Georgian Chaos.

Here we are in the first new country for me so far, and hence the first place where I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Our border crossing from Turkey eventually took just over 7 hours so as we drove into Georgia it was starting to get dark. We've not actually done much driving at night yet but when we have it's mostly been simple motorway stuff. Driving into Batumi, the second largest city in Georgia, to try and find a hostel proved to be anything but simple though. It's hard to pick whether to start with the roads or the drivers. So I'm going to start with the animals.

In Georgia cows rule the roads. On any road, up to and including motorways, you cannot take for granted that it won't have a cow in the middle of it. Far from running to avoid traffic the cows are perfectly happy to just lie down on a road with trucks whizzing down it at 100km/h. So if you can avoid the cows and occasional stray dog the next thing to avoid is the pot holes. Never in my life have I seen potholes so deep and so frequent. Couple this with having a tiny car with a lot of weight in and it's a recipe for disaster.

'Not even being herded anywhere'

As I drove through Batumi swerving to avoid all of the above I was therefore glad of the fact that obeying any rules of the road seems fairly optional here. The main rule seems to just be whoever can get the nose of their car in first has right of way; with this extending to everything including roundabouts. Overtaking is also an art form here, with the aim to push the person you are overtaking as far towards the verge as you can so that the oncoming traffic is not an issue. They laugh in the face of blind corners and hill crests, and it's double points if you can get four abreast as people overtake in both directions.

Anyway, we somehow survived all this and drove to an address we had for a hostel. Unable to find it very luckily the first house we stopped to ask at happened to be a hostel too. So we pitched up there and had a chilled out night with a few beers. Yesterday, we drove from Batumi to Tbilisi (the capital), encountering more erratic driving but making it in good time. The only real highlight was stopping at a tiny place for some lunch, pointing at some meat as the whole menu was unreadable and ending up with a delicious meal which cost about £3.

'Better than anything you'd get on the M5'

We spent last night out in the old town; nipping up to the old castle on the hilltop for a panoramic view of the city, before eating and having a good number more beers as part of a game of 'Cheers Guv'nor' taught to us by Caleb, Alex, and Rich. Sat in the hostel now I actually feel okay but there are a few rough looking faces about this morning, and I think the late nights and early starts are taking their toll somewhat. On to Armenia today though to continue the progress!

'A cloudy night in Tbilisi'