Heading inland to Kutaisi

We left our field and finished our çokokrem with the bread Sait’s mum had baked for us at around 830 am, stirred only by litter pickers on the beach (a comforting sight relative to Turkey).

The road continued as the day before: it is the main highway from the coast to Tbilisi (the capital) and yet is only a single carriageway. It has a huge amount of traffic throughout the day including huge lorries with no other route to take, which means all of the other drivers are totally reckless in their overtaking and will glady stay on the wrong side of the road around blind corners to get around the next obstacle. This does not make for comfortable cycling on an already questionable surface, with constant horns blaring and three abreast overtaking commonplace on straight bits of road.

It is not all bad, though: any side road is not drivable, thus free of traffic and filled with blackberries (though they tend to lead nowhere and are littered with potholes on any sections with Tarmac) and the Georgians seem to love their fruit, with plenty of in-season (ish) pear, apple and our first fig tree!

Midway through the morning, we saw a sign for a monastery which we decided to go and see. Nestled at the top of a hill, we were able to go 1km by bike then walked about 4km to the top to find an interesting collection of chapels, houses and beehives all within walls and filled with nuns. Lots of modern Georgian style frescoes covered the walls and brought some colour while the garden and orchard made it seem ever so peaceful!

While we were waiting by the side of the road for half a hour in the afternoon, a kind man in his mid twenties came out and offered us some water, before spotting our flags and deciding he wanted to contribute with the Georgian one! Picture to come… We cycled pretty far today (cycle computer not functional) and have made it to Kutaisi which is a fair bit inland. A bit more rain and we are now sat in a French café enjoying a crèpe, I could not resist!