JOURNEY TO THE WEST
Next stop Kutaisi - Georgias second biggest city. We filled up on precious 98 Gas and Cheesebread and got onto the highway - very smooth riding
Later we exchanged the highway for some gravel road along an old railway and a beautiful river. Was a great ride - Just the few cows and pigs on the road seem to be not used to
Motorcycle Tourism and tested our skills with their suicidal escape manouvers.
In Kutaisi we checked into a homestay and had dinner - we decided it was enough with this cheesebread overdose and switched back to good old shahslyk for dinner.
Next day we plan to arrive in Mestia - a city in the heart of Svanetia where the famous svan people live. A long twisty road will lead up to this remote mountain town and we where very excited and happy for the things to come.
Already the way to the mountain road was beautiful...trough romantic small villages, with a tiny glance at snowcapped mountain ranges in the distance.
There was even some offroad shortcuts that we gladly took. - as we are adventurers and even have cool offroad tires this should be no problem for us.
But our non-existant offroad training paid off and Matthias took a bad fall.
After pulling the throttle a little to hard on a bumpy rocky uphill section he got airborne and found himself lying on his back - the bike in the bushes next to the road.
Chris and Kim came running and Kim, who saw many accidents already, was really worried that something serious had happened.
But Matthias got up and apparently had no injuries "I am fine!" he said -lucky bastard - the bike had some small bits broken but nothing that cant be fixed.
So after a short break to shake off the shock and analyze the damage we continued our way to Mestia.
The road kept its promise and we saw some of the most amazing scenery in a long time. Easily on one step with the beauiful mountain roads in Kyryzstan.
Mestai itself was a bit of a surprise. Very pretty between snowcappped peaks and forests that just changed into autum colors but also very touristy.
Just the numerous ancient watchtowers stay original and stand tall amongst the new
guesthouses and the mighty mountains serve as spectacular backdrop.
These watchtowers served as defense when the Svan people where fighting off intruders from other provinces in the middle ages.
The women and kids stayed at the bottom while the men looked out the windows on top and shot at everything that moved.
The old towers look really cool and remind of the wild ancient times where the only "tourists" who came to Mestia had to be afraid of their live.
Now Mestia mainly serves as a base for hikers who want to explore the mountain ranges that surround it.
When we arrived at the town square there was loud music - the local youth was rehearsing some kind of cultural dance festival that will happen on the next day -sunday.
Later we could hear some georgian live music while we where having a beer in the only bar in town. Its a very unique sound. We got curious about the festival and decided to start
drinking chacha - the local schnaps- and stay for another day for the festival and hear some more of this poweful music and see some gorgeous georgian girls dance.
I think we drank a bit too much Chacha - When we arrived on Sunday afternoon at the town square for the festival they where already packing up.
Apparently the festival had started at eleven - when we and our hangover just got out of bed... shame on us.
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