The weather got a lot better and so we searched for another hike in the Small Caucasus.
We found one in the Borjomi Natural Reserve and it was super beautiful. When we arrived at the ranger station at the start of the tour we had to pay some Euros to park Rosinante for three nights and the rangers were super friendly. And there were some cute puppy friends.
The next day we went up the mountain and found a wonderful place for our tent. We were the only people on that mountain, had a lot of fun on a water spring and watched the amazing sunset.
We wanted to go in some mountains but not too far away from Batumi where we would have to pick up our package from Germany in a couple of weeks.
So we took our first mountain pass with Rosinante into the small Caucasus. The weather was pretty tough and rainy but we went to hike anyway.
In the beginning there were signs pointing the way on real hiking trails but soon there was no trail at all. We tried to go on with the tracks on Open Street Maps and went down very steep slopes. Soon the plants got as high as our shoulders. And after a while we got to a small creek. The only way to go on would have been directly in the creek but the water and weather felt not warm enough for that. We checked our options and came to the conclusion that going back was our best option.
We explored some parts of Georgia and really loved it. Especially the bazaars in what looked like old airplane hangars were very interesting and it was exciting to check what the main national fruits etc. are.
We did develop a serious addiction to Shotis, a special bread the Georgians are baking in round clay ovens. After only getting the Turkish Ekmek which is basically air surrounded by a bit of dough, we loved the Shoti bread.
We met Vrolex again who we had met in Turkey at the Van Lake before and spent a nice time at the hot sulfur pool near Vani (see it on Google Maps).
We asked Cindy’s friends, who we had visited before in Georgia, if we could have a package sent to them from Germany and when they agreed we started ordering a lot of mountaineering and climbing stuff to my brother in Germany. My brother did an awesome job putting everything as small and light as possible in one package and we prepared the list for the customs control etc.
Our cooling box got the opinion that everything should be colder and started to freeze our vegetables. So we tried to repair it several times in different ways but we’re very convinced that its temperature sensor was broken. Unfortunately the package from Germany was already on its way so we couldn’t order a new sensor with that package.
And Isarne gifted us our new alien friend: the Isarne-Schlippky, a water kefir we now took care of and enjoyed drinking the “pee” it was producing.
