Racki and I went to Turkey for a border run to extend Rosinante’s stay in Georgia.

In advance, I had to find a lithium battery and bigger solar panel in Georgia, but there had been no real options. Shipping and importing from Germany would have been super expensive. So I had contacted a Turkish online shop and the owner was super friendly and had a battery and panel in stock. He had shipped it to Hopa to the Turkey-Georgia-border where we could pick it up easily.

At a small beach promenade in Hopa we started installing the panel and battery. The panel was super easy. The battery was a crazy operation! The batterie’s dimensions were perfect to fit it in the space behind our toilet but that made the wiring a puzzle.

To make it possible, we had cut our toilet at Hof Marani to be able to slide it over the battery.

We searched for cables in Hopa to make the installation easier and cleaner but had no luck finding some. But after we did shortcut the battery and nearly destroyed it, we finally made it!

It was interesting to experience the difference in Georgian and Turkish culture. In Turkey more than ten people stopped, asked if they could help us, were interested and curious. Although there are a lot of lovely and helpful people in Georgia as well, the experience would have been very different there, I guess.

We got the necessary permission and entered the Vashlovani National Park.

What a place! It’s super beautiful!

We drove up a hill and had a beautiful view. In the permission office a lady recommended a specific track to drive down to the main camp.

This track got crazy off-roady. And it got smaller and smaller. So small that at some point Rosinante did not fit anymore on the track. I’d say this track would only maybe be possible with a cross bike.

So we turned around and took the main route to a beautiful camp at a river.

When we continued the next day, we saw very beautiful landscapes, did a hike in a cove and saw some gazelle running through the steppe.