DAY TWO… 27.75 miles (44.25 km)
We cannot leave before we have had breakfast they say. Alarmingly there are two chickens in a big pot. For us? We protest and say we must leave, but no, not before we have had some khachapuri. This is probably the worst thing for someone like me, avoiding gluten. It is composed of heavy dough and cheese, a kind of cheese pie. It weighs a ton. We take some for breakfast and there is another one for lunch. This will keep us on the road for about a week! It’s about two kilos minimum, extra weight for Tim to carry.
The father tells us not to do what we planned as the roads are terrible and tells us to cycle over the nearby mountain then get a train. Kindly, (God this family are the kindest ever!!) he drives over the mountain with our panniers and the massive khachapuri in his car, whilst we cycle, unencumbered. On the way we stop to try and find fuel. The family have already offered us all their candles, we didn’t explain what we meant by “paraffin” very well and on the way, the father takes us to a hardware/paint shop where we can only find a big bottle acetone spray paint thinner, that would be somewhat explosive in our multi-fuel cooker ! In the end, we go to a petrol station & fill our metal fuel bottle there.
It’s quite a wait till the next train 12.15pm, but we have our tickets this time.
We’ve camped in Borjomi national park. It’s a lovely spot by the river. Sadly, we only managed to procure petrol, or is it diesel (?), for our multi-fuel stove so there is a lot of nasty black soot everywhere. Somehow, we managed to cook some ready dhal and poha (Indian Flaked Rice).
