Dear diary

This post will be updated regularly and will contain ‘snippets’ of Georgia.

day 1 – 30 august 2024 – The border

Well rested we go to the border. We heard drivers and passengers need to go separate across, so we load up on water and snacks and join the mayhem of the border between Turkey and Georgia in Sarp-Batumi.
After two hours of different checkpoints I, Jasper, get to the last and… be denied entry! My car is registered to (my own) company and this is apparently very confusing. Or the border officials had a bad start of the day. But now I need to go back to Turkey while Levi is simultaneously walking the border to Georgia. I crossed my fingers not to get stuck between borders. I think it helped, we meet each other in Turkey again. We return to the campsite we left that morning with a big chocolate cake, to celebrate that we’re back.

day 1 – 2 sept 2024 – Again…

So.. after a weekend of studying Turkish/Georgian law we go again. This time with a stamp of the Chamber of Commerce, certifying the letter written by me myself and I. The letter states I can drive my own company car, and again regards of myself. They still frown a lot and ask a lot questions … but we’re through!

First impressions; people drive … interestingly and we got scammed for car insurance. When Levi pointed out the actual price, the explanation was “well yes but we need some commission and those guys too!” Yeah.. let’ s call it commission.
We spend the night camping in the Botanical Garden of Bitumi. After closing we’re the only ones left. How cool is that?!

day 2 – 3 sept 2024 -Recovery gear

In the middle of a road we find a bridge collapsed. On the other side the driver of a blue van -Ford- looks at the ruins, makes eye contact and starts laughing. There seems to be a bypass, through the river and up a muddy slope. When we want to go across they ask us to wait. Yeah.. so we can be the ones pulling you out the mud I think.. 5 minutes later I connected the winch and start to pull them out…

day 3 – 4 sept 2024 – Help of a friend and some Vodka

During a stop for petrol we noticed the bikes on the back of the car swaying loose. Oh oh, trouble!
Of course the bolt tightening the carrier resides ínside the spare wheel, so everything needs to be taken off and the tools come out. The guys of the petrol station jump in and help carrying the ridiculous heavy spare wheel. In the end we express our gratitude by offering them all a cold beer. In return we get some home made vodka “it’s fine because you don’t need to drive fast here”. hmmm….

Day 4 – 5 sept 2024 There’s a goat in the kitchen

Day 5&6- 6 &7 sept- Wild camping and hiking

We camp and hike in a mountainous area in north Georgia. The woods are lush and the sound of the waterfalls are impressive. As we approach the waterfalls it’s even hard to talk to eachother. This area is a little less known than close by Mestia. However we still meet other tourists. Some Belgian, some Dutch, some Russian, some Israeli ands some Belarus. It’s an interesting area, while politics are difficult, people are just mingling and enjoying nature.

Day 7 – 8 sept 2024 – do you sell chai?

Yesterday during our walk we past some wooden sheds. Usually these sell tea along the trail. We don’t see anyone so we look around. A guy, dressed in camouflage comes out. Do you sell chai (thea) I ask. He starts laughing, ‘ this is the border police station’. Haha ok! We swiftly continue our hike.

This morning we wake up and the border police is approaching us with their horses. We camped far away from them and close to a hostel. Apparently it’s their day to go home and they waiting next to our tent for their colleagues to take over.

Day 8 – 9 sept 2024 – Ushguli

We have continued to Ushguli at 2000m. A mountain village in a dramatic setting of green mountains and the Shkhara glacier in the background. The village is scattered with guesthouses. However, it still seems as time stood still. Cows are milked by hand, food (including cheese) is home made and the houses are from a different era. Defence towers (Svan towers) cover the horizon from a time where blood feuds were daily business.

After the sometimes unbearable heat from the past months we enjoy the fresh mountain air in Georgia a lot. Our favourite season autumn will start soon. We are happy to do some activities again and decide to do another walk. We walk to the Shkhara glacier. It’s an easy walk with amazing views of the glacier and surrounding mountains.

