"We have many people like you with bikes", the friendly market employee who helped me with my shopping list and with whom I have a brief chat tells me.
In fact, Georgia seems like the bottleneck where most long-distance cyclists either pass through or even get stuck in for a couple of months, e.g. over Winter (like some people from the group I met in Batumi).
Either way it is great being able to communicate again: even though most people are only fluent in Russian as their first foreign language, the English literacy is quite high and aside from some small mom-and-pop businesses I am able to have conversations.
What's not so great is the weather, and I extend my stay in Batumi for some days to avoid the rain.
The hostel businesses here in Georgia are quite funny: most of them have a booking.com rating of 9 and above. At first I'm scratching my head and wonder how that could be, as the standard is much lower than in most Western countries. At one point I'm staying in an apartment with a grandma who has turned her living room into a mixed dormitory featuring some 5 bunk beds, while the adjacent room is a girls' dormitory with another 6 beds -- all sharing a single bath room with the family.
The lack in comfort is made up in motherly care by the owner: the guests are continuously being offered snacks, chacha and engaged in chit-chat.
Sometimes it is good to know What is ahead of you...
When the clouds pass after a couple of days I'm back on the road again. After spending one rather wet night in the fields (yup, rain clouds have come back and it's drizzling now) my next stop on the way to Tbilisi is a sulfur hot-spring, which the cyclists coming from the opposite direction that I had met a few nights before had told me about.
The small detour is well worth it and I have the smelly hot water pool all for myself for about one hour, before more people arrive (it's Sunday...).
Continuing my trip the next morning, another cyclist catches up with me around "Boriti", where I'm taking a water break: 26yo Jeroen from Belgium has to be in Tbilisi the next day, where he will volunteer in a hostel for a few weeks while waiting for some packages and organizing the next visas.
Certainly an ambitious goal! That would leave about 130 km to cycle for the next day, starting from tonight's planned destination near Kashuri. Not impossible but certainly challenging.
Say hi to the ticks
Waking up the next morning I'm being greeted by a mysterious bug sitting on my tent. Almost looks like a tick, just bigger. Upon closer inspection I realize it actually is a tick. And it's not alone: whilst packing up, Jeroen and I discover about 10 ticks in various sizes sitting on the tent, gear. Luckily, neither one of us got bitten.
Time to get out of here.
A light breeze...
A light breeze could already be felt at breakfast, but when we turn back onto the highway a little later it quickly becomes evident that this is going to be a windy day.
Very much so, indeed. A check of the weather app confirms my worst fears: we're looking at strong headwinds of up to 35 kph throughout the day ಠ_ಠ No way I'm going to make the 130 kilometers to Tbilisi today, not even hiding in Jeroen's slipstream.
After lunch break we split up.
"I just hope tomorrow the wind will come from the back" I say, half-jokingly.
And while my legs enjoy the extended break, Jeroen is set to reach Tbilisi that night. I later learn he reached his hostel before 8 -- not much later than I would find my camping spot for the night, a quite tricky endeavor as there is only little shelter from the wind to be found along the highway.
Tail wind for the win
And I'm lucky again. Indeed the next morning it is still windy, but now the wind has turned and blowing exactly the opposite way!
The previous day I had struggled to see even 2 digit speeds on my speedometer. Today, I'm frequently cycling above 20, even 30 kph.
Around 2pm I reach Tbilisi. Time to rest, clean up, explore the city and wait for my brother, who is due to visit in a couple of days...!
