Stage 77: From Poti to Kutaisi

The drive from Poti to Kutaisi was on calmer country roads with good weather. However, I had to pass through the industrial area of Poti and always make sure not to turn in the wrong direction and end up in Abkhazia. Cows on the road were a common sight and much preferred to all the trucks of the past few days. At a short photo stop on a bridge, a police car drove past me and stopped behind the bridge. I thought, finally the first police check. But as I slowly drove on, the car instead followed me slowly before overtaking me after two kilometers. This game repeated a few times until at Khoni an individual police officer actually approached me in Georgian and then in Russian. I think he offered to give me a ride in his pickup truck, but I declined. Later, I had another encounter with more police officers who turned around just to wave at me again. They probably have to patrol all day long and I must have been the most exciting thing that happened that day.

A bit northwest of Kutaisi, I made a detour to Tskaltubo, which was recommended to me by a British woman in the hostel in Batumi. During Soviet times, it was one of the most important spa towns, so today you can see many abandoned and eerie buildings in the forest. The town is slowly trying to recover and become a spa town again, but it still has a long way to go. After that, I finally went to Kutaisi, slightly hypoglycemic, and to a nice guest house where I was the only guest. Since it was already dark, sightseeing had to wait until the next day.