Hey there!

It’s almost impossible to find time to update this blog… so please look at our Facebook page for updates. It’s much easier for us to post there.

All teams left for Batumi Georgia from Sinop camp this morning… around 9.

It’s a loooong wa to go, 770 km… in a 30 year old Moskvitch.

There was a hell of a concert yesterday virtually in the Black Sea, on a small ‘island’ near the campsite. Awesome. The Durgas was great and we were a great audience! Was pretty difficult to get al their equipment walking through a river… and get all the beers through the river! Later we had amazing barbecue, steak and köfte with greek salad.

Anyhow, need to leave soon as we never get there.

So…  see Facebook for updates!!

There was not much internet in the past few days, hence the delay with updating the blog…. anyhow – let’s see what happened with the Caucasian Challenge teams from Monday!

On the lovely morning of August 15, 18 teams of more than 50 participants representing a dozen countries started their 17 day adventure.

Some teams had problems finding the start venue (makes us think how they’d manage in the mountains of Albania) but later on everyone started… almost everyone.

 

Teem Good Karma (hmm…) had some engine problems so they decided to stay in Budapest for doing the repairs. Their plan was to catch up in Sarajevo but later on it seemed they needed more time to fix their Lada Niva.

Team Canadian Cougars found the start venue an hour after the teams started but they were all happy and smiling, got their day sheet (they are in the competition category) and quickly followed the others.

Pace car 2 (Mitsubishi Shogun) blew a tire before the Croatian border while Pace car 1 (the lovely yellow Moskvitch) had some problems with paperwork not having an authorization to drive their car which they quickly sorted out with asking for a sheet of paper in a roadside shop…

Most teams got to the Sarajevo hotel in time and headed City Pub for the kick off party.

The Durgas, a US rock band who joined the rally with 2 teams, their van and their own pace car plus their own film crew threw an amazing concert in City Pub.

Tasting several shots of local rakija made some people difficult to start in time the day after. Especially for the ones who had an afterparty on the streets using the Canadian Cougars’ van for getting back to the hotel (11 people in a the smallest van) and team Union MM’s Land Rover as a bar having great Portuguese wines… till 4:30 AM.

More to come later today – stay tuned!

For more updates and photos please visit our Facebook page!

All right, I know I stopped posting somewhere in Karabakh (?) but honestly I just didn’t have the time updating the blog every day…. really.

Now, I’ve started to do the mapping for the first half of the rally: from Budapest to Istanbul.

The route has changed a bit compared the previous years. First, I’m trying to explore new routes every year and secondly I re-structured this part a little. And it seems it was a good decision.

First time ever our first will be in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. I’ve met Zlatan there who’s the manager of a bar where we’ll have the kick-off party of CC2011. Downtown Sarajevo, a lovely place. He also helped me finding a hotel for the teams. Not in the old town as it’s virtually impossible to park there, furthermore even if you find a place (and we need a lot!) it’s not safe, even for a local he said.
So we go up to a hill, not far from the old town and a great value for money!

The road to Sarajevo is an easy drive. Not so many challenges for the competing teams to use this day for acclimatization. And to explore the lovely old town area. And get there in time to get ready for the party…

The drive from Sarajevo to the border with Montenegro is completely new – even for me – and it’s really fabulous. We drive in the super-scenic valley of the Zeljeznica and Bistrica rivers. It’s a funny little road going from Foca towards Montenegro. Barely wide enough for 2 regular cars.

Even more scenic the valley of the Tara river, famous for rafting. The river is so deep in the gorge you can rarely see it. It competes with the Grand Canyon as I’ve read somewhere. I’d say this ride is a biker’s dream but it’s equally entertaining with a car.

Border crossing was 3 minutes and I liked the bridge over the river that makes the border between Bosnia and Montenegro.

Driving up to the Durmitor National Park it started raining again. Honestly I didn’t expect this weather in July. It was so cold I had to turn on the heating (again). But the scenery was just amazing. A lone drive to Zabljak (haven’t met anyone for hours). Stayed in Zabljak, a mountain resort – skiing in winter, hiking in Summer – for the night, now ready to continue to Kosovo and hopefully to Northern Albania today.

I wouldn’t mind some sun and a bit dry weather as my desert boots (very smart choice for the trip) are soaking wet.

… that is Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

So what happened in the past days?

I couldn’t ride the Zagor pass from Mestia to Ambrolauri as it was still closed for snow blocking the road. In mid-June it surprriised me but they said there was an avalanche that caused this so what else could I do than drive backwards which is the 2WD route for the teams without high ground clearance vehicles.

I spent the night in Ambrolauri, the town where the rally will finish. Reserved the hotel for August and next morning drove to Tbilisi with a stopover at Gori. After removing the huge Stalin statue from Gori main square last year now they removed the grand pedestal too. However a smaller Stalin statue still stands in the museum garden so if you want to take a photo with the big guy, you can do it!

I went to Tbilisi hostel to meet Gio but he suddenly left to India to do the banana business. This guy is unpredictable! so what about my chacha session?

Well, there was Badri, the manager in the absence of the owners, so we had a great time there drinking chacha, listening to music and chatting till 4AM. Tbilisi hostel is really like a hippy place. There were 2 families with children under 4 traveling around Eastern Europe and Asia.

