The last day of travel in Georgia Batumi

The last day of travel in Georgia was coming up and it was going to be eventful.

The day started with a little mishap. I actually wanted to order breakfast for half past eight, but due to my good English skills, I ordered breakfast for 'half past nine', of course, a mistake. As I realized in the morning, I should have ordered for 'half past eight'. But no big deal, I have time, no one is rushing me.

After breakfast, I started off in good spirits. Google Maps told me that it would take me six hours to travel the nearly 190 km to Batumi. Google is crazy, I thought, especially since my GPS showed me only three hours.

Well, it was a great road, through beautiful landscapes. The road became narrower and worse, and then gravel. No problem for Berta and me.

The gravel became less and turned into compacted clay with many small and large puddles, plus heavy truck traffic. The Chinese seem to be turning the connecting road into an asphalted road.

Chinese? There were many trucks of Chinese make, and the only ones not working at the many construction sites seemed to be Chinese as well.

New tunnels were being built for the mountain water in almost every curve. The soil was churned up, wet, and totally torn up by trucks. Sometimes the mud was more than ankle-deep. That made me sweat a little, even an 8x4 deodorant would have failed 😅

I wasn't paying attention for a moment and chose the wrong lane, I was stuck, couldn't move forward or backward, and at a narrow spot, a concrete mixer was coming from the front with a driver who was quite impatient. Luckily, there were several construction workers present, but they didn't move, they just looked at me with big eyes. Then a Chinese, I assumed, engineer came and helped me get back in the right lane. The mud ride continued for many more kilometers, it wasn't the entire route that was muddy, only where there was construction or a lot of water had collected, otherwise the route was bone dry.

Bone dry and lots of trucks also means lots of dust. The trucks crawling uphill at walking pace, me behind them until there was an opportunity to overtake. The result of a lot of sweat and dust I could admire in the bathroom mirror in the evening. I'm surprised they even let me in, based on how I looked. Pants caked with dry mud up to my shins, lots of mud splatters above that, my face like a chimney sweep, the rest covered in clay dust.

Well, eventually even the longest construction site comes to an end, and it ended at the summit of the Goderzi Pass at an altitude of 2025 meters.

There was also a village here with the original wooden houses and the first mosque I saw in Georgia.

The trail continued, sometimes not so good, sometimes good. After every rain, rock and earth avalanches come down here. It must be a huge effort to keep the road in a drivable condition. Often there are earth graders and bulldozers in the villages that can be quickly put to use if necessary. From the photos, you can get a small impression of what kind of work is being done here. Often only one lane was cleared. There are no barriers or steel nets like you often see in the Alps.

Another construction site delayed the journey. At a dizzying height, a crawler excavator was chiseling, shaping the mountain. That operator is quite brave, I thought to myself. When enough cars had accumulated, the track attendant sent a radio message to the excavator, and it stopped working so we could pass.

The road improved again and before long there was asphalt under my tires once more. It was about 120 km of gravel and mud road.

A short break, about 20 km before Batumi, where two mountain rivers met. One muddy brown, the other deep turquoise, it was a beautiful sight.

Then the chaotic suburban and city traffic started again. I reached my hotel after about 8 hours of travel. Google was not completely wrong.

I have moved into a small apartment on the 18th floor until Monday.

Batumi has something. I haven't been able to find a proper city center yet. Most of the life takes place on the beach promenade, where people stroll until late at night and party in clubs and hotels.

There are many shops in all streets, many people. Old buildings of Soviet style, where you sometimes wonder 'why is the house still standing?' German structural engineers would walk through the streets with a helmeted head and shaking their heads at this.

But a lot is also being built new, not a single street without a construction site. The tastes of architecture and illumination may differ, but it is still impressive.

What pleased me very much is that there are many opportunities for children and young people, as well as adults. Soccer fields, volleyball courts, table tennis tables, and even billiards tables are very common between the residential blocks, and they are used by many people. And it is well maintained, nothing broken or destroyed. In front of the shops, I saw men sitting together and playing backgammon. These are things that I miss so much in our country. Just sitting together for a game, whether it's boules, chess, or backgammon like here.

Tonight, I grabbed one of those electric scooters. Downloaded the app, set the payment method, and off I went. The ideal means of transportation to explore a city and cover larger distances without having to dive into the chaotic city traffic. My scooter ran exactly 21 km/h. However, there were several that overtook me at breakneck speeds. I think some of them easily reached 50 km/h.

Tomorrow I will continue with sightseeing and preparing my equipment.

Small addition, on the tour I also encountered an Englishman with his son, they wanted to go further into the 'Stans', and another British couple on a BMW GS, I don't know how they managed it. The passengers probably had to get off in the difficult sections. And then there was the Russian with his Honda 750 and off-road tires, I think he was a real tough one, he must have flown through there.