TURKEY into GEORGIA
We are finally in Georgia
16th July - 18th July | 2023
The next morning, at breakfast, we first got talking to a lovely German couple that travels /travelled Greece, Turkey, Georgia and the Balkans by bicycle. I am always impressed by people travelling with a push bike!! Whilst we were talking an American guy, Joe, joined us as he heard us talking in English. He travels by public transport, and he started in South Africa. It was really interesting to hear his travel stories from Canada, Alaska and South Africa. What an adventure it must be travelling by public transport!!
Later in the morning, we went into town to find a place where I could print the necessary documents for shipment and carnet. We were extremely lucky to find a small copy shop; the owner was super helpful!! Once everything was printed (for the moment), we decided it was time for a cafe as we saw a view cafés around yesterday. We were really looking forward to a nice Cappuccino. Unfortunately, it tasted really yucky as they seem to have the machine connected to the tap water. The waiter made us another one, but yuck tap water is yuck tap water! So no café:-(
In the late afternoon, we left the hotel as I needed copies to attach to the documents, we wanted to go to the copy shop and then find another place for dinner. At the reception was the owner of a Swiss-registered BMW GS1150. We asked him if he fancy going to dinner with us, and he said yes. So we agreed to meet in the reception 30mins later. We went for a cheap Döner menu just across the road. Andy has been already a bit around with his BMW, so it was nice listening to his stories. He is also on his way to Georgia, where he will meet up with his girlfriend to travel Georgia together. As we all wanted to have an early start tomorrow morning, we soon said Goodbye. Maybe our paths will cross again in Georgia, as such a small country compared to Turkey.
The next morning, after breakfast we left the direction to the border of Georgia, but we found a lovely road (dirt track) taking us around Gölü Çıldır. It was again such a stunning landscape all around us. The lake was at 1900m altitude, so the mountains around us were all over 2000m. It was just stunning! Towards the border, we even climbed over 2600m altitude with our bikes - just like that. This seems to be all so normal here in the East of Turkey. Amazing! However, with the altitude came also the change in temperatures; it suddenly went down to 11ºC! Looks like all the warm layers will get back to the surface of the luggage ;-)
Around lunchtime, we reached the border to Georgia. Same time as us, an Irish registered car with 3 lads arrived. They are doing this year's charity run, which replaces the Mongol Rally this year. Check out their team “Beards & Blaggards'' (IG:beardsblaggardsmongolrally23).
As they were right in front of us, we always could ask them which documents they needed to present. On the Turkish side, it was 3x (!) showing bike documents and passports. Not sure why so often it needed to be shown, but it all went pretty fast and smoothly. On the Georgian side, the Irish boys had a problem with their number plate. Unfortunately, the number 1 on the registration plate could also be the letter “I”, so that confused the customs very much. However, that gave us even more time for chatting as they also are bikers. Once they were gone to get the obliged insurance, it was our turn. It all went pretty fast and smoothly again; border control wanted me only one pannier to open and that was it. We are in Georgia!
At the insurance office, we met the “Beards & Blaggards” boys once more and as we left the border post we could take a picture.
James and I stopped in the first bigger town, Akhaltsikhe, as I needed a SIM card for data and we needed to orientate where we will wild camp tonight. We found a lovely bakery that also serves hot food. It was a very busy place, so a good sign for the quality of the food. Indeed the food was very good and had huge portions. We found a wild camping spot about 15km out of town along a river.
It was a really nice wild camping spot. Once the tent was up, we enjoyed the last sunshine of the day. We have to adapt to an hour extra now. As soon as the sun was gone, it got cold, so we went into our tent. Shortly after, a jeep came along. James was wondering where it will go as he walked down the paths and it ends in deep muddy bog holes. It didn't take long, we heard shouting and spinning tyres - they must have hit the bog hole! Until we went to sleep we could hear them occasionally down there, but at some point, we fell asleep.
The next morning, they were still there. They must also have camped there and got their jeep out as after a while they came driving along the track back to the street. We also left there, once all packed up and we had our breakfast. This morning it took us over 2 hours as our tent was sopping wet from the night dew.
Today we wanted to get to Tbilisi as James wants to get the issue on the front fork getting resolved as it is still leaking, less though, but still wee oil is coming out. However, there seems to be an offroad track of the TET towards Gori, so we headed towards that point. It started pretty early to get bumpy, like being in a river bed. And that is on our GPS a white road. The dotted line will only start later! If that starts already that challenging, how will it be further on, up to 2000m? I asked James to get up to the point the dotted line starts, to see how it carries on. It didn't take him long to come back as shortly after came to deep bog holes and it was difficult for him to evaluate how deep they were. So we decided to go to Gori by the backroads. It was so nice riding through these villages. Everybody seems to grow wild wine in front of their houses, which looks really beautiful. The only disturbance is the gas pipes that run above the surface all along the villages.
When we stopped for a cafe I booked a small hotel in Tbilisi. The remaining national road into the capital was nice but full of traffic. Entering town was a total madhouse. I cannot say it is worse than Istanbul, but it was crazy as everybody crosses right, left, and centre in their jeeps. Well, no wonder that most of the cars are without a front or back bumpers anymore!! When we arrived at the hotel it was also very hot again, 36ºC! Switching on the A/C and getting out of the gear was so nice!
Are you also curious to visit Tbilisi? And finding out the reason for the front fork oil leak on James Yamaha SuperTenere? If so, stay tuned for the next blog (hopefully next week) and in the meantime try the Georgian Khinkali (dumpling).
Places | Cities:
TURKEY:
Kars
GEORGIA:
Akhaltsikhe
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 13795 km
Information Border Crossings (in July 2023):
Driving licence, passport, bike documents - pretty smooth.
OBLIGED to take out 3rd party vehicle insurance at the border for your stay.
Maintenance | Breakdown:
YAMAHA SuperTenere leaking front fork, not as bad anymore though.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
The guy in the copy shop in Kars, Turkeyz as he even invited us "strangers" for dinner.