So we leave Turkey for Georgia. We really want to go to Armenia, but you don't seem to be able to get into Armenia from Turkey - something to do more than likely with the Armenian genocide/ holocaust round about WW1, understandable really as the Turks don't seem to have admitted it yet, according to the Armenians.
So we would get to Armenia by going through Georgia - a short day's ride. Well, more mountain passes and wind across treeless plateaus - hence the name windswept we think, leaning the bike into the wind for kilometres on end just to go in a straight line. No trees so we don't think it was just today that it was windy. This place is Dickensian bleak on steroids, Shivering Heights. We were cold, there was wind and dampness and plenty of snow around, though we didn't get snowed on. Highest pass was 2,550m and there were potholes and slippy roads too. We had more hail and it hurts with an open face helmet. The wind did not abate till we came down to the border crossing, where we now had trees and even some sunshine. But the Turkish side of the border was pretty crappy and lost in some other time. There were no issues though.
So we would get to Armenia by going through Georgia - a short day's ride. Well, more mountain passes and wind across treeless plateaus - hence the name windswept we think, leaning the bike into the wind for kilometres on end just to go in a straight line. No trees so we don't think it was just today that it was windy. This place is Dickensian bleak on steroids, Shivering Heights. We were cold, there was wind and dampness and plenty of snow around, though we didn't get snowed on. Highest pass was 2,550m and there were potholes and slippy roads too. We had more hail and it hurts with an open face helmet. The wind did not abate till we came down to the border crossing, where we now had trees and even some sunshine. But the Turkish side of the border was pretty crappy and lost in some other time. There were no issues though.
One of the first things we saw after crossing into Georgia was a renovated castle on the top of a rock with a cross on a hill next to it with Christ crucified. This is a different country. Kars, our last place in Turkey was totally dry - we are not sure how a town can be without alcohol when it is not the rule of the country, but that is the way it was. We are really not sure how Turkey is going to end up. But Georgia is a wine producing country. But so is Turkey......
Perhaps it was because we had Georgia on our mind, perhaps it was because the sun was coming out, perhaps it was because we were trying to get to our destination in order to see some more caves - this time a monastery.
Who knows, but we had pot holes and twistys and traffic and Paul managed to deal with it all reasonably well. But then he didn't, and he hit a shortly spaced string of three potholes after trying to overtake a lorry and having to move back in line. Francoise got thrown up in the air and back against the top box. Francoise with jarred back, top box with damaged hinge. Hopefully both repairable. We were lucky. So we calmed down a bit and got to the destination a little bit later and saw the monastery from down below rather than visiting it.
Nothing Day
The top box was 'repaired' with a couple of second hand screws Paul had brought with him. Unlikely to find Imperial threads in Georgia, without getting into where we actually were in Georgia. Questionable how long the repair will last but rest of bike seems OK. Francoise is on Nurofen and had a bad night. So everything to look forward to with a new day....
Road to border with Armenia gets worse. We are over 2,000m and redefining potholes. We do well, but we become even slower. We can have a smile nonetheless at the price of petrol in Georgia, which seems to be less than 50p a litre. If we thought the Turkey side of the Turkey-Georgia border was grim, then we clearly were not prepared for the Georgia-Armenia border. This is one of the grimmest most godforsaken places we have been and being at an altitude of over 2,000m, the weather was blowing in from all directions.
It never takes long for a country to get rid of you in comparison to letting you in. Armenia were certainly not encouraging us and it took over three hours to get through passports, pay $30 dollars Customs fee, take the receipt to the man who filled in the log by hand who wanted to know where and when the motorcycle was made etc and what sort it was, take his bit of paper to the man who gave us another piece of paper to say we could bring it past the stop barrier where it could then be inspected and then we could take the bike to the kiosk where the man would sell us insurance for $20. In Georgia there simply was no insurance, one was 'self- insured.'
It never takes long for a country to get rid of you in comparison to letting you in. Armenia were certainly not encouraging us and it took over three hours to get through passports, pay $30 dollars Customs fee, take the receipt to the man who filled in the log by hand who wanted to know where and when the motorcycle was made etc and what sort it was, take his bit of paper to the man who gave us another piece of paper to say we could bring it past the stop barrier where it could then be inspected and then we could take the bike to the kiosk where the man would sell us insurance for $20. In Georgia there simply was no insurance, one was 'self- insured.'
By this time the very black clouds hanging over Georgia were now over the border control point and after clearing all the officialdom we set off on the @150km ride to Armenia's capital of Yerevan. The road was very boring, potholed - though more had been repaired than in Georgia, but you could not rely on it. We had wind and hail and we were very glad to get to Yerevan. The 150km had taken us three and a half hours, so it made for a long day. The only smile was from getting flashed by a speed camera, though if our average speed was @40km/h we must have been going very slow indeed in parts to warrant a speed flashing.
We arrived tired in Yerevan in our waterproofs. We had come down over a 1,000m and it was now 28 deg C.
Blood, Peace and Apricots.
On our day off we had a guide to show us round Yerevan. Our hotel was near Republic Square, so we had seen that the night before along with the illuminated musical fountains that seem obligatory in this part of the world. The Las Vegas Bellagio it isn't.
We then visited the Cascades Contemporary art museum which was a very ambitious building indeed - the sort of thing Paul tried numerous times to get built but very rarely succeeded - but this wasn't finished, as there were column rebar cages swaying in the air, where construction had stopped. At the end of the Soviet era. In 1991.
We then visited the Genocide museum and were shocked at the pretty rubbish construction and external upkeep of a building that was so important. The guide, who was quite clearly very proud indeed of their country and city, was then reduced to pointing out the metro stations, there is only one line and also foreign embassies. And the Charles Aznavour, famous Armenian, Centre - soon to be memorial one would have thought, he is 94 years old.
Our guide told us many thing about the Armenian National this that and the other and all the symbolism in every thing. She also mentioned that the red, blue and orange stripes of the flag represented the blood that had been lost, the colour of universal peace and aprocots, the national fruit.
We then visited the Genocide museum and were shocked at the pretty rubbish construction and external upkeep of a building that was so important. The guide, who was quite clearly very proud indeed of their country and city, was then reduced to pointing out the metro stations, there is only one line and also foreign embassies. And the Charles Aznavour, famous Armenian, Centre - soon to be memorial one would have thought, he is 94 years old.
Our guide told us many thing about the Armenian National this that and the other and all the symbolism in every thing. She also mentioned that the red, blue and orange stripes of the flag represented the blood that had been lost, the colour of universal peace and aprocots, the national fruit.
We don't get Armenia. It was so poor and desolate where we crossed the border and yet Yerevan is very expensive and cosmopolitan and in some ways is a bit like Madrid in feeling. So much money here - so absolutely the opposite in the country with shepherds living in bricked-up Lada's. With nothing else in Yerevan apart from a Cathedral to see, we took to car spotting - and buying more Nurofen......
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