to wait for the lousy package anyway. Florian is revamping an old house with her wife, together with the help of a friend. They want to turn it into a guesthouse. When we met, they were at the beginning of their works. It was nice to give them a hand and to find french speaking people. We had a nice day and a nice evening all together.

Last day of the week started with the visit of the public market of Tsaka. Later on the road, we found somehow funny to have this impression of constantly going uphill… The downhills are so stiff that we don’t even have the time to enjoy or even notice them. Also, even if we ate a lot and did not cycle that many km per day, we felt very tired. Is this normal? The roads are very nice, but many, many uphills and always some storm threatening us. At the end, this weather probably contributed to tired us. Never mind, it is part of the travel.

Along the road, we met a beautiful Polish couple traveling for 9 years with their bicycles. 9 years!!! They traveled all around the world and are now in their way back to Poland. They took the time to discuss with us, shared their experiences and gave us some precious advices, especially about Iran. We felt so happy and inspired by them. We finished this day in a nice bivouac spot, among flowers and some wild animals, that were making sounds like wolves…We don’t know what it was, but we felt safe enough to have a good night of sleep.