For leaving the main roads (what we mostly do) we really need our 4×4 here, and in this time of the year definitely. It’s April and the weather is mixed from sun and 22C degrees to hail and snowstorm… the ground is still muddy, the soul is full of clay, what means a mass with Basco who is never clean!
The last 30 km towards the border we drive on a plateau all up on around 2000 m. Hmmm here we are.. Georgia like we expected…. Plains surrounded with snow capped tops. The first signs of spring in the grasslands.
We are looking forward to be back in Georgia in around 4 weeks.
Some actual history:
Georgia as well as Armenie was part of the USSR (Sovjetrepubliek) until it fell apart in 1991. Earlier there were huge bloody protest bij Georgien people who wanted the country leaving the Sovjetrepubliek earlier.
We didn’t remember but In 2008 Russia annexed also two regions in Georgia, like it happened with the Krim and in the war in Ukraine actual. Only that the world didn’t react at this time. The war only took 8 days. North Ossetia, at the northern border between Russia and Georgia and Abkhazia, at the Black Sea, are now like the Krim under Russian regime with a lot of military presence.
We see a lot of Ukrainien flags even on historical buildings. Around two hundred thousand Russians flew to Georgia during the last year, about 10% of the Georgien population is actual Russian.
We were talking with a young Georgien journalist who explained us the concernces of the Georgien people. Understandable. They hope that the government will turn strictly around (and against corruption of some influential rich business men) and to convince the NAVO to get also a lid of the European Union.
The boarder crossing takes a while: weighing and x-ray scanning of the truck. The officer was alarmed … but we could convince him that it was only Basco we left in the truck.
Welcome to Armenie!
