Batumi - Samtredia

Day 32: Batumi - Ozurgeti 46 km

Day 33: Ozurgeti - Samtredia 68 km 

After a nice breakfast under the palm trees in Batumi, we got back on the road. We made a quick stop to reinflate our tires and were offered some very strong schnapps. We are lucky to have a good excuse (you know: sports, we can't drink so early (it was 10 am)) so instead we were given a 5dl bottle to enjoy it in the evening ;) On the coastal road, we met a georgian cyclist, Giorgi, member of the National team !! He wanted to cycle a few kilometers with us but seemed to think that we were very slow so he went ahead when we stopped for lunch. But this was not the end of our pleasant encounters. We have never received such a wonderful welcome in a country before. We can't stop for more than 2 minutes without people coming to offer us water, hazelnuts, schnapps, cider or just to chat or offer their help. A driver passing by even stopped just to tell us how cool that was and that he loved cycling as well. The weather was extremely nice, we could ride in t-shirts and shorts. Worried that Kim 's pain would come up again, we stopped after 45 km and camped along the road. We had Fondue in the evening on our emergency stove, it was just perfect ;). The night was warm as well but it rained a lot. 

Luckily in the morning the rain had stopped and our tent almost dried up. We had khatchapouri for breakfast in ozurgeti and then guess what? Khachapouri again for lunch in Chokautauri !! Its a typical georgian dish which looks like some kind of cheese pizza. It's good but once a day would actually be enough.  The problem is that the menu is totally unreadable for us (only in georgian) and if people dont speak russian its very difficult to order anything, so khatchapouri is the only thing we are sure they have and they understand. The road was Very nice but it was also quite rainy... So we decided to stay in a hotel (or the hotel) in Samtredia. We made friends with a small kid that was playing around and wanted to try our bicycles. His father took some pictures and later when we got out for dinner someone came out of a small store with our pictures printed !! So the whole town probably already knows us. They spoke russian in the restaurant we went to so we explained them that we were happy with anything except khatchapouri as twice a day is already enough. We ended up with amazing oriental food. 

Snow is not far

Looking for a camping spot

xotchapouri 

Breakfast in Batumi 

They gave us some very strong schnapps 

Rain rain rain