After the two days of riding the Turkish “highway one” I had enough of straight plain roads. I wanted mountain passes, sweet curves, snow-topped mountains, and I also somehow avoid the rain and thunderstorms (which had covered a great part of Gerogia). A puzzle that I spent hours on solving with a lot of help from a Georgian moto enthusiast Niko. But the route we came up with was totally worth the effort!
The type of road that is so good that you don’t want to stop at all, and so beautiful that you want to stop every 500m to take yet another photo! 🥰😍
Orebli – Tbilisi
Starting the day early to have enough time to fully enjoy this collection of awesomeness:
🏞 canyon roads, my favorite kind
🏍 fantastic curves with perfect asphalt and incredible views
🪨 a bit of offroading to find the best view over the cave town Uplistsikhe
🐄 cows slalom, seriously I had never seen that many cows on the roads before
Arrived to Tbilisi way after dark, totally exhausted but absolutely happy! One hell of a day!
Tbilisi
Last proper break of the trip aka how I spent one week in Tbilisi:
– body maintenance procedures (sleep, eat, massage & sulphur baths)
– catching up with friends (by some amazing coincidence three of my friends happened to be in Tbilisi at the same time!)
– work (or at least get the most urgent tasks done)
– motorcycle insurance for Russia (not as easy as it sounds, as most insurance companies in Russia don’t like motorcycles and just plainly refuse to give an insurance…)
– some riding to explore the neighbourhoods
– last but not least, waiting for better weather to ride through the mountains on my way to Russia.
Oh 💩
The rain and landslides destroyed about 80m of the road that connects Georgia to Russia, and the only border crossing got closed until further notice.
The nearby villages and even the border staff got evacuated. No joke. Estimated time needed to repair the road and resume the traffic was announced to be 7-10 days.
I needed a new plan.
The only other way to get to Russia would be by crossing Azerbaijan, adding just about 10 extra hours to the trip. Not too bad. But there was one problem. Azerbaijan land borders are still closed because of covid19. But I’ve heard one can get a special permission from the embassy to transit the country.
So first thing in the morning I went to the Azerbaijan embassy, where I met at least 30 other people with the same idea in mind. And all got rejected. No special permits issued. Done.
I went back home, prepared breakfast. Trying not to get frustrated because of the cancelled plans. Looks like I’m not going to Russia for at least a week, or probably more.
Let’s find something fun to do in the meantime. Let’s explore Armenia! So I started planning.
Around 1pm I get a message that there’s some movement at the border, and some cars were let across.
Wait. Can this be real? Can the border be open? For how long? What if it will still be open in 3-4 hours?…. Should I try? Of course I should! Worst case I turn around and come back to Tbilisi.
It took me 30 min to pack and get ready.
I was so excited, that I didn’t even have any breaks along the way. As I was riding I kept looking for cars with Russian number plates, every time I saw one, I got super happy. It meant that the border was open.
Such a beautiful road, gorgeous mountains, breathtaking views. But no time to stop and enjoy, take a quick photo and go go go. Go cross that border!
At the border crossing I met another rider, Denis.
Customs: Do you have any forbidden items?
Denis: Is khachapuri forbidden?
Customs: No.
Denis (looking at me): Are you hungry? I do have khachapuri.
Me: I’m starving.
We rode a couple of km away from the border and stopped for a picnic in the middle of a valley surrounded by amazing mountains. The sun was starting to set. The bikes were covered with dirt from the road. The khachapuri was still warm. The conversation was flowing. None of it seemed real. But there it was, the ultimate peace and happiness.
