Date: April 5th, 2016
Distance: 124 km
Song of the Day: Pedal Pusher - Stereophonics

I woke up today feeling good. I had a pretty short day ahead of me, and since I was up in the mountains heading to the coast, it should be kinda downhill. For the first part of the day it was, mostly. I even had the wind to my back more or less. Things were good.

A third of the way through the day the land started changing. I lost the farms and forests and came to a place with rocky hills and bare, grassy valleys. There just wasn't much around. There were just one or two villages in this area that I went through. Mostly, it was barren land. I was shocked that the land was this empty, as close to Baku as I was. In spite of the austere nature of the place, it did have its own charms, though. Just after the halfway point I crossed a ridge and the wind direction changed on me. It was now coming from the north, on my left side. With no trees to block it, the gusts began to get pretty strong.

The last third of the day was riding in the outskirts of Baku. Nothing exciting, but at least the addition of buildings along the road kept the wind down a bit.

For once I got to my destination well before sunset. I had arranged to stay with a family in Baku I met on Warm Showers. That is a site for touring cyclists to find local people to host them. So far I am a big fan. The family I am staying with is amazing, two parents and two young boys. I love being able to meet people and just be able to relax and tell stories. I think Baku is going to be fun.



-Dravis

Date: April 4th, 2016
Distance: 175 km
Song of the Day: Dogs of War - Pink Floyd

Son of a bitch. When I got up today I noticed that one of my panniers had a large rip in it. When I saw that, I knew exactly what had happened. I should start by saying that I am getting really tired of dogs around here. I am starting to hate them, which is too bad because back home I love dogs. I grew up with them. Dogs are a part of the family. Out here, though, dogs are nasty and stupid creatures. There really isn't a day where I don't get chased by some stupid mutt. I am just trying to ride my bike along the road when some dog comes out barking at me. I'm sick of it. Even more, because the same dog will ignore all the cars that go by on the road, but go after me. There have even been more than a few that have jumped in front of cars in order to chase me. Idiots. Even the chickens here know not to go out onto the road. (Insert your own chicken crossing the road joke here.) Anyway, yesterday I had been going by a police checkpoint when a group of dogs came running at me. While I was shooing one dog away, a second came up and bit something on the back of my bike. I didn't know where, but I could feel my bike getting pulled around a bit. Well, now I know where, and I have a big hole to prove it. That was just annoying me all day. I know, I should be happy the dog didn't tear that hole in me. Still, I don't think it would have bit me. It was just trying to get me to move, which I was already doing. Idiot dog. The police were super helpful as well. Their advice was, "Go faster". Thanks guys.

When I could put that out of my mind, I was having a pretty good day. The sun was out, the road was mostly flat, the wind was at my back. The landscape was kind of pretty in spite of the flatness. I could always look out toward the Greater Caucasus to the north. On the south side of me was a large line of grassy hills.

In the afternoon the road started getting more hilly. Whoever had designed the road seemed to want to skirt the mountains as close as possible. Thanks for that one, anonymous road engineer. As it was getting late in the day I came over one ridge and saw another big climb ahead of me. I figured I would have just enough time to do that hill and then be able to coast down into Shemakhi at sunset, then I would be at my stopping point before it really got dark. I was almost right. As I crested the next climb, Shemakhi was only 15 kilometers away. Then I started looking at the hydrology. I was riding along a ridge between two rivers. Neither of them had a road running along them. The ridge I was on ended a few miles further down in what looked like a cliff. So, no road there. That meant I was going to have to drop all the way down to one of the rivers, then up the other side of the ravine. Damn you, hydrology. I was hoping for a big long bridge, but that wasn't my luck. Instead I was screaming down this steep and winding road in the fading twilight as it plummeted toward the river below. That is one of the scariest descents I have had in a while. There was a small bridge over the river, and then I had to basically regain all the elevation I had just lost. Urgh. That was not fast. I finally got to Shemakhi, very tired, well after dark.



-Dravis

Date: April 3rd, 2016
Distance: 143 km
Song of the Day: What's Going On - Marvyn Gaye

It was just six short kilometers to the border to Azerbaijan, yet the crossing took longer than any other on this trip. Then again, this is basically the first country where I needed a real visa for it. They also took the time to scan my panniers. No one else has bothered to really check what I'm taking into their country. Thankfully, my stuff is pretty boring.

Today was not quite as nice as yesterday, cloudy and cold. I was really hoping for weather like yesterday's. The Greater Caucasus mountains would have been way more beautiful. Instead they were just okay looking. Oh well.

Then things started to clear up a bit as night came on. At dusk the sun began throwing an amazing pink and purple light onto the mountains. That was an awesome sight. I sometimes kick myself for getting started so late and riding as late into the night as I do, but I would have missed that spectacular view if I hadn't been riding around as the sun set.



