Archives du mot-clé Georgia

Week 11 – Tbilissi + Georgia recap

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June 10th – 60 kms, 875+, Tbilissi
June 11th to 12th- visiting Tbilissi
June 13rd – 55 kms, 560+, Dashtapa

After a nice night in our spot in the middle of the flowers, it was time to go to Tbilissi, capital of Georgia. The road until the city was great, beautiful downhills, until coming close to downtown where it started to be very crowded. Also, it was much warmer down there, coming from the countryside the temperature difference was obvious. Once there, we had troubles to find a hotel, everything was closed or booked… Finally, Zaira’s Guest House had a place for us. As always, Georgians are very happy to share their language, food and, above all, their alcoholic beverages… Every morning, Zaira offered us fresh wine, chacha, vodka… At 9AM! It was somehow too early for our stomachs 🙂 We spend 3 days in this nice city, eating icecream, tasting georgian food and visiting this very pleasant place. We also met a french couple, Jeanne and Alex, travelling with motorcycles, also going east. Having some company to visit a city is always fun!

Views of the city

Architecture



On the streets

Botanic garden

Our last day in the city passes very quickly. After trying to fix Pierre’s wheel and making a huge logistic effort to send a package from France to Armenia, we left the city. While we cycled, we decided to look for a place to camp, using the app iOverlander. We ride in the direction of the place and, on our way, we met another cyclist. Suzane is coming from Germany and traveling alone. And is carying 3kg of cherries for some reasons! We had a nice evening all together in this spot full of turtles and snakes, eating cherries, sharing histories and diner.

  • Great spot!
  • With Suzanne

Recap

Distance travelled inside the country
Flat tires – 0
Chacha – We stopped counting
Icecream – 3 per day when there was a Luka Polare store
Kachapuri – 20/person
Nights with locals – 3
Bivouac – 5
Hotel/Guest House – 7

What did we like?

  • Food ! Khachapuri, Khinkali, Lobiani, Georgian cheese, ice-cream among others, everything was really delicious.
  • Wine : Georgia is producing interesting wine. What is even more interesting is the home-made wine produced by the people in their cellar. It was especially enjoyable for us after having travelled 6 weeks in Turkey including 3 weeks of Ramadan, meaning close to zero alcohol.
  • Freedom : after 3 weeks of Ramadan in Turkey, it was good to eat & drink freely during the day, without having to hide ourselves. Also good to be dressed with short/t-shirt without the risk to shock locals.
  • Black sea : large streets for pedestrians and even a cycle path along the beach in Batumi. Big contrast with Turkey! Beautiful blue, clean and pleasant water to unwind.

What did we dislike?

  • Bad roads : if you think the roads are in bad shape in your country, come to Georgia. Even the government apologizes for the road conditions.
  • Crazy drivers : too many Schumacher in this country. And honking all day long.
  • Storms : almost every night we had a storm while we were in the mountains
  • Having to drink wine/chacha at 9:00 am. This happens a few times and it was quite difficult to escape such invitation without having one or two shots.

What is growing?

Beside the many fields we have seen, we had this impression that almost everyone in the countryside has a small garden, where one grows what they need. Corn, beans, wheat, melon, water melon, grapes, cows, goats, sheeps,…

Curious facts we learned

  • Georgia is one of these countries where the animals are breeded outside enclosed plot of land, and usually without a shepherd. So the cows/goats/sheeps are just walking freely everywhere : in the middle of the roads, in the bus stops, on the bridges aso. We are still asking ourselves how many times a farmer takes to group his herd at the end of day.
  • Georgia has a complex relationship with Russia. There’s a tension among both countries considering some territories. But, on the other hand, many russian tourists come to the country to enjoy the cities, the Black Sea and the mountains.
  • It seems that Georgia is a kind of a new underground tourist destination, still a bit unknown, and attracting more and more tourists because of its food, wine, beaches, mountains, culture. We were happy to visit it before the tourist explosion. Maybe you also shall do it. 🙂
  • There’s no right time to start drinking alchool in Georgia. It only depends on your thirst.

Week 9 continued – Hello Georgia

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May 30th to 31st – Batumi
June 1st – 44 kms, Pirveli Maisi
June 2nd -11 kms, Vaio – shitty day due to broken spoke

Crossing the border between Turkey and Georgia is quite a contrast. Pierre is not the only men wearing a short. Women are wearing skirts. Alcohol advertisement along the roads. Even people swimming in the Black Sea! Yes, we are in another country.

