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!!

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.

Opening speech

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.

The Durgas playing 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.

How many people fit in a Subaru Libero? 11 at least...

The Land Rover wine bar - courtesy of the portuguese team Union MM

More to come later today – stay tuned!

For more updates and photos please visit our Facebook page!

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…

Bascarsija, the old town Of Sarajevo

Souvenir stall in old town Sarajevo

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.

At least I met someone to talk to...

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.

Amazing view

The Tara valley

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

That side is Montenegro. Welcome.

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.

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.

Just enough at midnight. The topping looks strange but in fact delicious.

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“!

Berd town was signposted indeed! You just need to read it...

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…

What a lovely weather!

M car wouldn't have liked it at all...

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

5 degrees Celsius. Luckily I haven't started in shorts and sandals... when it was 27 in the morning.

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.

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 only earthling I came across...

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.

At the Zekari pass (2300 meters)

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.

Snow at Goderdzi pass

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.

Road to Jvari

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.

So will this tunnel be ready by August?

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!

After landing around 5AM and getting through the money changing – visa buying – passport control processes I got to the hostel around 6 meaning not much sleep for that night.

Giving up the sleep project I went to one of my favourite Yerevan restaurants, ’Kavkaz’ to have my favourite dishes and of course the first Kilikia beer! Once in Yerevan everyone should try that place. A huge dinner with beers for 10 dollars in a downtown restaurant? Sounds good, huh?

Later on I met Gevorg, the manager of Envoy, Yerevan’s best hostel as I remembered he offered me help some time back with both the charity project and dealing with cars teams intend to leave in Armenia.

By 5 PM I felt like I can’t move anymore so I gave another (successful) try for the sleep and in the evening I met another friend, Levon and his wife+kid for a drink… Levon was the guy who organized us a Kalashnikov shooting in Karabakh back in 2008. He’ll try to do the same this year as well, hope things haven’t changed much.

Today I was up pretty early and went to the car rental agency to pick up my work-mate for 2 weeks, a Suzuki Grand Vitara… actually the same car I got last year! When the guy marked the scratches and dents on a sheet he told me these might happen while driving in forests, etc… ’Uh-huh’ I said and remembered last year’s mapping trip in Northern Georgia with the same car, losing the sump guard but kept silent.

The weather was absolutely lovely, 24 degrees Celsius, a nice drive to the border of Georgia. After finishing the paperwork (5 minutes on Armenian plates) and leaving the border post I saw a guy and a girl hitchhiking and I thought I’ll be a good guy today and give them a lift… then a surprise hit: the man was Gio, the funny Georgian guy who opened Tbilisi Hostel last year and we spent some great time together (drinking loads of chacha). Now apart from managing the hostel he’s importing bananas from India and growing his hair to be a rasta man. The funniest Georgian I’ve ever met. The hostel was (and will be) our alternative accommodation in Tbilisi.

Dropping them somewhere near downtown I drove all the way to Kutaisi (and I was trying to stay alive amongst those idiots who probably bought their driving license on the flee market) and drove directly to the guesthouse we usually stay with CC. The old lady, the owner of the Beka hotel recognized me and after some help (’lots of strange foreigners with funny cars, remember?’) he remembered the CC crowd too. I’m trying to do reservations for August 24 but apparentely business is booming in Kutaisi: she said she got reservations for August in December last year…. and I remember she was almost crying being so happy when 4 years ago we showed up just 2 weeks after the Georgian-Russian war when there were basically no tourists in Georgia at all.
Anyhow, I asked her to prepare me a small dinner and I got the following: two fried sausages, some excellent chicken stew, fried potatoes, 3 different salads, cheese, etc. One thing is sure, you can’t stay hungry staying at their place.

Tomorrow is another great ride and lots of work with the challenges through the beautiful Borjomi-Kharagauli national park and the whole length of Adjaria to the coastal town of Batumi.

I’ll also post some photos later…

I recently found an interesting page – it’s trying to give us an idea how many Armenians live worldwide and how they’re spread on the Globe.

