The last day in Turkey started off perfectly: when I opened the window in the morning, the sun was shining and the sky was blue with only a few thin clouds. After breakfast, we rested a bit before setting off. Or almost: one of the screws on Shaun’s front rack had broken, and he had to fix it before he could ride. With two zip ties, the problem was at least temporarily solved, and we were finally able to leave at 11:40.

Along the Black Sea coast, we saw many tea plantations, and in Fındıklı we even saw a factory where the tea is apparently processed. Besides the tea fields, we also kept seeing snow-covered mountains further inland, while a headwind was blowing against us. It seems to be a rule: either bad weather with tailwind or good weather with headwind. But after two days of rain, the nice weather was definitely a pleasure.

After a bit more than 50 km, about 12 km before the Georgian border, we saw two other cyclists and of course immediately spoke to them. They were Shayenne and Lukas from Germany, also heading east with heavily loaded bikes.

It was great to see other people again, so from then on we rode together as a group of four. Trucks had already been lining the roadside about 20 km before the border, and now they were queued up to cross. We rode past them and were even waved through at the border—a privilege probably reserved for cyclists. There was some confusion about the border process, and at one point we were sent back to get exit stamps. However, since I had entered Turkey with my ID card and not my passport, I didn’t receive a stamp. After some back and forth, I was still able to leave the country.

I was hoping the Georgian side wouldn’t check the stamps in the passport—and indeed, they didn’t. At first, we didn’t really know what to do there either and stood in the wrong line for 15–20 minutes before being told to go elsewhere—namely where the baggage scanners were. We were already imagining having to remove all our bags from the bikes to scan them, but one man told us to just go through. Even though he wasn’t an official border guard, we tried it anyway. After receiving our entry stamps, we simply walked past the scanners and no one stopped us. The bikes wouldn’t have fit in the scanners anyway, so why not… 😉

On the Georgian side, we took some photos for the first time and wondered why there was an EU flag there, before continuing toward Batumi. For Shayenne and Lukas, Batumi was their planned destination, while Shaun and I had originally wanted to continue toward the Goderdzi Pass. Lukas told us that two cyclists had crossed the pass two days earlier, and I also remembered seeing that in a group chat, though I hadn’t realized we would be going that way too—or at least intended to. Suddenly, however, we saw a sign saying the pass was closed. After some discussion, we decided not to take the risk and “only” ride to Batumi. Instead of gaining some elevation on the mountain road, we found ourselves back in busy city traffic.

At least this way, we got to see Shayenne and Lukas again. They told us which hotel they had booked, and we went to the same place. When we arrived shortly before 20:00 local time—the clocks had moved forward by an hour today—they weren’t there yet, as they had gone to the beach first. There was also a mix-up at reception, as the staff thought we were the two Germans with the reservation. We didn’t have a booking, but luckily there was exactly one room left, which we took. We ended the evening with a shared dinner to celebrate arriving in Georgia, giving us more time to talk—fortunately, as we had so much to talk.