Vlado and I decided that our next biking trip should be away from the chaotic and unpleasant car traffic in Tbilisi, so we asked our driver Dima to give us and our bikes a lift to the Zhinvali reservoir north of Tbilisi.
We had planned to bike along the reservoir to its start, but we had no specific plans on what to do next.
The weather was beautiful with sunshine and autumn colours. We had reached the north end of the reservoir, where we observed a lot of cormorants and herons with their own heron tree.
Then we took a decision that we were going to regret. We took a jeep track up in the mountains that the local told us would lead to Tianeti, the centre in the Tianeti district. The road was were bad steep and not suited for cycling, and in the end it totally disappeared. After 2 hours of dragging the bike we finally reached the top where a dirt road was going down. Soon we reached the first village which seemed to be very poor and with a lot of drunken men.
As 2003 studies of poverty in Georgia suggest that Mtskheta-Mtianeti Region, and Tianeti district in particular, are among the poorest regions and districts of Georgia. In 2003, 63% of the population of Tianeti was below the poverty line, compared to 47% of the Georgian population. 14% of Tianeti families were receiving social assistance in December 2008, compared to 8% countrywide . During the Soviet times, Tianeti was a district (‘rayon’) center. Several food processing enterprises, factories, as well poultry and meat producing farms were functioning in the district, providing employment opportunities for the local population.
From Tianeti with its ruins from the glorious the soviet past (intourist hotel etc.) and a beautiful newly painted statue of good old Stalin we continued direction Tbilisi.
We thought that now we could drive downhill the whole way, but we were soon found out that we were totally mistaken. We had to crass several mountain passes (or hills) on our way. So after a couple of hours cycling we decided to call Dima and ask if he could pick us up. Unfortunately there was no signal for our Mobil phones, so we had to continue over a couple of hills before we could ask him to come and pick us up.
He missed us in the dark, bur some help from friendly locals we succeeded to find each other.
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