გამარჯობა! Gamardschoba… Off-road for advanced travellers approx. 1’500km through the country of the Caucasus “Georgia”.
Chapter Seven
გამარჯობა! Gamardschoba!
Off-road for advanced travellers
In the land of the Caucasus
- Official language
- Capital
- Surface
- Population
- Currency
- National Day
- Mountains
- Georgian
- Tbilisi
- 69.700 km²
- 3.728.600
- Lari ₾ (GEL)
- 26th Mai
- Caucasus
On 12th January we were chugging towards the border of Georgia. We were as excited as little children, “I hope everything works fine! Georgia was not particularly liberal.
At the border, as we had been told and read by various other travellers, we were separated. All in all, the border crossing took an hour. Nothing compared to the complications when entering Turkey. The officials were a bit puzzled why we had so many projectors and technology with us. I explained to them with photos what we were doing with them. “Still, why so many?” Asked the official. “As a reserve – in case one breaks,” I replied, and everything was done. We wish that all the other border crossings ahead of us would be as relaxed.
We took a leisurely stroll with Oleg to the centre of Batumi, near the harbour and an amusement park. The scenery has changed a lot again, from beige to lush green. Either the most blatant cars come towards us or those that have neither lights nor bumpers.
As soon as we arrived, we met the Iranian couple Eli & Amir. But first we had to go to the village, where we had to do the classic basic administration of a new country: “Get sim cards and local currency”. In Georgia we could hardly believe that we could get unlimited internet for a mere € 13. To celebrate the day, we went to eat pork in the restaurant “Munich”. I had a Cordon Bleu and Ziss enjoyed a tenderly roasted sirloin of the finest quality – what a treat!
In the evening we invited our new friends for tea in the warm parlour. We enjoyed great conversations. But we also got quite nervous about our onward journey through the Persian Empire. They travel by bicycle and tent. They cleverly built two tents inside each other to create an insulating layer of air. We have never seen anything like it. We have the highest respect for all travellers who cycle or even hike around the world. Putting up and taking down the tent every day in wind and weather would not be for us.
The next day at the crack of dawn we meet Egor. He, in turn, is jogging and hiking with the lightest of luggage from Russia towards Turkey. In the evening, we all invited everyone together for a delicious pizza in the restaurant.
Batumi is one of the two “rich” or “economically functioning” cities of the country, next to Tbilisi. Unfortunately, however, it is badly affected by corruption in the real estate business. This is hard to miss when strolling through the streets. Neglect and splendour in direct contrast to each other.
Here are the links to the city: WikiTravel, Wikipedia
Some impressions of Batumi
We headed north to Poti after four days of arriving in the new culture. We found a nice beach to spend the night. To our regret, the whole beach was littered with syringes and equipment for fixers. This picture stretches far and wide, almost over the whole country – like in the 90s with us.
As promised, the Swiss Embassy in Tbilisi helped us find a shipping company for our window. By phone, we agreed with the Swiss company Gebrüder-Weiss that they would accept our delivery. This filled us with joy.
Each country has its own peculiarities. In Turkey, we were regularly woken up by the call of the muezzin. In Georgia, drifting cars make it difficult to fall asleep. This seems to be a kind of national sport in this country.
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an
In the wrong place at the wrong season
It is difficult to be in the right place at the right time when you are constantly on the road. Breakdowns are not necessarily planned for. Much less the loss of an important document in the post or spare parts that do not leave the country of manufacture.
Due to the wintry weather and the increasing snowfall in the mountains, the choice of excursion destinations and sights in Georgia is limited at this time. A lot of exciting things lie in the middle of the high mountains and are partly not or hardly accessible. We knew in advance that we were in the country of the Caucasus at the wrong time of year. So it was clear that we were going to the interior of the country for the first time, to the warm sulphur springs near Vani.
We found a cosy campsite not far from the springs. We looked for our swimming trunks and went into the warm water. The sun slowly sets, it is a heart-warmingly beautiful atmosphere and best of all, the “pool” is deserted. The smell is also kept to a minimum while bathing. Just a short time before, we hesitated to dive into the smell of sulphur. We stayed another day in this magical environment.
Hot Sulphursprings near Vani
Off-road for the advanced
On 19th January, our original plan was to take a leisurely drive towards Tbilisi. Of course, everything turned out a bit differently than planned. We didn’t even know what off-road lesson was on the agenda for us today. Shortly before Achara, the sat nav told me to turn right off the main road, which I overlooked at first, which would have been a good thing if I hadn’t turned around and let myself be persuaded by the technology.
