Tbilisi - Ushguli, (2/X); 19th August - From Aqtau

Tbilisi - Ushguli, (2/X); 19th August

19th August

Left Gori after a mediocre breakfast at the guesthouse.

We took a small road south of the train racks and passed through some small villages which had some nice looking drinking water fountains. Something the U.K. lacks!

At one of the villages we stopped to get some lunch. A man came over, shook our hands, and then proceeded to pick up four ice creams and insisted he buy them for us, and the fruit we had in our hands. We tried to gesticulate that this was unnecessary but he wasn’t having it. After paying, he then gave us both a hug and a goodbye air kiss on the cheek, and walked out. Georgians seem to be pretty hard to read up to now, but this guy was an exception.

This is St.George, also the patron Saint of England. He was born in Cappadochia, Turkey and is an important cultural figure of Georgia and England too.

We cycled about 60km and found a nice spot to camp by a small stream. When starting to prepare dinner, we realised we had thrown out lighters away in Almaty as they no longer made a flame, but they did create a spark which was all we needed. So we couldn’t light the gas stove.

Camp spot with stream running close by to bathe and get water.

Unsuccessful attempt to creat a flame by spinning a stick against the block of wood

Tjalling guiding us on how to short circuit an AA battery to create a spark. Also unsuccessful.

We video called Tjalen who’s still in Almaty and we then spent the next 90 minutes trying to create a flame or spark to light the gas. This involved:
1) rubbing sticks together. Couldn’t generate enough heat and maybe the wood was too dry
2) trying various methods of short circuiting an AA battery to create a flame including with a crisp packet, a torn off bit of a space blanket, a thin strip of metal from a can, and a frayed off piece of brake cable.

All methods were unsuccessful, so we had cold oats for dinner :(

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