Turkey - Georgia
Going to discover Turkey, Georgia and their history
Turquie - Géorgie, les étapes
From Magnetiti to Koutaïssi
27 juin 2024
Monday evening I was tired and went for a bite to eat anyway. I didn’t really enjoy it, it was greasy and ... I couldn’t digest it. So I spent another - pathetic - day in Magnetiti.
I cancelled my planned stage that day and instead of going to Koutaissi in two stages, I went in one. A bit long, but flat and I was hoping to be pushed by the wind, which turned out not to be the case. I’d also been promised rain, which I didn’t get, so that’s fine !
A bit of gravel as I left Magnetiti and a (…)
From Batoumi to Magnetiti
25 juin 2024
It’s a short stop today, but I’m hoping the weather will be good enough for a swim in the Black Sea before heading back inland to Tbilisi. I’m leaving late because the screen on my PC is starting to give up the ghost and I go to a couple of shops to see if I can find a small auxiliary screen. The first one is the smallest, a 22-inch, the second one is a 14-inch but it’s the latest 4K, relatively expensive but I’m also afraid it’s fragile and won’t withstand the vibrations of the bike... (…)
From Fındıklı to Batumi
23 juin 2024
Crossing into Georgia. It’s a relatively short road, then it’s time to cross the border, which I manage to do relatively quickly until the last checkpoint for entry into Georgia, when I have to go through a sort of terminal. I made my way to a queue where there were fewer people, and before I got through I was told that with my bike I shouldn’t be there, but on the opposite side...
As I’d often seen in Turkey, the guy confuses my middle name with my surname... I gave him my real name but I (…)
Igdir-Rize with bus, then from Rize to Fındıkli
21 juin 2024
Restoration day in Igdir : a quiet day and washing up. A short visit to the cemetery, which includes Armenian stelae, and the park next door, which is open from 7am to 11pm to welcome people and their children who want to enjoy the fresh air. The next day I took the bus to Rize, which was due to leave at 11am, but I was asked to be there at 10am, so it actually left at midday... And again the bus driver asked for a price for the bike. We had a chat with the young man from the agency who sold (…)
From Dogubayazit to Igdir
19 juin 2024
This morning at breakfast there are lots of mountaineers, most of them wearing the white t-shirt of a mountain club emblazoned with the Turkish crescent. They’re in no hurry to leave : I guess their minibus will take them to a base camp today and then the serious stuff will come.
The hotel manager wants to take a photo with me, no doubt to show how well he welcomes cycle tourists !
The route is short today and I also set off quite late, at around 9am. At first there was no wind, but it (…)
From Muradiye to Dogubayazit
18 juin 2024
No breakfast today in this hotel. I walk slowly along the main street, wondering if I can find anything. From a café I’m hailed by people asking me to join them. So it’ll be tea, that’ll be that. We chat for a while about my trip, how to say Georgia in Turkish... Then I hit the road. The weather is a lot rougher than yesterday and also a lot windier. The wind shifted a lot, with the threat of thunderstorms, but I had it head-on most of the time. A digression from the main road takes me (…)
From Van to Muradiye
17 juin 2024
The threatening clouds of the previous day have disappeared, so I set off quite early.
The road was fine, quite pleasant. The mountain you see on the side I suppose is Mount Süphan, which rises to 4035m (on the English version of Wikipedia it’s given as 4058m). It’s quite beautiful and so is Lake Van with its turquoise reflections.
I planned to stop in Muradiye to see if there was a hotel, otherwise I’d continue a few kilometres further to camp.
In fact, the hotel I’d spotted seems to be (…)
Visiting Tatvan and Van
15 juin 2024
As I had a sore foot that was worrying me a bit, I decided to take a break and go to Tatvan hospital. I was pleasantly surprised by the welcome I received once I’d got over the language-related problems. On the face of it, it wasn’t anything serious, but I was given some antibiotics and told to go and get them from the pharmacy. When I asked what I had to pay, nothing - in Turkey, medicine is free ! OK... So I’ve still got plenty of time to visit Tatvan, a cute, quiet little tourist town. (…)
From Veysel Karali to Tatvan
13 juin 2024
An earlier start this morning, at 8am. Today’s stage is quite uphill, as I’m starting from 670m and the highest point will be at 1790.
But the enemy of the day will be the wind. It’s blowing quite hard head-on, the effect no doubt being reinforced by the rush of wind through the valley.
I’m making slow progress, taking lots of breaks. I didn’t have my coffee this morning so I made myself one. When I want a second one after the snack, my gas bottle will have given up the ghost...
The track (…)
From Batman to Veysel Karani
12 juin 2024
From Batman I go to Veysel Karani, simply because there’s a hotel there... I leave a bit late at 9am. It’s already hot.
I grumbled a bit at the start : to get out of Batman I avoided the national roads but had to do some gravel... going uphill wasn’t pleasant, but fortunately the really rotten part of the road where the tyres didn’t grip didn’t last long.
A short climb up the main road takes me over another official pass, a nice descent and then I leave the main road with, as usual, a (…)