Puh, what a day ! Many different stages if excitement, a big triumph and a troublesome end.
In sunshine I started the ascend to the 2000m pass not knowing if it would be possible to cross it. Yesterday some trucker had told me that it would already be closed due to snow, but I wanted to check myself. In the worst case I would have to cycle back all the way to Batumi - through an absolutely amazing landscape, not so bad either.At about 1000m some guys handed me 4 orange tasty fruits. I do not know the name of it - I have seen it before in the expensive exotic fruit section of German supermarkets but it was always out of focus for me. This fruits are very typical for this valley - I had seen many trees of it yesterday and today. The guys also gave me motivation by saying that there is snow on the pass but just a little. Thank you guys for fruits and motivation and thank you GDR education + Andrej Tarkovskijs 'Andrej Rubljev' for never letting me forget the Russian word for snow.
I decided to have one fruit every 250m which turned out to be one fruit about every hour. The road was muddy with many stones making the ride rather shaky. Soon I saw snow topped mountains and upon asking for the way people pointed directly at the snow, uiuiui. To make things even more exciting clouds started to gather. After 3 fruits I reached the snow zone and saw that it was not as bad as expected - though there was a lot of snow around the road was mostly free. Even when more snow began to fall it did not keep me from riding on. When I had nearly reached the top a bus coming from above stopped and the driver handed me some apples and pears and warned me of the many snow on the top. Fortunately he had just underestimated my ability to cope with the cold and soon later I reached the ghost town on the peak, yeah ! All houses were locked for the winter - it was just me and the clouds and the snow, very peaceful.
On the other side the snow soon stopped. The road was still very rough though, so I could not roll down very fast. But even when going slow it was very very shaky. I was in the middle of the forest and it was one hour before sunset when all the shaking was too much for my right front carrier - one of the screws broke, daaaaaaamn! I did not have time for a proper fix: I wanted to get out of the forest before the dark - I do not know if there were any beasts around but it certainly looked like a place where wolves and bears and ghosts and demons dwell. I tried a quick fix with zip ties but it did not work for long. Aaaaaargh! If you cannot fix something with zip ties or duct tape it must be something really bad! I eventually just hung my right front pannier on the handlebar. It did not particularly make the ride down the still very rough road any easier but it somehow made me get out of the forest just before it got completely dark. I only had time to find a camp spot near a river and after a short dinner all the days excitement and exhaustion let me fall asleep soon.
In sunshine I started the ascend to the 2000m pass not knowing if it would be possible to cross it. Yesterday some trucker had told me that it would already be closed due to snow, but I wanted to check myself. In the worst case I would have to cycle back all the way to Batumi - through an absolutely amazing landscape, not so bad either.At about 1000m some guys handed me 4 orange tasty fruits. I do not know the name of it - I have seen it before in the expensive exotic fruit section of German supermarkets but it was always out of focus for me. This fruits are very typical for this valley - I had seen many trees of it yesterday and today. The guys also gave me motivation by saying that there is snow on the pass but just a little. Thank you guys for fruits and motivation and thank you GDR education + Andrej Tarkovskijs 'Andrej Rubljev' for never letting me forget the Russian word for snow.
I decided to have one fruit every 250m which turned out to be one fruit about every hour. The road was muddy with many stones making the ride rather shaky. Soon I saw snow topped mountains and upon asking for the way people pointed directly at the snow, uiuiui. To make things even more exciting clouds started to gather. After 3 fruits I reached the snow zone and saw that it was not as bad as expected - though there was a lot of snow around the road was mostly free. Even when more snow began to fall it did not keep me from riding on. When I had nearly reached the top a bus coming from above stopped and the driver handed me some apples and pears and warned me of the many snow on the top. Fortunately he had just underestimated my ability to cope with the cold and soon later I reached the ghost town on the peak, yeah ! All houses were locked for the winter - it was just me and the clouds and the snow, very peaceful.
On the other side the snow soon stopped. The road was still very rough though, so I could not roll down very fast. But even when going slow it was very very shaky. I was in the middle of the forest and it was one hour before sunset when all the shaking was too much for my right front carrier - one of the screws broke, daaaaaaamn! I did not have time for a proper fix: I wanted to get out of the forest before the dark - I do not know if there were any beasts around but it certainly looked like a place where wolves and bears and ghosts and demons dwell. I tried a quick fix with zip ties but it did not work for long. Aaaaaargh! If you cannot fix something with zip ties or duct tape it must be something really bad! I eventually just hung my right front pannier on the handlebar. It did not particularly make the ride down the still very rough road any easier but it somehow made me get out of the forest just before it got completely dark. I only had time to find a camp spot near a river and after a short dinner all the days excitement and exhaustion let me fall asleep soon.
Dude! Respect! Looks like you don't know fear. Just careful if the weather conditions are such that its can snow. This can be really dangerous. With a heavy bike, the snow makes you go slower than a hiker. On top you won't get any sleep if you have to camp while it snows, because you risk not waking up under a flattened, snow covered tent.
ReplyDeleteA guy from Pilniz gave me the tip to have these metal bands that you can tighten with a screw (you know these things that are made to attach a dussel to a hosepipe) in my bag for cases like you just had one.
Ride on!
Felix
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaki | the name(s) of the fruit you "recommended"!
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