Leaving Georgia was easier than getting in… Georgia border-control – only about an hour, Azerbaijan – about 2 hours. Group photo on the Georgian side of the border, where some wit ordered a large road sign erected, proclaiming “Azerbaijan Border. Good luck.” And then into Azerbaijan – where my “Giant Flag count” rose to two within the first two towns (said it before, I’ll say it again – I love giant flags… they’re just so ridiculous); the initial impression was that the roads were much better quality, and then after about 10 miles – realised that no… roads were even worse… constant pot-hole dodging (in addition to the cow-dodging, and dog-dodging, etc). And, when we got to our hotel in Sheki… I find my room is literally double the size of my apartment in London.
No riding – just wandering around Tbilisi. Cool city… a mixture of very old stuff (medieval castle walls, etc), modern “weird-for-weird’s-sake” architecture, old churches, giant statues (the “Mother of Georgia” up on the hill, for example), a river, flea market, good beers, good wines, botanical gardens, a zoo, etc.
So, I wandered around most of that, and took a single photo.. of a middling-to-fair waterfall. Then drank some beer, drank some wine, started to pack for tomorrow’s border-day.
A relatively short day, riding across Georgia to reach Tbilisi – where we have a “day off” tomorrow. There was one little side-trip, to the town of Gori – which has an inordinate amount of pride in being the birthplace of Stalin. A very large “Stalin Museum”, and his childhood house has had what is pretty much a shrine built around it. I didn’t notice, but others commented on there being fresh flowers laid at the feet of one of his statues also… so it’s an ongoing point of pride. Odd. Also rode through the oldest town in Georgia – Mtskheta – another UNESCO listed site – but I was looking for a single touristy point to stop, which I couldn’t find – and found myself back on the motorway… whereas I know realise the entire existing town is the “attraction”. Oh well – I guess it means I got to the hotel a little earlier, and can go drink some beers in the sun.
Not really any photos taken today, other than a couple of average ones from Stalin Museum. But with the day off tomorrow, I should get a chance to wander around Tbilisi, do some final shopping before entering the “‘Stans”, and probably a facebook post with a selection of full-quality photos from Turkey.
Exiting Turkey – relatively quick, easy. Entering Georgia – NOT quick, at all, nor particularly easy. Turkey – stand in a single-file line for the one passport control officer, licence plate numbers checked by somebody else to another office, while locals skip the line… then a quick “customs” check-in of the bike docs.. 30 minutes total, maybe, for the entire goup… then on to the Georgia border. Georgia – I think we stood around for about an hour – with nobody else in the area at all – before anything even looked like happening. For an hour, there were 6 customs/border-control people milling around at the far-end, doing absolutely nothing. Eventually, things started moving… at an average of 1 bike/rider per 15 minutes for passport control, then the customs guys insisting on looking at every piece of medication/drug you might have. They eventually picked up the pace once they realised how long this was likely to take (after ~15 bikes).. and started rushing things. I helped things along by understating the drugs I had packed away.. only admitting to the ones I had handily available in the backpack. One chap – not so smart – showed them his painkillers with Codeine in it… he didn’t emerge from the customs shed for several hours. In total – I think the last guy entered Georgia after 5 hours.
Anyway – eventually we all got through, into some lovely roads alongside a river, through a valley, dodging potholes, getting a little airborne when the blind summit turned out to have a considerable drop on the other side, and got to our hotel in the very picturesque setting of Vardzia.
Last view of Turkey, from ~ 2,550 metresThe start of a 5 hour wait
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