Statistics Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran

I have some time to kill (waiting for the Indian visa & rest phase of Marathon preparation) - so finally here are the statistics of Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Iran:


Turkey:

Days spent in country: 64
Cycling days: 44,5
Restdays:  19,5
Distance cycled: 3246,46 km
Average km/day: 50,73 
Money spent: 2230,12 €
Average €/day: 34,85
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing 7
- Hotel/Hostel 39
- Wild Camping 14
- Official Camping 3
- Airport 1
Things lost: 1 underwear in Antalya, 1 melon somewhere along the Marmara sea
Things lost & found: Joergs wallet, my mobile
Things regained: cycling socks (forgotten in Bulgaria, thank you Hanni !!!)
Things broke: 
- torquing support (Drehmomentstuetze): quick fix with zip ties, later repaired with angle grinder in Trabzon, 
- 1 Pannier (slash through the front): thank you Joerg for letting me use yours !
- 1 more underwear
Repairs done in Trabzon: replace chain, turn sprocket, replace bottom bracket, grind torquing support in shape



Georgia:

Days spent in country: 6
Cycling days: 5
Restdays:  1
Distance cycled:  312,46km
Average km/day: 52,08
Money spent: 133,39 €
Average €/day: 22,23
Accomodation:
- Hotel/Hostel 5
- Wild Camping 1 
Things broke: front carrier, cycling gloves (during an ironing accident, still usable though)



Armenia:

Days spent in country: 15
Cycling days: 10
Restdays:  5
Distance cycled: 615,47 km
Average km/day: 41,03
Money spent: 402,91 €
Average €/day: 26,86
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing 1
- Hotel/Hostel 13
- Wild Camping 1
Things broke: front carrier (several times)



Iran:

Days spent in country: 55
Cycling days: 35
Restdays:  20
Distance cycled: 2802,57 km
Average km/day: 50,96
Money spent: 1065 €
Average €/day: 19,36
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing 5
- Hotel/Hostel 41
- Wild Camping 8
Things broke: front carrier (again and again, broke less often after fixing it with some door hinges)

Day 122 Akhalkalaki - Gyumri

It was cold when I woke up but soon the sun made the day very enjoyable. Most of the day I cycled across a high plain offering sublime views over snow topped mountain ranges. A wonderful farewell to Georgia! On the border everyone was extremely nice - maybe except for a couple of dogs who chased me through no man's land. Getting the Armenian visa was easy: fill some form, change money, pay (3000 Dram = 6 € for 21 days) and off I went. Armenia again ! I have been here before - 2 years ago, travelling with my dad. Back then we did not go to the northwestern corner, so it will take me a bit more time until I am on known ground. The first thing I realized about Armenia: in that corner it is an very empty country - big distances between the villages and inbetween only hills covered with stones and yellowish brownish grass. But it was really nice - along with the clear cold air and the sunshine it really felt like ultimate freedom. In Gyumri I had since accomodation problems: the two hotels I found were full - but I also did not feel like camping at -6°. Fortunately I found another one: Hotel Golden Apricot - the
most expensive hotel on that trip, but it was worth it: Very nice room and I even got served a Golden Apricot Cake and Tea, mmmhhhh.

Day 121 Akhalcikhe - Akhalkalaki

The coin had decided: more of Georgia and all through Armenia.
I started in sunshine along the way that made me think about cycling through more of Georgia. Basically the whole day was the same: cycling along a river through a deep gorge. But even though there was not much change throughout the day it was utterly beautiful. Most of the trees on the river wore their yellow autumn dress and some bushes on the slopes stood out with a bright red. Temperatures were close to freezing, but most times the sun saved me from feeling the cold.Only in late afternoon it got cloudy and about 2km before arriving in Akhalkalaki some snow began to fall. I found shelter under the roof of a defunct gas station and used the time to clean my bicycle - very much necessary after the wild ride over the mountains some days ago. 2 truckers joined me under the roof and offered me a place in the warmth of their truck - as the snow had stopped I refused and cycled up to Akhalkalaki. The city itself is not very impressive but the location is stunning: on the edge of a high plain with views to snowtopped mountains on all sides. After skipping an overpriced russian owned hotel with unfriendly staff I found a place at Hotel Ararat - as the names suggests run by an very hospitable Armenian and offering views to a particularly beautiful mountain.

