It does not do justice the beauty of this country but thanks to it’s border guards we only had a few hours before leaving towards Russia. Part of those I spent at the notary discussing if there is anything she could do to make my car authorization papers more authentic (no, she couldn’t), and on the road among crazy drivers, whose driving habits I tried to adopt (yes, I passed that exam with flying colors, just ping me if you need theoretical or practical lessions in Georgian driving style).

The remaining few hours we spent at Ananuri castle and at the Georgian-Russian Friendship Monument which are along the way to the border.
When I was there 5 years ago everything was hidden in thick fog, now we had sunshine and 20 degrees, only the hundreds of Indian tourists were the same.

Ananuri fortress

Ananuri fortress

View from the Georgia-Russia Friendship Monument

View from the Georgia-Russia Friendship Monument

For comparison: the view we had in 2019

We were rejected at the Georgian border yesterday because of some missing information in the power of attorney allowing me to drive the car. Well, technically it only allows me to use the car, and that was exactly the problem. You can use a car in many different ways, an authorization to drive it has to be explicitly mentioned in the power of attorney. Since all the notaries who could have fixed the issue were enjoying their well deserved weekends until Monday morning, we decided to try another border crossing, only 4 hours away. Another night without any sleep, driving endless serpentine roads in the southern Caucasus. After the hot and humid last days a welcome change to snow and 3 degrees. Unfortunately the Georgian customs officer at the second border post did not like our car either. With completely different justification, but we were again rejected. In lack of other options we drove another few ours to the third and last border crossing between Turkey and Georgia and there, after 2 hours of investigation, intense discussions between customs and police officers, and after having invested 15  euros in a pair of Georgian transit license plates, we were finally admitted to the next country of our trip.

After 72 hours in the car, having a bed and a shower seem like hedonistic luxury, but the next nights will be short and bumpy again.

Looking forward to the excuses of the Russian customs officers tomorrow!

And, finally, the most important thing: our team is complete now, Attila and Anna who (smartly) decided to take the plane to Georgia, joined us tonight.

Having a break at the beach close to Trabzon. While the others are taking a shower I put up my mobile office.

I expected nice and expensive highways here in the north of Turkey, but the road (at least two lanes) is a typical coastal one crossing every village and town, and towns and villages are loooong here. Not as fast as planned, but nice.

We will spend a few hours here at the beach, our next milestone is to pick up the last two members of the team at the airport of Kutaisi in Georgia tonight. But since Georgia is right now fighting against the Czech Republic at the European football championships, we better wait until the game is finished before we reach the border.