At the beginning everything was fine, the road was freshly asphalted and we enjoyed the picturesque area. After about 20km, the first “construction site” appeared, a rockslide buried the road. We should have returned to the main road here at the latest, but chug along in good spirits. “It’s bound to get better – it’s not all that bad!
But far from it! Everything that followed this rockslide became more severe from kilometre to kilometre. Potholes increased, the road was a mixture of “asphalt, terrain, rockfall and construction site”, became steadily narrower and the oncoming traffic decreased more and more. I wanted to turn around several times, but Ziss was in good spirits and encouraged me. After another construction site came the first “bridge”, if you want to call it that. With our track width of 2.3m, it was just about feasible. “Only, will this thing hold our weight?”
I explored the dilapidated bridge. Fortunately, 3 cars and a minibus came towards us. They all crossed the bridge at the same time. “So 4 x just under 3 tonnes = shouldn’t be an obstacle even for us.” Taking a deep breath “eyes closed and through”, our hearts beat faster! We reached what was, for the later kilometres, the last small construction activity with people. This was followed by a bridge for which we were definitely too big. Fortunately there was a second option. These were large steel pipes in the river which were covered with gravel. Here and there this crossing had some rust holes to make it more exciting. In addition, this alternative option went under a railway bridge where we just fit through.
Ziss shouted excitedly, “Welcome to Georgia!”
We now had the impression that we had arrived on a decent track – unfortunately only for a few 100m. After that, it was a good 7 km over an increasingly narrow route, decorated with ice, snow and mud. Some of the coming potholes were barely visible. Ziss was also feeling increasingly queasy. We reached a “village” with a few houses. Immediately afterwards we were in front of a fork. Straight ahead was definitely not a choice. A woman came out of her challet-like house and explained to us that we had to turn right here.
It took us two hours to do this 7km.
The curve down to the right was too sharp for our turning circle. The ground conditions did not look very trustworthy. So I had to drive backwards down this stretch until the now, absolutely last construction site which was on our track. We thought we had the difficult passages behind us “there are some heavy vehicles here! …they come from somewhere?”
We crossed a kind of construction workers’ camp with various barracks and huge construction machines. A sign “20 tonnes permitted” pleased our minds for a brief moment. The workers looked at us kind of puzzled. Only a few metres after this camp, the difficulty of the slope increased so much that I can hardly put it into words. My beloved Ziss turned pale. Filming was out of the question for her. Broken roads and deep abysses, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left of us. “Now I want to turn around too,” said Ziss. From my point of view, this was out of the question. There were passages where I could just about keep our Oleg on the “path”, potholes where almost all our wheels disappeared and now the ruts caused by us in which I didn’t want to go back under any circumstances. Ziss was sweating blood next to me, shaking and crying silently. She was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to hold Oleg and lose control. This happened for a few seconds and is probably normal at a certain level of difficulty off-road. But she was always able to catch the vehicle. I was also afraid to give her any space. We fought our way through the terrain kilometre by kilometre with the utmost concentration. The darkness increased, the temperature dropped and we never practised putting on our snow chains.
A good time! …because we were now in front of a completely icy, north-facing passage of about 200-300 metres, where we wouldn’t have got through without it. To the right of us it went deep into the abyss. Fortunately, the assembly succeeded despite all the strain on our nerves. We reached a halfway level parking space, on a south-facing slope, where we could stand next to the road. We needed a break besides the fact that I didn’t want to go any further in the dark.
We were very surprised to see Georgians rattling past us here and there in their jeeps.
But before we had dinner and went to bed, we had to see what was broken inside, it shook us so much that we were prepared for everything – open cupboard doors, broken glasses etc.. To our great surprise, with the exception of scattered coffee powder, nothing happened. Even in the absolute outback, we had a network and were able to research the last 10km ahead of us. Apart from the fact that there were some serpentines coming up that were not very easy to assess, it looked quite doable. Ziss was still scared, I was a bit worried. The tension, fear and adrenaline levels were so high that we could only get a little sleep.
Excursus Off-Road:
I read up as much as I could on the subject of off-road driving with vehicles, especially trucks. Up until today, we have been able to deal with it more and more in practice and have gained “experience”. Sometimes a bit of sand, getting stuck in the mud, see Bulgaria, driving downhill in the snow, off-road in Cappadocia and so on. However, we have to admit that our Georgia off-road excursion went in the direction of gross negligence. We made it though… not to think what if we didn’t.
