Travel Tips

The long journey has taken us into Georgia. Although we don't feel it, the tension is in the air as portions of the country are under dispute and international concern. We reach Akhaltsikhe, secure our rooms at the selected hotel and go take a look around while some local servicemen exercise through the main street. It's also time for us to have a decent meal at a nearby restaurant, where I ask to use the phone and contact the race organizers. Some teams are way behind and can't make it into Georgia as the border closes by 8 PM.

The organizers advise that today's stage is meant to be impossible for 2-wheel-drive vehicles due to the demanding road conditions. We plan for an alternate option and try our way towards Tbilisi with a chance to explore some of the many ancient monasteries and churches dotting this area. A briefing with supportive guys in camo uniform helps us to locate and select a few spots. Despite we are in possess of a decent map, some of the marked roads do not meet our expectations and it's adventure time again. We take some wrong tracks here and there. At times we need to turn back as the rocky unpaved roads worsen to a donkey-only accessibility limit.
If and when we find humans around, we stop and ask for directions although we mostly rely on our navigation skills. Among several other sites such as Khertvisi, Stone Gate and a good number of churches, where we hike and climb even through private orchards, our reward iincludes the chance to visit the suggestive rock-cut complex of Vardzia. Excerpt from UNESCO description:
"Vernacular architecture, monk cells, subsidiary and public structures. Rock-cut monuments preserved in Vardzia-Khertvisi gorge comprise quite vast chronological limits - from the 8th-9th cc. up to 15th-16th cc. - to trace development of the type from simple caves up to grand, multi-tiered complexes. This gorge has preserved rock-cut villages with the unique samples of dwellings, minor and great monastic complexes, with the masterpieces of the medieval mural painting, as well as epigraphical monuments containing important historical records".
We aim to Tbilisi across an unpaved road in rural central Georgia and here is where our lights go off to require an electrical fix to proceed in the darkness. This track is bad enough to allow a faster pace than 15-25 Km/h (10-15 mph). A cluster of homes reveal human presence where we learn we have some 150 Km (90 mi) to go on this road. At low speed, the Moskvich exhaust fumes wrap and inoxicate us so we decide to tread the same way back to Akhaltsikhe to opt for a different route by tomorrow.

Our decision proves good and this time we hit the major road towards the capital city. Plenty of suicidal drivers on this busy road as we reach Gori, a place we all heard of daily through TV news during the last month. Next to recently destroyed barracks we pass a steel-frame freshly rebuilt bridge and enter Stalin's birthplace city. A huge statue of him stands atop a tall column above several Italian Red Cross trucks parked in the main square.

- to be continued -