The next morning we managed to have breakfast and pack everything up during a lull in the rain. Just as we were loading up the bikes though, the raindrops started to fall and we soon found ourselves nicely drenched. This didn’t dampen our sprits though, we were both very excited to get going again on our first full day of touring back.
What did dampen our spirits was the flat tyre Finn discovered after wheeling his bike away from camp. There was definitely something caught in his tyre that kept puncturing the tubes, but it was too wet and cold this morning to find it. After almost an hour of trying we eventually had to give up.

 

 
We weren’t that far from Batumi, a bit over an hours cycle from where we were. We found a bus shelter in the small town where Finn could wait and I left my bags with him and went back to Batumi to find a new tyre. The ride back was much quicker, going downhill with a tailwind unloaded. It was really wet, but new winter gear was holding up well in the adverse conditions. Getting into town it was a fast turnaround after I found the only bike shop in Batumi (located on the corner of Pushkin St. And 26 May St. for anyone wondering). It’s a pretty basic affair, more a whole in the wall repair shop but it did have a few spare tyres lying around and one that would fit Finns wheel.
Back in Acharistskale three hours after leaving and arriving at the bus station Finn is nowhere to be seen. His bike and all the stuff is still here so I guess he’s just gone to the shop. Suddenly I see Finn running up the street. 

“Hugo I’m in some old dudes house and his wife is serving us lunch come on. Quick., it’s on the table.”

This is how we ended up in Nodzari and Lilyannas lovely warm house. Nodzari and started talking to Finn while he was waiting at the bus station, he had a bit of English. He invited Finn back to his house and now his wife, Lillyanna was serving us a very welcome bowl of meatball and potato stew with thick crusty bread. Eating this in their big main room next to the crackling metal stove after three hours riding in the rain was too perfect.
At one point during the meal Nodzari disappeared jnto another room and emerged with a bottle of Russian vodka. The rest of the lunch was punctuated by Nodzari filling our glasses, proposing a toast and then Lilyanna scolding him after we finished our drink. This continued until the bottle ran out when Nodzari then held up the empty bottle, shook it and declared “vodka problem”.

After lunch we sat around and talked, as much as we could with the two of them. They were grandparents, their children lived in Batumi and another nearby town. Nodzari used to be a police man and border guard at the Turkish border. They both seemed really excited about a computer they had in the corner of the room and kept asking us to “internet Irlanda”.

Lilyanna then offered us a bed for the night in the house. It had gotten pretty late so we weren’t realistically going to make any significant distance. Also the weather outside had gotten increasingly worse. So we graciously accepted.

We spent the evening in their warm room, watching dubbed Indian soap opera on TV. Until a storm blew in and knocked out the power. One of their grandkids paid a flying visit and after w head tea and then went to bed quite early, they both seemed tired and we didn’t want to keep them up. Outside the rain was lashing and the wind was howling, a real storm had whipped up. We were pretty grateful to not be out in it.

I spent quite a bit of time in Batumi. Finn went back to Ireland to get out Pakistan visa and to go to his college graduation so the bike tour was put on hold for a while. I enjoyed having a decent break anyway, during the last few days in Turkey we had both been feeling tired so a decent rest from cycling was long overdue. 
  
Batumi is an interesting place, it’s right by the Black Sea and a really nice promenade extends around a headland filled with new skyscrapers going up, along a stoney breach for maybe 5km. From the seaside inland the city is nice, orderly and clean from three blocks until you cross the main road of the city and get into ‘real’ Georgia, where everything is ten times as busy, hectic and noisy. The old town where most of the hostels are found is funny, it’s all cobblestones and old European architecture, but I’m pretty sure it was all put in recently as a ploy for tourists to have somewhere nice to walk around.

 

 
During the stay in Batumi I ran into a bunch of other cycle tourers who had either just come the way we had, or from the way were planning to go. First was an American guy named Dan who had been a rock climber when he was younger and had gotten into bike touring later in life when his son invited him on a tour of SE Asia. Dan had just done a small cycle from Ankara to Batumi while over from the USA on a business trip.

 

 
Next was Grum from New Zealand who was cycling around the world in 900 days. He had originally planned 5 years, but his wife was having none of that, so 900 days was what he had worked out. When I met him he was into month 17 of the trip and had come via Nepal and Iran and he passed on some great info about cycling in those counties. You can check out his website 

 

 
There was also Gerrard, a retiree from the UK who had been all over the world before it seemed, and was still trucking(peddling?). Previous tours had taken him through Asia and also Syria and Egypt, a route he wanted to repeat this time but had to change direction given the current climate. He was trying to get an Iranian visa in Batumi, having heard (I’m not sure from where) that it was possible to get one here without the usual bureaucratically hullabaloo needed. I’m not sure if his hearsay panned out as we left before he managed to get his visa.

 

 
There was also a Canadian backpacker called Adam who had been in the go seven months and getting a bit bored of the backpacking lifestyle. After sitting around and listening to us all go on about how fantastic travelling by bike is, he struck a deal with Dan to buy his bike when Dan finished his tour at Odessa, Ukraine and start his own tour from there. I thought it was very cool to jump in just like that, no experience of it before. 

 

 
Finn returned after a week back in Ireland with Pakistan visas in hand and a whole lot of winter gear we had ordered before he left. Having the visas done is a real bonus, Pakistan is a notoriously difficult country to get a visa for on the road (they seem to only issues tourist visas in country of residence). A big goal of the trip is to go cycling along the Karakoram Highway between Pakistan and China and having one of the two permits required to get on the highway at the start of is next leg was a great lift.
The time off in Batumi was munch appreciate but I was ready to get going again once Finn got back.