A few months later we will meet Carlos in Saudi Arabia. He is a very experienced off-roader in the truck sector. In the time we will be on the road with him, we have overcome quite a few dirt roads and also decent passages. We were able to learn a lot from him. Out of curiosity, I asked him around the campfire how he would rate today’s passages in terms of difficulty – scale of 1-10. His answer was 5-6 in terms of the most difficult obstacle. I am aware that this is very subjective. However, it is also a guideline, as in climbing, which serves as a strong orientation and a way of dividing one’s strength.
Map: this is where we got lost
So I can tell you that our mistake in Georgia was a 7-10. I am not writing this here to brag. We both cried with joy to have overcome this section and thank our guardian angels. Be well prepared when you go off-road on your own! …or turn around in time!
Carlos also said: “If you ride a tough route yourself, you can add 1-2 difficulty points! …because you only have yourself to help and an emergency rescue!”
I have always done extreme sports in my life. But none has challenged me as much as the route I just described with the truck in Georgia. This constant tension and concentration over hours is unique and can hardly be compared to a 30m sport climbing route that can be mastered in a few minutes.
Breakfast, get Oleg ready to drive, check the snow chains and off we go. We were both very excited about the slope ahead. As we were about to start, we were actually met by an off-road taxi in the middle of the bush – “crazy Georgians”. To our relief, the most challenging part of the previous day was over. After about 5km, the forest slowly cleared, the parts of the road that had been broken off by landslides receded and the precipice next to us was now a little more distant. Now we just had to keep clean on the snow-covered, icy and slushy track, because possible help in case of getting stuck would hardly have been reachable. In the course of the ride, there was another section that was really tough until we had solid, tarred ground under our tyres again for a short while. We reached the serpentines which were only half as wild. The view into the valley was stunning. The next village was in sight and the increasing relaxation of our bodies and souls could not be put into words.
We were overjoyed to arrive safely in the village of Surami. Remove the snow chains and off we went to Tbilisi!
When you look at the video afterwards, it doesn’t seem nearly as blatant and violent as it does in reality. “Next time we’ll switch off the image stabiliser” 🙂
Welcom to Tbilisi
Off we went through the hustle and bustle of the Georgian city to our chosen campsite. It was directly above the Orthodox Sameba Cathedral.
There were already other travellers there when we arrived, among them a converted bus from Dubai. When we went shopping, we immediately met the driver of the monster, Peter from Australia, whose English we hardly understood at first. Ziss certainly didn’t, she stood there during the first contact largely clueless, inwardly asking “Is that English?”
We ended the evening quietly, thankful that we were healed.
The following days were very uneventful. We recovered from the shock of the mountain trip. We had a Georgian dinner and hid in our cosy, warm cave.
During the daily maintenance work on Oleg, I had a good chat with our new neighbour Peter and our wives asked each other in the warm room “where are we? “You gossip like two women,” said Ziss. Peter seems to me to be a “brother from another mother”.
The Sameba Cathedral
Meanwhile, we get an appointment to pick up our Carnet des Passages at the embassy and our skylight is also on its way. We are as happy about our document as children are at Christmas, because it had been halfway around the world. Now we can finally plan our trip, apply for the Iran & Kuwait visa and relax a bit.
A little insight into the capital of Georgia “Tbilisi”
We tear the 24th January note off the calendar
Our water is slowly but surely running out again. In the meantime, we can manage with our 300 litres for a good 14 days. The next water point is about 20km north. We said goodbye to Peter, they have been at the same place for 3 weeks now, they also need water and a change of scenery. We set off in a target-oriented manner. Compared to Turkey, the wells here in Georgia are rather sparsely populated.
The water pressure at the well near Mtskheta was not very exhilarating. At least it was not frozen, which we had feared on the way there. Filling it was a rather wet and cold ordeal. The tap was quite damaged and leaking. So it took a good while to get hold of 300 litres.
What a surprise Peter with his bus caught up with us. Now we also met his friendly wife Elena from Macedonia. They joined us, we chatted while we filled both vehicles with water. Afterwards, we were invited to dinner by the two of them. We brought a Georgian wine and desert with us.
We shared our adventures. Elena talked about her time as a professional swimmer and how it is at the Olympics, always made fun of Peter’s dialect in English… What a first great and cheerful evening! It was a shame that we had been parked next to each other for almost a week and only now got to know each other – better late than never.
The next day we went back to Tbilisi to spend the night near the Swiss Embassy. The next day began full of joy – after almost 3 months, we finally had our Carnet des Passages in our hands!
It is now time to explore eastern Georgia!
Our actual destination was a kind of camping site where you can taste wine and great schnapps. To our literal disillusionment, the owners were unfortunately not present, so this experience was only to be found with closed gates for the next 2 weeks.
