Over the Gombori Pass 1600m

Leaving Tblisi on Saturday morning was an event. Joint by local racers and their excellencies the Lithuanian and Polish ambassadors on bicycles there were about 50 of us being escorted by Police over the urban and suburban highways out of the city.
The direction is now northwards into the Khaleti region which is famous for its vinyards and monasteries, a combination known from the river valleys of western Europe. To get into the Alazani river plain, the Gombori mountains need to be crossed and on Sunday we made it over the highest pass of the entire journey so far: 1600m, at chilly 6 degrees of temperature. The previous night one of our bicycles fell victim to theft, but was brought back by police after a short time, even though damaged.

Elevation profile Tblisi - Telavi

In Telavi I had the pleasure to meet Beso Kirvalidse who, just stopping his car and wondering about us foreign looking guys turned out to have spent many years working in Tampere and during our conversation thanked God many times to meet someone who could speak Finnish! Besides Jumala he also remembered Perkele, Nokia (the town, not the company) and a couple of other very Finnish things.

Likely this is the last update before Baku (April 13). If you want to be notified about updates, please subscribe to this blog (see right).