Next day started a bit late for obvious reasons, after doing the rest of the work I was leaving Tbilisi at around 5PM.

I went as as far as Idjevan in Armenia as I knew a hotel there. Arriving after 11PM I only could do a small shopping and prepare my humble supper.

The road from Idjevan to Lake Sevan is another great mountain ride… we drive up to 2100 meters and don’t ascent too much as the lake itself is at the altitude of 1940 meters. It was indeed a nice ride. Not easy to navigate though. Asking a local about the direction he said… “you just turn left, it’s signposted“!

The task for the day was to find a good camping spot for the event. It’s not as easy as it was before as the water level rises constantly in the past years so the sandy beaches disappeared. Anyhow, I found an OK place at the tip of the Artenish peninsula. A camp fire and some bottles of drinks and we’ll have an awesome party. We just need to pray for a non-rainy day. And bring dry wood…

By the way: rain.

After Sevan I was driving towards Vardeniz, did some shopping for the remote road in Karabakh and headed the Sotk pass (2400 meters). There was a huge storm just ahead of me, luckily I stayed out of it. The road was actually white and covered with ice and huge black clouds could be seen above the pass…

Also the temperature dropped significantly. Leaving Idjevan it was 27 and now….

Driving through the Sotk pass I followed the rain and got some showers but nothing serious. It was indeed a long drive and got dark when I entered the narrow river valley.

I got to Vank hotel around 12 and I needed nothing else than some food and a beer… and an Armenian cognac. And sleep. The restaurant was closed, so I had some of my leftovers of the food I bought in Vardeniz, but the drinks were no problem :)

Ah… Vank is the most out of this world place. I think I’ll write a complete post about this village. It deserves it.

There was no iternet for 2 days so I upload all these from Tbilisi.

The route through the national park was more difficult than I remembered from last year.. or it’s the same and only my memories fading. Not long after I started to climb the mountains from Kutaisi (I did the rout backwards, the rally will go from Batumi to Kutaisi) there were huge constructions, lots of people busy with everything that comes with construction. Machines on the road, people running around, etc. It seems someone really wants to invest into this (otherwise beautiful and relaxed) place… it used to be a mountain resort place and apparently it will be again.

Surprise came when I saw a chain across the road. There was a guy in a security uniform asking where the hell I wanted to go.

Guard: Where are you going?
Me: To Abashtumani thought the mountains.
Guard: Abashtumani? Through here?
Me: Yes, why not?
Guard to Guard 2: Hey, there’s a Russian (!) boy here who wants to cross!
Guard 2: So what’s the plan?
Me: (telling the same)
Guard2: Do you know the road? Have you been here before?
Me: Yes, I know the road.
Guard 2: But did you ride it this year yet?
Me: No…. why?
Guard 1 and 2: Hm… probably he can go, there was one car yesterday from the other direction…. (to me) OK, have a nice trip!

It seems I was one of the first people crossing the mountains after Winter (when it’s closed due to snow)… and indeed, there were traces of snow so it might have been unpassable like 2 weeks ago. That’s one reason I do the mapping mid-June, we couldn’t cross 2 passes 2 years ago.

The route was again fabulous, completely remote and only nature around me. But the road was tricky at some points and my average speed was something like 1. It did worth all the efforts. And you know how many people/vehicles I met? Yes, exacly: zero.

Another joke was the ranger at the other sifde of the park, opening the gate asking me where I was coming from.
I said from Kutaisi. „And the road was open??”-he asked. „Apparently yes”- I said. „Hm… I thougth it was still closed”-he said. Nice, he should be the one knowing what’s going on.

I continued to Batumi on the road that leads through Adjaria, climbing another pass with 3 meters high snow walls next to the road. That part is easier than the national park but all in all that day was exhausting.

I arrived to Batumi around 10PM, and was driving around for about half an hour before I found my way to the hotel where I stayed 3 times before.
That city changed a LOT in the past years! It seems that it wants to be the Las Vegas of the East… new promenades with blue led lights embedded in the asphalt, every single palm tree is lighted with disgusting light green lights, new buildings with rainbow coloured light show. Definitely money is around without style. But it has its own… special charm.

Next day I woke up much later then I wanted, so only left the city (after some shopping etc.) around 1. The goal was to go to Mestia, one of the all time favourites in Georgia. The view of the mountains are great, most of them still covered with snow.

Excellent drive, though they continue building the road connecting Mestia with the world. Really good for tourism cutting the 5 hour drive from Zugdidi, but in a way they ruin our game, meaning offroading/dirt driving in the mountains. Anyhow in Georgian terms there’s a great construction going on, they still worked after 7PM all over the region.

They told me it should be finished by the end of Summer but I have serious doubts since they haven’t even started at some points and we talk about around 100 kilometers. But let me be wrong, we’ll see.

Mestia is charming as always but getting more touristic, new hotels being built, cafés opened, etc. I had a great dinner at Tea’s guest house (the place we always stay), had some local chacha and some beers, chatting with some travelers from Poland and Israel, finished my last beer on the terrace overlooking the loud Inguri river and wished I had a house in the village. With or without an ancient tower.

Uploaded some photos to our Facebook album, will do more soon!