Georgia was added to program of our trip when we decided to visit Armenia. It was on the road, so why not!
Vegetation luxuriante | Lush vegetation
The change between Turkey and Georgia was radical. We left rain, Islam, Ramadan and a coast without charm to the sun, Christian, casinos, and verdant landscapes. We appreciate this new scenery. Abundant vegetation borders roads and covers mountains. Its diversity makes it original , there are trees such as pines, bamboo, eucalyptus, acacias… The asphalt of the road are a bite destroyed. But there are mostly a lot of crazy drivers! For the first time, we felt us in danger. The second day, a truck almost run over Fanchon between it and a guard-rail, then later a very fast car overtaken her pulverized its wing mirror with the opposite of it. We didn’t count the numerous times when someone cut us up!
Beaucoup d’Animaux sur la route | Lot of animals on the road
There is also many animals on the roads: cows, pigs, chickens, goats … In Georgia arable lands are cultivated, so animals have only the sides of the roads and mountains!
We did numerous meetings. The first were Nona, her husband and some neighbors. Nona was incredibly generous. We stayed with them just for the coffee but it was very rich. We spoke with different languages, a bite of Georgian, English, French and Russian. Here, the first thing that people ask us it’s if you speak Russian. The few drinks of Cognac that she offered help us also to communicate. We left them with more things inside our bags: hazelnuts, jam of cherries, perfume and an illustration of Christian icons for the fortune.
We continued our way, joyful by this meeting but we didn’t know yet that the same day we will meet Nunu. Gabriel was looking for a place to put the tent but after few meters he was in the middle of several houses. Among them Nunu’s house and her family. Nunu welcomed us like kings. We should slept in her garden but quickly she prepared a room for us and a nice family dinner. The meal lasted late in the night. They sang numerous traditional songs, we laughed a lot and we had also drink a bit. Later we met Maro, his daughter and his parents. We ate together a meal and we drank few glasses of red wine.
During our stay in Georgia, Gabriel tried one more time to change our plans and find the best way with the map, but it was failed! Gabriel loves choosing the little roads to win few kilometers or avoid to go up or just because it’s funnier when it can do complicated whereas it’s could be simple! This time it was success. We were during 40km on a path completely destroyed, we rode at 5km/h. It was laborious. Fanchon hates when Gabriel do that! But the worst is when we left this problem he did it again with an other path. He also has asked to Fanchon that she says “no” when he decided to test another way.
Tbilissi
We spent two days in Tbilisi, the capital. It a bite small but with lot of charms. We surveyed its street buildings of style (Art Nouveau, oriental, occidental…). We also took the time to savour some specialities like khinkalis, a kind of big ravioli often filled with meat. Delicious! We saw also few galleries of jewellery designers. All of them used enamel, particularly cloisonné enamel it is a speciality here.
Nodari
We left Tbilisi and continued our trip. After have ridden a half day, we decided to buy some food but problem. Gabriel had not any more his credit card! Forgotten, lost, stolen? We looked for inside all our bags, but nothing. A man was looking us since the beginning. He wanted to talk with us but it was not really the moment. He offered us a Coca Cola then he called someone. He was calling his best friend ….. who speaks french. He was there 20 minutes later. Both men were very nice and help us to call the hostel where we were. They did the maximum to arrange the situation but we haven’t found the credit card. After all that we shared a big trail of khinkalis and talked together.
Georgia was one more time a great surprise of our journey. We regaled our eyes and our test buds. Georgian people were very welcoming and kind but they drink a lot! We left Georgia June 30th to Armenia.