After an intimidating start Georgia is treating us very well🤍❤️

Day 9 – 10 sept 2024 one van down

We are camping along the Rioni river. The water is grey and white and the rapids are strong. A great opportunity to go rafting! From the campsite we drive upstream in an old van, with a trailer for the boat. Suddenly we hear an intense bang, the car starts shaking and for a minute we believe we can crash any moment. Luckily the driver stops safely and the co drivers jump out to inspect the damage. The complete driveshaft has broken off! One of the guys walks up the road to pick it up. Haha

As things go in Georgia a solution is arranged within minutes, unbelievable. We walk 500m to the starting point and a new van is coming to transport the boat. Al along we start our rafting trip trough an impressive gorge. Jasper cannot decide whether the trip with the van or rafting was more exciting 😅

Day 10 – 11 sept – monasteries and Georgian wine

Day 11 & 12 – 12 & 13 sept

If the counting of the days starts to annoy you, so am I. But somehow it seems to be part of a diary. Getting back to the wine of two days ago it gave me quite a hangover. Not a headache, cause it was good wine, but just exhausted. I blame the heat (not the 7 glasses), that was suddenly back again. We left the hot city of Kutaisi in exchange for some nice mountain air in Sveri

Making new friends, sharing stories, cooking together, swimming in an amazing waterfall and climbing 🧡

Day 13 en 14 – 14 & 15 sept – Sunset 🧡 and orange wine

We stayed a bit longer at the Sveri campsite because we met some great people, we needed to stay in one place for a while and we hadn’t seen the sunset yet from this sacred place a bit above the campsite.

It was hard to leave, but we did it anyway. To forget the place and the hard goodbye, we will sample some more wine. Did you know Georgia is the birthplace of wine? 7000 years ago the first wine was ‘produced’ here! And all hipsters eat your heart out, natural orange wine is around every corner.

Day 15 – 16 sept – Highs and lows

What a day! We reached the great Caucasus. Green mountains rolling along the way, alternated by snow peaked mountains. There are no yurts here, but you could definitely imagine them in this landscape.

The military highway goes north from Tbilisi up to Stepantsminda and continues to Russia. We share the highway with many trucks and other drivers, so decide to take a bypass route. This off-road route starts fairly easy along the river. Suddenly there is a road block, they are repairing the road and we need to wait for one hour. Good break to drink some home made ice tea and take a little nap. We are able to continue our trip after a bit more than an hour and the road takes us over a steep pass. We come by a big herd of sheep and the shepherd dogs chased our car. I wonder how they would approach you when hiking?! Hair pin bends broad us further up, closer to Stepantsminda. Then…..the road becomes loose rocks and it is too dangerous to continue. Fuck, we were almost there!

We decide to return to the highway, but first took some drone shots of the surroundings. The drone gets out of ‘reach’ but luckily it returns. However, when it is almost there it crashes on a hill with lot of loose rocks. Jasper climbes up, while I search for the drone with binoculars. Can you imagine this ridiculous situation? With some sliding and slightly wounded both -Jasper and drone- come back down. Back on the highway, we realized we have reached the Great Caucasus and the views become more and more impressive.

After this long day of driving we book a hotel room at a small hotel. When we arrive there is no one. They hadn’t seen the reservation and the rooms are not clean. However, they offer us an alternative. We send to an enormous castle with an imposing lobby, The Sno hotel. A good night of sleep in this (Russian style) castle is awaiting us.

Day 17 – 18 sept – Tbilisi

Finally: we made it to the capital!

But, is it called “tee blee zee”, “debleezee”, “tee flee sees”? We met many people on the way who all pronounce it differently.

The answer: the first one is Dutch (wrong!), the correct one the second. There is a T at the beginning but its almost silent. The 3rd one doesn’t make friends; it was used when the country was occupied by Russia. We will stick to the safe option 🙂

19- 20- 21 sept Tbilisi

The capital is an amazing colorful place. Tbilisi means warm city. I thought tis was due to the welcoming people, but it’s called like that because it’s build on top of sulphur springs. We treated ourselves on the local experience of taking a sulphur bath. It took us some time to adjust to the smell, which reminds of stinky eggs. We take a bath and after half an hour the Kisa (scrubber) come to scrub us to the bone😅. Not exactly like a spa, but still a good clean.

