Gamarcoba means "Hello" in Georgian. Better late than never, I decided to write my first RR. This going to be about our trip to Georgia and Caucasus Mountains in August 2011, including a short visit to Yerevan, Armenia.
The bike was looking like this, a bit heavy just before we depart. Because we had to carry some stuff which are quite unusual for a motorbike trip like these: My personal motivation for this trip My wifes bulky laptop, which she had to carry along to keep up for her job..
We are living in Kayseri, Turkiye, rigth in the middle of Anadolu. We started to ride towards north, into the green. First two days we rode with our friends who are on a 1200 GS. We have reached a Black Sea city, Ordu to stay overnight with only one aim. This guy!
Mr.Osman Gursoy is a true living legend. He has bought a Vespa in 1979, did more than 180 k kms with it. Whole Europe except Albania and Finland, a full coastal trip in US. He rode the 4k kms way between London and Ordu 19 times.:huh I thought I should share this.
Next day we back on the road. Our friends had to turn back to Kayseri and we continued to our next stop Findikli, Rize which is very close to Georgian border.
We reach Findikli early that afternoon and decide to go for some fishing. My friends uncle has made his boat from a chestnut tree and we sail off with it to a beautiful afternoon on Black Sea. Sea was very calm, perfect for swimming as well. As the sun goes down we have catch pretty good fish. Sea is always generous. This would be enough for four hungry guys. We enjoy the sunset before the dinner. to be continued for sure...
Thanks for all the replies and interest. Let's go on... We left hope and rode towards the Sarp border gate on a beautiful day. Me met some other bikers too. Border crossing was like a knife on the butter. Nowadays it is even possible for Turkish citizens to enter Georgia only with an id, without having a passport tho. But I think if you want to stay more than 3 days you should have your passport. Here we are in Georgian side... Georgian border building is kinda fancy eh? Here we are in Batum. I can't believe we have snapped this stupid picture. No offense you posers!
Here the beaches starts and I think I'll go back there to enjoy Georgian Black Sea again. Somehow Turkish side there is not much beaches and seems like here is quite fun. Entering Batum. Black Sea... Actually we could have camped here but we decided to continue till Mestia. Nice beach to camp actually.
While we were trying find out, what was this thing... an Italian cuople showed up on a Yamaha XT660X. They said they have left Mestia early in the morning and hardly manage to Batum in the afternoon. Road to Mestia was very bad and they have eaten 100 kms in 3,5 hrs. :huh We thought we can give it a try. We rode in Batum to change some money as it is always better than changing money at the borders. There is still loads of soviet type blocks.. But new buildings are also showing up.
We leave Batum and continue north via Poti and Zugdidi. Sometimes it made me feel like I am somewhere in Africa somehow. Similar trees, sellers of dried fish, burnt gasoline smoke through the port... Very difficult to explain.
Our route is roughly like this; And we continue to Poti. It is quite green all around and they even have a "Botanical Garden" in Batum. Now we have passed Poti and on the way to Zugdidi. I always like to deal with roadside sellers somehow and here we are having some delicious corn.
Lots of cows were everywhere and they were all cute We still have 112 kms to Mestia ona very bad road... The very first Swan Tower that we saw live... We are cruising through very nice and thick forests.. Then after reaching the highest point, we started to descent and saw this beautiful dam, instantly. Such a cool place, would have been very nice to stay there one night.
Soon after this beautiful dam, bad roads has started. Altough we all like bad roads on a sick way , with the help of road construction, lots of rain and big trucks, road was really.... ehmmmm... time consuming. Then it became dark as well. "Ouch!" "Argh!!!" "WTF!!!" but we are reaching Mestia, the HQ of the bandits after lots of mud pools and etc. Not long ago Mestia was the capital of outlaws in Georgia. If I am not mistaken all has cleaned with huge governmental operation in 2001. And, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank to my wife once again here of being such a great pillion, handling my torture called "road tripping". We made to Mestia but still have long to go!