Ukraine was fun – kilometers of bumpy holed roads where sometimes it was easier to drive on the side of the road than on it. Two nights in Ukraine and it was time to enter Russia. Boarder was not funny. We spent there 6 hrs unpacking everything from the cars. What a mess. But later on Russia was just a relaxed road and highway drive with a few stops for overnighting all the way to the Georgian boarder for the fun to start later on. Having been to Georgia before I knew a few places to visit. First night in Kazbegi down in the valley was so peaceful. Entering the valley at night I used all the lumen power I had in Simba to find a place to park while others were waiting up on the road for my signal. Morning showed the glory of Georgia – sun rising from behind the mountain and a morning coffee were just what a traveller needs. I needed to roll some kilometers and inhale the beauty of Georgia. Truso valley was the vast grand emptiness which we do not get living further west. And at that time I understood that work is over advertised. Georgia brought some challenges to the squad that we were traveling as but overall brought a lot of gasps at the sights. We entered the Vashlovani National Park full of expectations and boy were we right. The areas vast highland planes and dead river beds were all but boring. We were smoothly driving our Defenders through the little canyon Colorado made in Georgia and enjoyed it immensely despite the blazing heat. Having stopped on the side of the river and pitched up our camp, much to our surprise we saw some cars in the distance. As they got closer we could recognize the familiar rectangular shape of the Defender and following him a bunch of Discoveries which were nearing us. Soon Krzysztof’s smiling face appeared from the car and we fell into each others arms and partied half the night with our fellow travelers from Poland.
From the south we decided to head north to get almost to the boarder of Chechnya the next evening. We travelled along a mountain path and by the evening got to the Shatili fortress. Georgia is full of these beautiful architectural treasures. Even the graves are incredibly unusual. After mountain passes we started heading back south towards Turkey. Unfortunately my friends Defender first lost the gearbox which was quickly fixed in Gori but just after passing the boarder to Turkey he lost his cylinder head gasket and Simba had to pull again. No big problem for such a strong lion 💪🦁.Some 150km of towing my friend to Erzurum and we were back on the road. Both cars smoothly drove all the way to Poland.