I always knew Armenian is one of the nations who’re virtually everywhere and that’s not just the result of the genocyde of the early 20th century, but that’s the case for centuries. I remember visiting an Armenian church in Chennai (Madras), India (!) and also climbed the staircase built by an Armenian merchant to the cave where St. Thomas (Doubting Thomas) lived – and died by a spear.

By the way – did you know that there are only 3 cathedrals in the World built above the grave of an apostle? Yes, one in Chennai for Thomas… and you know the other two?

You can continue the list of places where you met Armenians – I bet you could.

See the link below and see the approximate number of  Armenians in your neighbourhood!

Funny, there are more Armenians on Ivory Coast than in Japan!

Click HERE for the details.

# # # # #

HU

A minap találtam egy érdekes oldalt, amely azt mutatja be, mennyi örmény él világszerte és hogyan oszlanak el a Földön.

Azt már korábbi utazásaim során felfedeztem, hogy örményekkel gyakorlatilag a világ minden táján, a leglehetetlenebb helyeken is találkozom, vagy legalább ott létük nyomaival.

Jártam örmény templomban Chennai (Madras, Tamil Nadu állam, India) belvárosában, ugyanitt felmásztam a szobrokkal ékesitett lépcsősoron, melyet egy örmény kereskedő pénzéből épitettek s amely Szt. Tamás (a Tamáskodó) barlangjához vezet fel – itt élt (és itt halt meg) Tamás.

Tudtátok, hogy összesen 3 katedrális van a világon, melyet egy apostol nyughelye fölé épitettek? Noshát, ebből az egyik Dél-Indiában, Chennaiban található… (na, melyik a másik kettő?)

Akárhogy is, katt ERRE a linkre és lásd, hol mennyi örmény él.

Vicces, hogy Elefántcsontparton több örmény lakik, mint Japánban

The album had a good introductory section about Sella’s life, his addiction to climbing high peaks and photography and a very nice collection of  his expeditions to the Svaneti region of Georgia, one of our favourite spots in the country. He did several expeditions around the turn of the 19th and 20th century.

It was amazing to see how little the village and the region changed -despite the Soviet rule and the fact that we’re in the 21st century now. Thanks to its remoteness it still reserved its uniqueness and charm. (The first roads has been built by Stalin in the 1940′s! Frankly, not much maintenance happened since then… )

If you can find this album somewhere  – check Amazon, they have some Sella albums – it’s definitely a must buy. Edited and published by the Vittorio Sella Foundation and edition supported by the Embassy of Italy in Tbilisi.

See also this link and this one for some brief info of Sella and the Caucasus mountains.

(HU)

Kétségtelenül sokan a Kaukázus Rali egyik csúcspontjaként élik meg, amikor megérkeznek Mestiába, az Észak-Svaneti régió fővárosába (valójában egy kis falu, de helyi léptékkel megacity).

Lenyűgöző a táj, elképesztő a nyugalom és nagyon barátságosak az emberek, még ha nem is igazán értik, hogy mit keres ott minden év augusztusában egy rakás külföldi furcsa autókkal. Mindig óriási a buli és nehéz a másnap reggel, de a napsütötte 5000 méter körüli csúcsok feledtetik a megpróbáltatásokat.
Eddig csak mosolyogva – ugyanakkor borzongva – néztük a városka mellett elterülő, inkább libalegelőhöz hasonlitó repteret, nem gondoltuk komolyan, hogy oda valaki képes le- vagy onnan felszállni. Különösen nem turisták.

A hirek szerint a Grúz elnök is elérkezettnek látta az időt némi fejlesztésre, mert ahogy az alábbi cikkből is kiderül, megépült az új terminál és immár a helyieknek sem kell szégyenkezniük az emlitett libalegelő miatt.

