August 2, 2024
Day C8: One Last Climb
It was going to be a doozy of a climb so I sourced out a hotel at the top of the pass for motivation. The good news is thus would the last major batch of hills. After a delicious coffee and breakfast, I was off
Speaking of a doozy, it was devastating to see how much money I had lost in the markets in July alone, basically the worst trading month in 10 years. Buying that ridiculous Trump stock didn't help either. The whole thing with him dodging a bullet was probably staged anyway. Even if it wasn't, I bought the stock at the worst timing. It should have been shorted instead. Oh well, live and learn.
To explain this bumper sticker a bit more, Russia invaded Georgia in two phases. South Ossettia is the mountainous territory and connected to North Ossettia (in Russia) by a tunnel. If you watch Nikita, and it's recommended you do, there is an episode where she films in that pseudo-country. The whole area is completely militarized and off limits to normal people including Georgia citizens. No wonder they are pissed. Russia claims this territory for the same reason they invaded Ukraine -- they want to create a 'buffer state'.
The only language that Putin understands is force. His worst fear is if countries like Georgia or Ukraine were to join NATO and effectively militarize the border with Russia. Whether they would actually invade Russia or launch an attack on their territory is highly doubtful, as NATO was set up to be a defensive organization. But none of that matters, all Putin understands is they would have the *capability* to do so. So his game is to invade these countries first and seize key territories such as South Ossettia which is one of several 'gateway bottlenecks' where an invading army could in theory pour forces into Russia.
He applied the same strategy by 'creating' Abkhazia, a seaside pseudo-country within Georgia that also functions as a buffer state. That is what the city Sokhumi is all about, it is another beachside resort very similar to Batumi but under Russian occupation.
The occupied territories in Ukraine he 'created' for the same reason. Whoever controls Crimea has access to the shipping ports and control over the Black Sea. That is exactly why Ukraine prioritizes taking back Crimea. If they did join NATO they would coordinate with Turkey and have complete control over the Black Sea. Then they could build a joint navy (Ukraine doesn't have a navy) and essentially turn the whole thing into a giant lake controlled by NATO. This of course is Putin's worst nightmare.
What you won't hear much in this war is that Ukraine has been the most successful in destroying the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Because of that, the Russians are losing control over the sea. Ukraine can then restart the grain exports and other shipping routes without worrying about Russian destroyers. Most amazing is that Ukraine did all this without having a navy of their own!
Russia also uses this same strategy in areas further south and west. He tried but failed to take Odesa (the part of Ukraine that borders Moldova). His intention was to build a gigantic land bridge from Crimea all the way to Moldova and link up Transnistria which is in itself an occupied region of Moldova. But to do that, he first needed to take Kherson. For about 8 months he accomplished that, and it was the only large provincial capital of Ukraine that he managed to control. But that all came to an end in November of 2022 when Kherson was liberated by the Ukrainian forces, and the Russians had to retreat.
Putin's game is to seize control of various gateway points where his 'enemies' could pour forces in and attack. These gateway points are actually not in Russia. NATO has no interest in attacking Russia, but he is paranoid they will. His plan is to pre-emptively invade neighboring countries that that nobody has the capability to attack Russia.
Both the woke leftists and the far right in the US have their heads buried in the sand with all of this stuff. They are both de-facto Putin sympathizers. He is no doubt playing both camps like a violin. What they fail to understand is that Russia is at war with the West and always has been, nothing has really changed.
That huge ramble aside, it was time to cruise the town and find something to eat. Food had been scarce the entire day and I needed something filling for the climb which hadn't quite started yet. There was a sort of burger shop selling this amazing type of sandwich with chicken inside along with spicy filling sauce. Each one of those was absolutely massive and only 7 laris each so I ordered two. The first I ate gradually as the road began to climb and the second one I saved until at the very top of the pass, not knowing how long the climb was going to last.
As the road turned off, the first 30km was ok, trending up but mainly rolling hills and not too exhausting. It was only after that for the next 2okm that it got seriously brutal. The climb felt never ending.
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Eventually though, I did make it. Towards the top of the pass it got so clouded over I could barely see a few hundred meters in front of me. Locals the entire time were looking at me like I was from outer space. There were no cheers or greetings except for a guy who rolled down his window and said 'jambo jambo'. Beeping was happening constantly so I was being noticed, it was a somewhat creepy vibe.
At the top of the pass I did eventually find that amazing hotel, and for 100 laris a very good deal.
So far at least I'm not finding locals to be very friendly. I can't blame them though, if my country was 20% occupied by Russia I probably wouldn't be in the greatest of moods either.
Today's ride: 91 km (57 miles)
Total: 845 km (525 miles)
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