Day 22 ~ 25 – National park Vashlovani

The border area next to Azerbaijan in the far south east corner of Georgia. I didn’t know much about it other than you had to submit a request and also get permit from the border police. Usually when you have to go to trouble to reach somewhere its worthwhile, so lets go!

After getting enough food and water for a few days we got a four day permit and set off to the park. So far I think it’s the most diverse area I’ve seen in whole Georgia. We saw gazelles, turtles, many many birds, a fox, weird walking pheasant like bird with the head of a puffin. So, enough to explore for a few days!

We slept near ranger stations. Must be a lonely job being out here on your own for a long time.

Day 26 ~ 27 – Trouble in paradise.

The night before we met four dutchies on the most remote camping area. It’s straight on the river which is the natural border with Azerbaijan. Initially we thought about heading back to the town but we decided to join the others for a long offroad trip between Vashlovani and the next ‘park’ about 45 km west. We set off throughout the park, had lunch on a wonderful spot and headed into the unknown.

Because of the proximity to the border there are military border checkpoints. These were a little less friendly but let us through with the warning “do not stop or camp in the next 20 km. It’s too close to the border”. Ok mr soldier. End of the day, about 1,5 hr of sun left and the Defender got stuck in the mud. Really stuck. We got our shovels and digged, took rocks from the riverbed to support the wheels and ‘winched’ ourselfs to freedom. Wow.. end good all good?

We had to cover about 10 more kms, now in the dark, to get to a safe area. One hour later – still not there – our car broke down. Completely, due to electric malfunction. So no more opening or locking doors, no light, no engine nothing. We had to settle for the night almost on the border. Best of all; no phone reception, zero. Even with a nice makeshift dinner the tension in the group was very high.

Little later a truck with border patrol arrived, not looking happy. Luckily with an offline translator we could explain the situation and it defused quickly. They even made sure we had enough water to get through the night. It’s funny how first impressions can change so quickly.

Next morning we were awoken by other border police stating our permit for the area was expired and we needed to leave asap. We tried to fix the car but had to give up. After going back and forth with the border police – the only place with telephone reception – we couldn’t get towing help, the weather was too bad so too much mud. All six of us folded in the function car and drove in 2,5hr back to civilization. Dinner never felt so good that night.

Thanks to the super friendly folks of Dedoplistkaro we tried to arrange towing help. Unlucky for us the between the off-road part and the ‘ok’ road to town there was too much mud and other obstacles for a big truck to pass. We made many plans and called in all the helplines we could think of. It was very uncertain how we could get the car back due to the unknown problems, the location and not being able to tow the car due to an electronic handbrake.

End of the day we set out for a recognisance mission to asses the road and the cars problems. Maybe, just maybe, we could also swap out the battery that was completely flat by now, helping us a bit. At the location we did some tinkering and while doing so ‘charged’ the car with jumpercables from the 4×4 of our hired driver. Just to check the problem we started the engine and … it worked again!

I jumped behind the wheel and drove as fast as I could back. Thinking every km could be our ‘last’ but also one km closer to civilisation and closer to a possible resque. The car kept working .. and we kept driving.. so 1,5 hr later (record speed) we are back, safe and sound, with the car.

Day 28 ~ 36 – Georgia and it’s people

The days after our ‘little adventure’ we went back to Tbilisi. Both in the village of Dedopliskaro and in the capital the people we met went out of there way to help us. The Landrover dealer was super friendly but presented us with a waiting time of more than 30 days for new parts. The mechanics jumped in and a few hours later we already had multiple options to get it via via. Sometimes it can be a bit challenging as an outsider but after a while we found out that – with enough patience – in Georgia everything works out in the end.

We loved being in the country Georgia or – Sakhartvelo – as they say themselves. Roughly translated “country of the people”. I think that’s very fitting. A country full of variation from sea to 5000 meter high mountains, from desert to the capital Tbilisi, but in the end it’s all about the people.