Apr 2008

Route of the day: Gomi - Gori - Mtskheta, 108 km.
Starting from the camp in Gomi was a little delayed when the school children discovered us on their grounds. First they offered a nice bunch of spring flowers to everyone and then they started to line up for photos and signatures in their school notebooks. Being a star for 15 minutes!
Gori would have all the archeological and and historical attractions that many of the other towns in Georgia have, but in Gori everything really is about Iossiph Vissarionovich or Stalin. And locals do nothing to change the image of their son that has changed the course of world history like few personalities have. The Stalin statue is still in place and so is the "museum" where nothing has been changed since 1979, making it a museum of Soviet propaganda rather than a place to learn about the Soviet dictator. I would like to assume that the image of Stalin is not currently an issue between Georgia and Russia.

Continuing from Kharagauli the paved road ended and we experienced how interesting hard days can be. Hard because of temporary rain but mostly because of the "road" that required an MTB rather than what we are using. Interesting because slow travelling opens eyes for details that easily remain unnoticed. Following the railway line towards one of two passes that connect East and West between the Black Sea and the Caspian Basin we saw what rural life in Georgia is really like, talked to people and took tons of photos of the steeper and steeper valley.
The railway line disappears in a tunnel shortly before the pass while the main highway pass nearby is appr. 50 m higher.
Nightstay on the sports field of the school in Gomi.

Climbing towards the Rikoti Pass - conquering every meter

Swanetia, Kachetia, Imeretia - these are some names of the historical provinces of Georgia that has been a kingdom from very early times and adopted Christianity as state religion already in the fourth century. The ancient fortresses and churches are now lining up along our way towards the historical core region of Georgia about half-way between the Black and Caspian Seas.
The cycling today is considerably slowed down by a rather strong headwind with otherwise fine weather.
Nightstay on the river shore near the village of Kharagauli off the main road but near the East-West trunk railway line where passengers and plenty of Caspian Sea oil is carried.
In our attempt to get some restaurant food in the village we were exposed to the unfortunate downside of combined "hospitality" and rural backwardness. They really don`t let you go without a good amount of Vodka...
Campside discretely guarded by police during the night.

A long route, 127 kilometres and the first one with height metres after the flat coastal roads. Georgia is called the "Balcony of Europe" and today we have a good view the snow-covered summits of what is really only the foothills of the High Caucasus.
We are now in a different time zone with two hours ahead of Turkish (and in fact Finnish, but only one after start of daylight saving time) time which should give us longer evenings. But getting started in the morning is still difficult - Earth`s rotation! So I failed to visit the Gelati monastery near Kutaissi which plays an important role in Georgian religious and cultural history.
As a compensation for the missed monastery we got a foretaste of Georgian hospitality, where wine is served not from bottles but from huge canisters!