Day 120 Akhalcikhe - Vardzia - Akhalcikhe

Georgia won't let me go.
I started early for a taxi trip to nearby monasteries, castles and the cave city of Vardzia with Ivan. After 30+ years of travelling to 160+ countries he is quite experienced in negotiating in unknown languages. We had the names of the places we wanted to see written down in Georgian script and soon found a taxi driver who would drive us there for a reasonable price.
It was foggy when we started but soon the sun came out. And a thought started to develop in my mind: The road looked like a very nice road for cycling... Along a wild river in a beautiful gorge, very good road, not much traffic, nowhere too steep. But it was the way to Armenia. However Armenia also has a border with Iran. Mmmmhhh, but if I would take this way I would miss Turkish Kurdistan. I decided to postpone the decision until the evening.
The first stop was Khertvisi castle.
We had the castle for ourselves (not counting some goats) and I was surprised to find a nearby sign showing cycle paths ! In the end these turned out to be the normal roads, but it is still great that cyclists were thought of.
We continued to the cave city of Vardzia. I was wrong yesterday: it is not an underground city but a city of caves dug into a cliff. After just coming from cappadocia and seeing places like Petra (Jordan) and Lalibela (Ethiopia) some years ago it did not look overly impressive to me on first sight but it turned out to be a nice place which was fun to explore. In the splendidly painted main church a baptism was prepared but we felt a bit like intruders and did not stay for the ceremony. An italian women, also a seasoned traveller crossed our path and we offered her a lift to a nearby nunnery. The taxi stopped at a gate and we saw two nuns working guarded by a huge white dog. They waved us in and the dog turned out to be a very bad watchdog - just happily befriending every stranger. A short walk up the hill the main nunnery appeared and we were shown the way to the church. I was amazed to rediscover some symbolism I know from Ethiopian churches: 3 windows depicting the crucifixion of Jesus and the guy to his right going up to heaven while the guy to his right went down to hell for eternal suffering. Inside the church featured some magnificant frescoes. However I was more impressed by the nuns - in the rare case of seeing a nun in Germany she is always very old. Here the nuns were mostly young and some really beautyful. I know that their dress is supposed to make them unattractive but it did not work in my case - real beauty is in the movement of the body, in a look, in a smile and this cannot be hidden (ok, a burka might work for some of this, but that's nothing I would recommend).
On the way back we visited another small cave dwelling before we took the bumpy dirt road up to a monastery hidden in the woods. When we arrived a bunch of novices were playing volleyball. After coming from Turkey it is nice to see such old christian places being alive. The monastery was a very peaceful place, especially in the late afternoon when we arrived. Once again it offered a beautifully painted church but the most beautiful aspect was the location high in the mountains, in the woods, offering great views into the valleys and snowtopped mountains far away.

When we got back to Akhalcikhe I checked the way through Armenia in the Internet and found out that it is very well possible. Mmmmh, how to decide ? There is only one way: Toss a coin. I still had a Turkish 1 lira coin left, so: "1" for Armenia, Ataturk for Turkey. And the winner was: "1" !!!

Day 119 Zarzma - Akhalcikhe

Today was much less exiting than extraordinary yesterday. I got up very early after a nearly cold night - I had 5°C in the tent, just as low as my sleeping bag can handle without problems. I spent the first hour screwing. The front carrier screw that broke yesterday was a bit too long - which was very fortunate as I had a chance to screw out the rest of it from the back using my leatherman. However it was not an easy task and it took me quite some time until I had that damn little thing out of the screwhole and I could reinstall the front carrier. My tent was still very wet but I did not see any chance that it would dry soon. I just packed it as it was and started my ride down the still bumpy and very muddy road. A non existing road on openstreetmap made me miss the famous monastery of Zarzma. Maybe I was not in the right condition for divinity anyways - stinky, dirty and muddy. After an hour or so the road suddenly turned from mud and stones to proper asphalt, aaaaaah, how nice. The rest of the ride was easy. In Akhalcikhe I found a hotel - everything soviet style: the huge hallway, the rundown rooms, the very strict lady at administration,...  The big room with balcony was perfect for drying my tent, my shoes, my clothes, my self.
After some rest I had a look at the impressive castle towering over the town. On the way up I met seasoned traveller Ivan from Australia who turned out to reside in the same hotel. In the castle a lot of construction was going on - really a lot, they seemed to reconstruct the whole structure. Georgia is clearly trying to get ready for tourism.
In the evening I met again with Ivan and decided to prolong my stay in Georgia and join him tomorrow on a trip to an underground city, a monastery and more.

Day 118 Khulo - Zarzma

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.