Georgia Day 5 - The Road to Batumi

Wednesday 17th August

After breakfast, we headed out towards our meeting point for transfer to Batumi. They arrived late and it was a minibus and about half of the passengers were Russians. For the entire length of the journey the driver spoke incessantly on his mobile phone. We left dry Tbilisi behind, we drove past distant mountain ranges and everything gradually became greener.

Our Minibus

We stopped briefly at Sarumi, a place I knew from an old Georgian film. The driver said Десять минута ათი წუთი (ten minutes) in both Russian and Georgian. I understood both. A good lucking Russian guy got out, and I was trying not to make it obvious that I liked him. There were also lots of Arabs with their wives all dressed in black Burkhas. I don't know how they dealt with the heat. We bundled back into the sweltering minibus with just enough time to buy a sickly sweet type of bread that I had to throw away. We continued our journey passing lots of cows on the road, we had to serve a few times so as not to hit them, and we actually saw some very disciplined cows walking in a straight line following each other down the dotted line in the centre of the road. We stopped again for a break and continued towards Batumi.

Sickly sweet bread thingy

As we go nearer to Batumi we noticed dark grey clouds, and everything was incredibly green in contrast to Tbilisi. The young Russian guy stepped forward and politely pointed out that he had missed his stop. He was told to walk back along the motorway with his bags. In the last 15 km or so other drivers were trying to communicate to the driver that something was wrong. It turned out that the luggage compartment was open!

Tasty snacks I should have bought

When we arrived in Batumi it turned out that nobody seemed to be aware of our booking. After some messages we got the address which was close to the airport. Finally at our destination, the driver wanted to keep the change from the 100 Lari (35 euros). In the end he only gave back 50 Lari, meaning we paid 3 times the standard fair. Before sleeping I stocked up open food and water before having an early night.

In a word #გზაზე

#Georgia #Minibus #Marshrutka #მარშრუტკა #საქართველო #თბილისი #ბათუმი #Tbilisi #Batumi #Маршутка