Thursday, 03 August, 2017 --- Day 17 - From Tbilisi To Ajerbaijan

ΚΑΤ’ΕΜΠΟΡΙΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΘΕΩΡΙΑΝ

ES MUSS SEIN

CARTAGO DELENDA EST

Nos perituri mortem salutamus

Thursday, 03 August, 2017 --- Day 17

From Tbilisi To Ajerbaijan

Stats

Day dist: 85.03 km

Riding time: 5 hours  49 mins

Avg speed: 14.60 km/hour

Max speed: 41.23 km/hour

End day odo: 2,309 km

Dist covered so far: 609 km

Coordinates:   41.222885N 45.288708E 

Had Breakfast and then hung out w/ Alex and Chris. Hit the road at 11:10. Being scattered minded thought, after biking a little into the city I had to return to pick up things I had forgotten. I did that twice. One of the things I had forgotten was my fanny pack which contains all my documents and money!!!

Why not Hostel

Last photos of Tbilisi

The traffic towards Rustava was rather heavy. I finally found my way and for part of the ride, in the beginning, I had to bike on highway.

To make sure I was headed in the right direction, I entered the site/yard of a big company to ask for water and directions. I thought the people were Georgians but it turned out that it was a Turkish company and everybody there was from Turkey. They gave me water and told me that the border was about 40 kms from there. Then I rode the road that is parallel to the highway where I stoped a crazy local driver to ask for precise directions. The guy as very helpful. He got out of the car and even drew a map on the ground. When he asked me where I was from and I told him I was Greek he actually hugged me and kissed me.

He drove on ahead of me and so did I. As I was entering the highway, at the top of the ramp was a police car, the crazy local was there already and he took me to one of the officers, told him what the problem was, and as the officer could speak English he told me to drive straight for another 40 kms. I thanked him and hit the road.

I forgot to mention that the police car was there because of a dead cow that had been hit by a car.

The crazy local

The dead cow

All I can say about that part of Georgia is that it is like arid desert

As I was biking along there he was, another biker coming from the opposite diection. We stopped and chatted. He was from Switzerland and his originality was that rather than biking from Switzerland to India, he was biking from India to Switzerland. He gave some interesting leads and so did I.

Shortly after, at 32km I took a napping stop under the only trees that were there. Left at 15:07

Further down, I resupplied with water. The lady that was there insisted that I take a shower but I did not think it was wise.

I was nearing the border now. I was so exhausted , however, that I stopped to rest and lied down about 3 km before it.

Nearing the border

The border

People at the border were polite and the officers gave me priorityover the cars.

The most interesting thing in the crossing were 3 Scots dressed in their national dress. I talked to them and told me that they were planning to drive to Vladivostoc.

Entering Azerbaijan

The time was 17:40 and had covered 62 km.

Right  after crossing into Azerbaijan, I looked for an ATM but could not find one. Still, I was not left w/o Manats. I found a money changer and exchanged all the Turkish Liras and the Laries I had. It was enough keep me going.

I started biking into the country. The goal was to bike as much as I could and then find a hotel to spend the night.

As I was biking, a strange/unusual thing happened. Typically, as I bike, many cars beep and the drivers wave to me in a cheering way. This is common. This time, however, the car that was comming from the other direction and cheered me was a police car and the two policemen that were riding it waved in an exaggerated manner. That is unusual

I biked on and continued as the night fell. According to the info that I had collected by asking, I needed a few more kms before finding the hotel. To make sure that my info was correct I stopped at one more gaz station where I was told that the hotel is just 5 kms further down. Then, the attendant told me “why don’t you stay for a cup of tea?” I did stay and as they had wifi available I checked everything I needed on the internet. The attendants prepared dinner and I was the guest of honor. Finally, I took their advice and just pitched my sleeping bag a little further down and spent the night there.

My hosts

ΕΙ ΘΕΟΣ ΥΠΕΡ ΗΜΩΝ, ΤΙΣ ΚΑΘ’ΗΜΩΝ; Προς Ρωμαίους 8:31

IF GOD BE WITH US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? Romans 8:31