Georgian welcomes you with a pretty exhausting climb up to the mountain pass at 2400m. Fortunately there are many possibilities to have a break and take a photo.
If you’re not fast enough (like me) it’s getting dark when you arrive on the top and you’ll have to stay the night up there and it’s really cold at night in the mountain. If I’d do it again, I’d have a coffee less in Vladikavkaz.
At 2400m I played a song. It is really cold up there and I could hardly feel my fingers after this little video session. Some people call this the geographical border between Europe and Asia.
The way down to Tbilisi was way easier and suddenly I was not the only Tourist anymore.
It’s not impossible to learn Georgian letters but for the beginning it was enough to remember how the first and the last letter of my destination Tbilisi destination look like.
Arriving in Tbilisi was a felt very good after the pretty exhausting climb in the North Caucasus and after cycling the first 4000 kilometers I was ready for a break. Tbilisi is a most adequate place for a break, I ate a lot, slept in the park and bought myself a gas mask on the local soviet flea market and a Stalin Portrait of course!
I also had the chance to play a concert for the lovely people at SofarSounds Tbilisi and they made a lovely video of it which youcan find >>>here.
After Tbilisi I had some company, a guy from Australia called Tom Kaye. He writes cool songs but never plays them unless you specifically ask him to, so I made a record with his songs a few years back which you can get >>> here.
Anyways, he’s not on the picture because we lost each other on the first day in the rain. Fortunatelly the traffic police is driving back and forth on these roads, so you can just stop them and ask if they’ve seen another idiot on a bike and if he’s before or after you.
There’s some beautiful spots in Georgia, but the cars are driving like crazy. We witnessed a car smashing into a street light next to us, luckily all three guys were alright (but I didn’t dare to take a photo)