Tbilissi - Sadahko

Tbilissi - Sadahko 70km

Leila and I (Moritz) left Tbilisi on the morning of the 6th of april. Before our departure I talked to a man from China (I have forgotten his name) who is walking to Turkey! I wish him all of luck and a good time. Kim was a little ill and we decided that we would meet him the next day in Sadakhlo near the Armenian boarder. It was really easy to leave Tiblisi, we just had to follow the river ... (and Leila is an expert in navigation as well). We cycled some kilometers on the highway again, jolly good! On the way we ate ice cream near an old sowjet air base with an old Mig fighter jet as monument.
We decided to camp that night and found a nice spot on a hill just near the road but well hidden. The farmer who owned this land was nearby plowing his field with a spade by hand (!) and we asked him if we could camp on the hill. He was very hospitable and we had a good chat. Later that day I also took some selfies with his employee.
When we climbed the small hill we saw a turtle. We thought that it had escaped somewhere. I decided to go for a walk and then saw three more turtles, two of them were even mating! :) I also encountered three snakes, a green one and two black ones. They were about 30  cm long and poisonus as the farmer explained to me later. Therefore I wached my step carefully!
As the sun dropped the farmers were collecting their cattle, some of them on horses. What a day, we were really exhausted and after some pasta we soon went to bed.

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 

Odessa - Batumi

Day 29/30/31

Odessa - Burlatschka Balka 20 km
Burlatschka Balka - Batumi by boat
Kim is cycling again! The three of us cycled nearly 20 kilometers together from Odessa to Ilyichevsk where miss Tatiana was waiting to hand us the boat tickets to Batumi. One hour and some passport checks later we boarded motorvessel "Vilnius". Back in 1991 Motorvessel Vilnius was the biggest ferry in the world and it therefore even got a diplome by the guiness world records book! We have a cabin for three persons and three meals are included every day per person. Today we ate Schnitzel and Leila and Kim claimed that they have never eaten as well for so many days in a row in this journey. The rest of the day we just hang around reading and watching films, even some films in russian language. Weather is very foggy and we hope not to encounter any icebergs. Update: weather is not foggy anymore and the sun is shining. I feel like on the ferry to Elba in the mediteranian see. So promissing!
The ship departed at 9 o'clock p.m. Ukrainian time. Most of the passengers are truck drivers who go to Tbilissi and/ or Yerevan . They are very kind and also interested in us since we are the only "western" passengers. Of course we took advantage and asked for the best route from Batumi to Yerevan. There was a whole council of guys who showed us the different roads and possibilities. Some of them even offered to take us with them in their trucks. It seems like they would really enjoy some people in their trucks to talk to!Problem occured that there is still snow in Georga in the mountains. For this reason we had to adapt our route a bit. The truck drivers laughed when Kim asked them if there are snow plows in Georga and told us that nature is plowing in this part of the world. Let's hope the weather will not be too bad...
Approaching the eastern coast of the black sea was spectacular. Weather was good and we saw impressive mountains, some of them more than 5000 m high and just next to the sea. We finally arrived in Batumi on midnight of the second of April. Boarder control was very friendly and welcomed us warmely. Batumi has many (neon) - lights and looked as I imagine Las Vegas. It also got many casinos to gamble. We weren't expecting that! However, we soon found a nice hotel to stay!