Henry Morgan's epic 3-month cycling odyssey ended in Georgia's Caucasus. Drawn in by stories of untouched mountains, legendary hospitality and incredible food - it didn't disappoint.
The change was instant and stark. A beautifully paved two-way highway tunneled through the mountain and led us to the Turkish border. Arriving in Georgia, we met a single-track road, occasionally unpaved and potholed. The previous wide-open steppe was substituted for woodland and craggier hills. The mosques with their ever-visible minarets gave way to ornamental Orthodox churches.
Josué (Jo) and I had been cycling together since we’d met by chance in Istanbul. After three weeks riding across the windswept plateau in Turkey, we were drawn to Georgia by the stories of untouched mountains, legendary hospitality, unbelievable scenery and incredible food.
In preparation for Georgia, we activated lightweight mode. Road tyres were swapped for MTB tyres, panniers and unnecessary additional camping gear was sent ahead and, after three weeks on the road together, our friendship had reached the stage of sharing a stove and tent in the name of speed!
This is one of the ultimate tricks of the Camino: the ability to be either a road bike, touring bike or a MTB depending on the setup! After a morning of playing ‘but is it really necessary’ we had lost a combined 15kg of gear.
After our first night in Georgia, we headed up and over a large mountain and into inclement weather. Jo, a meteorologist from Switzerland, had been getting very excited about the prospect of some ‘deep moist convection’ (DMC) in the mountains of Georgia after a month of pretty much no precipitation whatsoever.
Safe to say that he got his wish - the heavens opened like there was an ark to be floated! The rain was quite enjoyable for the first ten minutes, After half an hour though we decided that it had rained enough! The damage, however, was already done. Onwards we rode through peanut butter consistency mud which clogged our tyres, forks and drivetrains. We resorted to using a spork to remove mud from the front mech! That night we had a fun time at a car wash…
Feeling accomplished we found a guesthouse for the evening and treated ourselves to a traditional Georgian meal of Khachapuri, perhaps the ultimate bikepacking food.
The next few days passed in a whirlwind of stunning scenery, unpredictable weather, friendly locals and plentiful off-roading. We gradually wound our way northwards through the lowland plateau of central Georgia until we started climbing up towards the Greater Caucasus range.
We rode up valleys with rivers full of dirty meltwater and glacier runoff. These valleys became more and more remote, the villages smaller and smaller.
The growing reality of heading back to the UK was a little hard to face. But thankfully, there were a few more epic days of riding in the Greater Caucasus mountains to come before that happened. We rode impeccable singletrack with the best mountain backdrop one could ask for, weaving through meadows of wildflowers (and giant hogweed - eek!). There were hike-a-bike sections where I was very grateful for the weight loss surgery we had performed on our bikes a few weeks ago and an awesome bivvy at 3200m with some of the best stars I have ever had the fortune to gaze on with my own eyes.
It’s going to be strange heading back to the real world after living simply on the road. You realise how little you really need out here, and how it really is the simple things in life that are important.