  • Black Sea in Georgia
  • Home made parasol
  • Black Sea
  • Arriving in Batumi

Few kilometers to absorb the contrast and we arrived in Batumi. Batumi is the second largest city of Georgia and is also known as “the Las Vegas of the Caucasus”. This is actually easily understandable : nonsense skyscrapers, casinos, many disco clubs, alcohol everywhere… It looks like many people from Russia, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia are coming here to “unwind”.

  • Batumi
  • Batumi
  • Batumi
  • Batumi
  • Batumi

We met our new cyclist friend Flo here and enjoyed his company to visit the city during few days. Beach, ice-creams, restaurants, working on our blog, relaxing. We were also lucky as we were in the city for the last Friday of the month and could therefore join Batumi’s Critical Mass – a nice way to meet locals and discover the city. Cyclists in Batumi and Georgia in general are very few, but the Critical Mass is getting bigger and bigger according to the organizers. Again, they were struggling with the politics and mayors to promote bicycling in the cities, developing bicycle lanes aso. A tough never ending discussion that we know pretty well in France (and almost everyhere?).

  • With Flo
  • Critical Mass in Batumi
  • Burgers

June 1st started and it was a good date to take up the road again. We quickly realized that drivers in this country are completely crazy. They by-pass everywhere, everywhen and anyhow. Honking for whatever reason. Also, if you believe the roads are in bad conditions in your country, come to Georgia! You will be surprised. Pot-holes, peddles, gravels, missing asphalt. Sometimes it is quite a disaster. It is common to see a car with 2 spare wheels on the roof. And often, the spare wheel is more worn out than the installed wheels. Also, the cars are rather old here. It looks cars from western Europe are all having a second/third/fourth life here. And also from Soviet Union. You can find cars with the steering wheel on the left, others having it on the right, which might be disconcerting as at first glance you just think that there is no driver.

So it is with such new conditions that we cycled towards the Goderdzi pass. A long uphill through a green valley following the Adjaris-Tskali river. As stiff that it is actually slightly difficult to find a place to camp. We asked a grandma if she knew a place where we could rest, and indicated us a nice spot along a stream. Perfect spot, with a small river, green grass, shadow and very quiet.

The following mornind we felt full of energy to attack the oncoming uphill. Unfortunately, after only 11 kms – BANG! – the sweet noise of something borking. It comes from Pierre’s bicycle. It’s a broken spoke. Pierre’s nightmare happened one more time. (Geek mecanic alert!) To give some background, Pierre’s rear wheel was completely re-laced with new spokes and trued before our departure, as the wheel was constantly breaking spokes after about 10000 kms. So we were confident with this new departure that spokes should not break on Pierre’s rear wheel. We were wrong. After a few 3000 kms, broken spoke again. But ok, we have spare spokes so it should not be a big deal to fix this one. Oh, wait a minute, the spoke is broken INSIDE the nipple. Do we have spare nipples? Obviously not. So we first tried to find a way to remove the broken part of the spoke from the nipple, in vain. And then, realizing : one of us has to go to Batumi to find a stupid nipple. It was easily 14:00 and we started to stress: it was a Sunday, and luckily one bicycle shop was open in Batumi until 16:00. So we should move quickly to be there before the closing – we were at 60 kms from the city. We packed our stuff quickly, Larissa found a place to wait far from the road with never stopping honking cars, and Pierre started to hitchhike. Took 2 minutes for a truck to pick him up. Pierre arrived at the bicycle shop with the wheel at 15:50, wheel was fixed 10 minutes later. Then Pierre took a bus back to Larissa’s place and it was easily 18:30. We both felt emotionally exhausted. So we decided to camp there, even though the place was for sure not the best one : weird people were hanging out inside their car, drinking beers and smoking cigarettes. At least they gave us some warm beer to raise our moral. Then we realized that we lost some tools during the rush before the hitchhike… And to end the day on a high note, when she came back from the shop to purchase some groceries, Larissa thought Pierre had been kidnapped or felt in the river as he disappeared. Pierre was actually looking for the lost tools, 200m away. It was the first tears of the trip. We ate quickly and went to sleep, this day definitely had to stop for both of us.

  • Pierre’s bicycle waiting for a fixed wheel