Distance: 117
Elevation: 1.407m
Chaschuri: https://maps.app.goo.gl/KhNszPGD5aFko4Ux9?g_st=ic
During my „rest day“ I had been quite busy e.g. with travel logistics. Firstly, I cancelled my return flight and did not book a new one yet because there were still too many unknowns.
It was a strange feeling. For the first time ever, I did not have a booked return flight.
There were two reasons for this.
First, my route home needed to change. I need to fly back to Istanbul first to pick up Rosinante III. In the meantime I will leave Rosinante IV in Aqtau, Kasachstan, the destination of this year’s tour.
Second, I am crossing the Caspian Sea by cargo ship. This ship has no fixed schedule. It could leave the port any time within a three-day window. I will only know the departure time once I am there. That means I have to book my flights spontaneously, the moment I know when the ship is leaving.
A couple of things are settled, though. I booked a flight from Tbilisi to Baku, Azerbaijan, for next week Thursday. I would have liked to cycle in or take the new night train instead. But even a friendly letter to the presidential office of Azerbaijan had not yielded a positive outcome.
This new night train between Tbilisi and Baku only started running again in May 2026, after a six-year break. Azerbaijan closed its land borders in 2020, during Covid. The border has stayed closed ever since, long after the rest of the world moved on. Right now the new train is only open to Azerbaijani citizens and to travelers from a short list of visa-free countries. As a German, I still need a visa, so the train is not an option for me yet.
So I am flying in instead. This also gives me a good reason to rent a car for a couple of days in Tiblisi and spend a bit more time in Georgia and Armenia before heading on to Baku.
Meanwhile, Jake is making his way toward me. We had met back in Göreme, Turkey. He has reached Iraq meanwhile. His plan is to cross into Turkey and later Georgia by bus and by hitchhiking. He wants to join me on the road-trip, which would be a pleasure. Right now he is stuck though. He is waiting at a military post at a closed border crossing between Iraq and Turkey. It will only open on Monday. He sent me this picture. I can’t wait to hear the story behind it.
There is more news. Kathy, a good friend in Chicago, who is of Armenian descent, gave me a good contact. She connected me with Amelia, who lives in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. She runs a community college there. We will meet next Monday. We plan to talk about life in Armenia, its history, and everything else.
That were the news from the rest day.
I left my guest house in Kutaisi in the morning. It was a lovely place. I was on the road by quarter past eight.
There were no trucks. The first fifty kilometers were rather flat. I cycled through a nature reserve for most of that time.
The whole day, I followed the Kvirila river. It joins the Rioni near Kutaisi and flows down from the mountains. Later in the day, I was still following the same river, now through a steep valley which later became a ln outright canyon.
The forests reminded me of the Black Forest back home. Pine trees everywhere.
In Zestaponi, I stopped and tried Kebabi. Kebabi is a Georgian dish made of minced meat, usually beef, shaped around a skewer and grilled. It looks similar to the lula kebab found across the Caucasus and Central Asia. Unlike Mtsvadi, the Georgian shish kebab made from whole chunks of meat, Kebabi uses ground meat mixed with onions and spices. It is often served with flatbread. I liked it.
After a short break, I continued my ride. The climbing started.
At another stop, I bought something to drink. The lady behind the counter used an abacus to add up the total. I had not seen one used in decades. I had never used one myself. The cool part: I could still pay by credit card. She loved explaining to me how it worked.
I wondered why there was no car traffic on this road. I had not seen a single truck and less than 50 cars that day.
As I was climbing higher and higher, I eventually touched a cloud and it got wet. I was all alone. A jackal (Schakal) crossed my path. It ran away the moment it spotted me. I had heard jackals before, last year in Northern Macedonia. But I had never seen one this close.
I eventually understood why the road had been so quiet all day. It was not finished yet. That worked in my favor this time. Towards the top of the mountains there were some gravel parts and construction was still going on. But I could cycle it.
The canyon eventually opened up. The forest gave way to open land. A mountain ridge appeared ahead of me. It became a pass. I crossed it after about a hundred kilometers.
From there, it was downhill.
I had reserved a guesthouse in Khashuri for the night. I did not want to pitch my tent in the rain on this final stretch before Tbilisi. The guesthouse cost about twelve Euros. It took me a while to find it.
It was huge. Five beds. More like a full apartment than a room. I got the key and had the whole place to myself. Very nice.
For dinner I used up my emergency supply to prepare for the upcoming border crossing. Instant noodles, quinoa with tuna, Pringle’s, tea and beer. It was still delicious.
I knew a big day was waiting for me tomorrow with close to 140km. So I went to bed quickly after dinner. By nine, I was asleep. Very happily.
Learnings of the day:
Trust is a wonderful thing. Somehow I trusted that the road would work out. The alternative would have been catastrophic. I could have played it safe. But only by not playing it safe was I able to truly experience nature and see a jackal.