July 29 - The climb

The day started beautifully, it was perfect biking weather, as we cleaned up our site. The road was in excellent condition - I had to keep reminding myself that this was Georgia and not Austria. We reached a small village, where I had a perfect omlette with some fresh salad. During breakfast, another biker, Jeremy from Belgium, joined us, he flew to Yerevan and was heading all the way back to his country...not bad! So this was the second biker I had met - and the count would continually increase during the trip.

A perfect Alpine morning

Yes, this part of the world seems to be a magnet for adventurers, later on, I had met a group of Russian and Belorussian bikers, more Polish ones, then a group going all the way to the Mongolian Rally, one crazy guy even on his Vespa. One more crazy guy, Enio from Belgium, soon joined our little group, so we were now three riders heading uphill.

Excellent breakfast

Yes, I was in Georgia, the road finished right after the small village and we understood (from Jeremy) it was to be for the next 50 km or so. To cut a long story short, it was a grueling climb - which is then rewarded by rolling downhill after the top. Not this time, but let's stay at the top first

Perfect weahter for the big climb

The pass, called Goderdzi, was at 2026 meters, where we met more adventurers (a Polish group of motorbikers, some Lithuanians traveling by a minibus) and had some tasty cheese pasta (or something similar). We exchanged stories with the other travelers, then started the roll downhill.

Enio on his bike

Close to the pass

Catch this: Guy from Florida en route from UK to Mongolia on his Vespa

At the pass

Well, it turned out to be more of a push downhill. With two huge bike packs hanging on the back of the bike, each stone, each pebble becomes your worst enemy, so you are forced to use your brakes almost the entire time. It was close to impossible in finding a smooth path, the road was often covered with mud, water, sandy patches - you get the point. It was only marginally faster than the road uphill. Again, we spent some time finding a good spot to camp - it was completely dark by the time we put up the tents.

Rolling downhill