Más kérdés, hogy (szerintem, és ezen persze lehet vitatkozni) rettenestesen tájidegenre sikeredett a “terminál”. Értem én, hogy a művész szerette volna, ha visszaköszönnek a hires, 6-700 éves tornyok, melyek a világörökség részévé tették a várost… ugyanakkor szeretett volna valami modernet vinni a koncepcióba, de ilyen megoldással?
Persze ahogy a cikkben – feltehetőleg büszkén – meg is jegyzik: a tevrezés és a kivitelezés 3 hónapot vett igénybe…

Egy itt, egy másik pedig (nagyobb fotókkal) itt.

Érdekes elgondolkodni az épület méretein, ha megnézzük a mellette parkoló autókat.

A lényeg, hogy minket nem különösebben érint a repülőtér, bár sok sikert kivánunk nekik és hozzanak sok turistát. Mi továbbra is remekül szórakozunk majd akár a helyi rendőrökkel, akár azért, mert “Mesztiában diszkó lesz” (2010. augusztus, világzenei fesztivál. Nagyon komoly.)

(EN)

Without doubt, one of the highlights of the Caucasian Challenge is arriving to Mestia, the ‘capital’ of the North-Svaneti region of Georgia. In fact it’s a small village, but true: considering the population of the region, it is a major settlement.

The landscape is astonishing, the place is ultimately relaxed and people are really friendly even though they don’t have a clue what all these funny guys do there every year in their funny vehicles. We always have amazing parties there and a solid hangover the next morning. However looking at the 5000 meter high peaks over the loud Inguri river we instantly forget all our physical troubles.

So far, when driving out of the city we only looked at the Mestia airport with a smile on our face and wouldn’t put a penny on anyone flying in or out of that place resembling mostly a cattle grazing.

Maybe the president of Georgia had the same idea as he started to invest in boosting tourism in Mestia and the brand new terminal recently opened its gate(s).

I know it’s completely subjective and I know that the artist wanted to incorporate the famous Svaneti towers into the design, still think this building is completely a wrong approach and does not fit to the environment and heritage this region represents. Well, it was designed and built in 3 months according to one of the articles below…

See a link here and another (with larger images) here.

Funny to see the size of the building compared to the cars parking next to it.

Anyhow, sure we won’t really do any business for the airport but wish lots of success for them, at the same time we will continue enjoying our time at this marvellous place. With the local police (like in 2009) or with hundreds of locals at the World Music Festival (as in 2010).

(HU)

Érdemes elolvasni az alábbi, 2010-ben a Kaukázus Rali során iródott blogokat (némelyikben lehet, hogy kicsit vissza kell görgetni 2010 augusztusig).

Nem csak azért érdemes megnézni, mert végre nem a hivatalos, szervezői rizsát olvashatjátok – minden szem mást lát -, hanem azért is, mert felettébb szórakoztató és humoros irások.

Némi betekintést ad a Kaukázus Rali mindennapjaiba.

Az ETORA csapat naplója – http://www.sysman.hu/bamako

A CSONTBRIGÁD csapat bejegyzései: http://csontbrigad.blog.hu/

Az L&L’s csapat blogja: http://csontbrigad.blog.hu/

Az angolul értőknek javaslom a YEREVAN EXPRESS blogját ezen a linken: http://7000kmtogo.com/wordpress/

Itt ragadnám meg az alkalmat, hogy megjegyezzem: a karitativ munkában ez a csapat oroszlánrészt vállalt, ugyanis ők egyedül 8,967 USD összeget gyűjtöttek össze és ajánlottak fel különböző karitativ szervezeteknek.

GRATULÁLUNK!

* * * * *

(EN)

It’s always good to read (also for the organizers!)  about how a team experienced a particular event.

Let me recommend you reading the blog of YEREVAN EXPRESS, hit the following link to reach their pages:

http://7000kmtogo.com/wordpress/

I’d also take the chance to announce, that they were the most active team in fundraising and they alone raised a total of 8,967 USD supporting various organizations in Armenia.
See the details in their blog.

CONGRATULATIONS!