Fabian introduced me to Günther, a Pajero Intercooler Turbo and his choice of car to drive him anywhere he wants.
We skipped the small talk about the weather and travel destinations (we just agreed that Georgia is highly overrated) and dove right into religion (are you OS or Windows/Android) and politics (refugees, anyone?) and after surviving that without any blood share the fun part could begin, filling the days with black humour and political incorrectness.
Borjomi
Our first stop was Borjomi, where we chose a road that brought us off the main road and into the woods. We finally arrived at a border to the national park and thought we might need to turn around again, but the park rangers let us enter after having registered the car and ourselves. The road was slowly becoming more of a path, but nothing Günther couldn’t handle, until we finally arrived at a clearing with welcoming grass for a picnic. Since we didn’t think it would get any better we decided to stay there for the night. We couldn’t really decide if the surrounding nature looked more like Switzerland or the black forest, although Fabian clearly opted for the black forest and I at the end didn’t care; I was happy to be away from the city and at a place I would have never gotten to on my own. We were away from any civilisation and it was warm enough to stay outside and stargaze until late at night which does not happen too often. Usually it’s either freezing cold, or too light polluted, or too cloudy, or the moon shines too bright… Not that night though and it was difficult to let go and get ready for bed. Still, we would need to keep moving the next day and needed a bit of sleep. I could have slept in my tent, but Fabian was so nice to offer me one side of his bed and let’s face it, I am lazy and did not want to pitch my tent every day, it was still raining a lot and I am also scared alone outside in the dark. A car is dry and warm and comfy and safe and I gladly took his offer which he luckily did not mind.
We weren’t really sure what to do the following day, but then found a lake which we decided to check out. Getting there was a fair bit of dirt road and I was glad we had the right car for this. Even with a 4×4 it took us pretty long to get there. Nevertheless, the lake was worth it. It was pretty secluded without many tourists; just a small village with some lovely villagers who befriended a polish guy we met at the lake and cooked some fish for us, before they left for their homes again. Maybe that was the famous Georgian hospitality which was there before tourists overrun the country. The lake was nice and we were lazy, resulting in us spending two nights there instead of just one and spending the day with swimming, sun bathing, and relaxing.
Border Crossing Georgia – Azerbaijan
Fabian was a little eager to leave the country, so we headed towards the north-eastern border to Azerbaijan at Lagodekhi.
It took us two days to get there but when we arrived, the border crossing couldn’t have been easier. I worried a bit about my Armenian stamp in my passport, but the border guards couldn’t have cared less. Fabian was his usual self and I started to think we would get in trouble more because of his jokes than because of my passport stamp, but it was really the most relaxed border crossing ever. The border guards were equally cheerful and so we joked our way into Azerbaijan.