Today, Oleg drove us through the snow-covered winter landscape to the Alasani River near Telavi. From there we dawdled across, Akshani, Achmeta, to Tianet. I ran out of socks, laundry is the order of the day. We are gifted with delicious wines and visited by a lovely kitty cat who lives with us for a short time. We would have loved to take her with us. She felt very comfortable with us.
We continued to Gudruki to the reservoir where we enjoyed absolute silence. Later back to Mzcheta to our new friends the “Migrating Mavericks” Peter & Elena to celebrate my birthday which was coming up soon. They had stayed more or less on site the whole week we were on tour. But in the meantime they found a campsite in a kind of deserted area where they could collect firewood because they only have a wood stove.
The Georgians:
We are aware that we are travelling in the absolutely wrong season in Georgia – to our regret. So far we have hardly warmed up to the locals. With the exception of the border Officers at the entrance and the employee who opened the closed campsite for us so that we could do our laundry, we have hardly had any contact that we can describe as friendly. They seem to be a grim people who can bake the most delicious bread on our trip so far. The people we met in everyday life, whether at the market, petrol station or on the street, really had something very grim to even gloomy in their facial expressions.
My 39th anniversary was on the agenda
The weather was gloomy and grey as it usually is on 2nd February – at least of a mild temperature. Peter and I truly prepared wood for a nightly campfire. The two of them are a really enriching encounter, super nice and totally on a similar wavelength of “dumb & dumber” when travelling like us – we laughed together. I cooked a nice dinner – afterwards we went out to the fire. We drank, laughed and celebrated! My beloved Huschel even managed to secretly buy me a gin and sparklers to surprise me. The more we drank the better it worked out for Ziss with Peter’s dialect. We celebrated until deep into the night.
We stayed with Elena & Peter until 6th February, our water was running low again and we fervently hoped to be able to pick up our window and Iran visas. The two Mavericks were drawn to the mountains to ski.
We chugged back to Tbilisi to the Sameba Cathedral. As soon as we arrived, there was a knock on the door accompanied by a “Grüezi” – it was Christian from Perleberg. He saw us driving through the city and set out to find us!
He is a professional driver, also travelling with the truck, his wife Rosa from Ecuador and their son. We had a beer together and enjoyed speaking German. Later he brought his family to our campsite.
They also wanted to travel to Iran, but he, as a German, did not get the visa. He was even refused several times. This news caused us increasing concern – especially after I got the visa a few days later and Ziss’s took at least another 2 weeks.
Our research today was as bleak as the weather. We wanted to know where our window was and asked Ingrid from Outbound. At least this time it left the Netherlands, but fell off the truck somewhere in Germany ….ggggrrrrr! She was noticeably embarrassed! It was clear to us that we would not be able to buy a new window this winter. We didn’t want to spend another week in cold Georgia and be in the Middle East in high summer – because we are already rather late as far as comfortable temperatures in that region are concerned.
A new plan for the windows was needed. We consult and think that Kuwait would be an option. Discuss this with Ingrid. The answer came promptly – hard to believe – suddenly it is possible to send the part by plane. Why not just send it by airmail, we ask ourselves?
The next days were grey. We left our Oleg almost only to go shopping and enjoyed our unlimited Wifi with a serial marathon.
As mentioned before, I have already received my Iran visa. We were slowly but surely getting increasingly restless. So we wrote to the Travel Agency Persia via WhatsApp and asked almost every other day if there were any problems.
To bridge the waiting time and the increasing city fever, we spent our last chapter in Georgia from 15 – 20 February at Turtlelake above Tbilisi, very close to the Iranian Embassy.
We made a contingency plan that if Ziss didn’t get a visa, she would fly from Yerevan to Kuwait and rattle down the route on her own. A plan B after all!
To our comfort, the weather became a bit friendlier. The site at Turtlelake offered hiking and sports facilities which we actually used every day. Peter & Elena joined us again after their wild skiing adventure. The cold had broken their water filter and some pipes – the plight of travellers – absolutely everyone has to struggle with something. We spent almost every evening together.
As the saying goes, all’s well that ends well:
Actually, you hate it when you forget to switch your phone to silent. On 19 February, my smartphone beeped me out of bed – with good news. Ziss has now also received her visa!
The Mavericks and we had the same destination the next day, first embassy and then towards Armenia – with them simply with the Russian embassy approaching. We said goodbye for the umpteenth time, although we all knew our paths would cross again.
To keep this short, the embassy was about the same as Asterix and Obelix:
And off we went to Armenia
here is the link to the English edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4StpMBjMmlY
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!