-Dravis

Date: April 2nd, 2016
Distance: 162 km
Song of the Day: On the Road Again - Willie Nelson

This was my last day in Tbilisi. It has been really fun, but I am quite ready to be going somewhere new. For once, getting out of town was pretty easy. Just get on George W. Bush street and go east. I am not kidding about that. The first twenty kilometers sucked, though. Not because it was difficult, it was just a big ugly highway. Soon enough, though, the road got smaller and things became more interesting, rolling hills with large pastures and vineyards all around. The day was sunny and spring flowers are starting to bloom. It really was a beautiful day. This is the kind of bicycle ride I love when I am back home, only now I'm on the other side of the world. It can be hard to tell, though. Farmland looks like farmland no matter what continent you are on.

The only difference is the little stands on the side of the road. Some are selling Churchkhela, a local candy. Others are selling pork, usually indicated by a severed pig head hung on the outside of the shack. If that weren't disturbing enough, the meat is just left sitting out. I am surprised there aren't more flies buzzing around them, but maybe it's too early in the season.

About mid-afternoon, the road took a turn to the north over a small pass. This lead to the other side of the hills I had been climbing and down into the next valley. Ahead of me, like a wall, were the white-capped mountains of the Greater Caucasus. These will be my companions for the next few days as I head to Baku. In between, on the valley floor, were more fields and vineyards. The road followed along the ridge on the south side of the valley for a dozen or so kilometers. This section was made up of a string of little villages. For a place on some backwoods rural road, the houses in the area were impressive. Not huge, but unique and crafted with care. It was a shame that so many of them were also derelict and overgrown with weeds. I have been seeing this the whole trip from Portugal. Small rural towns seem to be falling apart as people move away to the cities.

Once I got to the valley floor, everything changed again. I almost felt like I was riding along a highway in Georgia. The American one, that is. Giant, gnarled oak and maple trees lined the road. On either side of me were large fields covered in bright green shoots. This picture is, of course, as the sun is setting. Just gorgeous.

I ended the day just a few kilometers from the border with Azerbaijan. New country day tomorrow. Woo!



-Dravis

Date: April 1st, 2016
Distance: Rest day
Song of the Day: St. Stephen - Greatful Dead

This is my last boring post, I swear. I have my Azerbaijan visa, so I will be heading out tomorrow. Today I spent making an April Fools joke and getting everything ready to leave. We will get back to beautiful pictures and interesting stories tomorrow.



-Dravis

Date: March 31st, 2016
Distance: Rest day

Another good day, but nothing exciting to mention. I went to the national museum today. They have a treasury there with gold and jewels from the last three millennia. I am consistently impressed with the craftsmanship of ancient peoples. I recommend it the next time you are in Tbilisi.



-Dravis

Date: March 30th, 2016
Distance: Rest day

I hate to be boring, but today I was just doing boring things. I caught up on some sleep, I worked on some stuff for this website. E-mailed people about various visa issues. It is shocking how much time I spend just dealing with the logistics of this trip. Next time I am getting a personal assistant.



-Dravis

Date: March 29th, 2016
Distance: 174 km
Song of the Day: Love Ain't For Keeping - The Who

I awoke this morning and was amazed at the change. The hillsides had been bare the night before but now were blanketed in white snow. It was a lovely way to start the day. The mountains looked untouched by man. They were just beginning to show the signs of spring through the snow. The valley I was in was narrow, with a few small towns squeezed in between the river and the steep slopes on either side. These weren't quaint little mountain towns, though. Instead, they were old and crumbling manufacturing centers. Some of the factories looked like they were still open, but many more looked abandoned or partially demolished. The melting snow covering things just made the whole situation more surreal. Beautiful and strange, basically the way I like things.

I was also having a good time because it was all downhill. Well, not all downhill. There were still little climbs to make, but at least this time I was going with the flow of the river, not against it. This made it generally an easy downhill grade almost all the way to the border with Georgia. The snow didn't last that long, though. It was gone before I had gotten too far out of Vanadzor. It turned into a pretty nice day, even. The sun was shining through the clouds, the trees and grass were starting to turn green. All around me was a fantastic river gorge. Massive rock formations towered over me on both sides of the valley. It was just an amazing place to be riding. I really don't think I have had a day that felt this glorious since Croatia. Armenia is beautiful.

I stopped for food in a town called Alaverdi. It was another gritty industrial town with Soviet era apartment blocks and factories. I was shocked to see how a town this big could be crammed into the canyon along the river. Plus, there was so much heavy industry in the place. I am not sure what they could produce, but there were a lot of things happening. With the smoke and the dark black rocks above the town, it was another bleak and beautiful place to be. Not a place that people come to see, but somewhere that has its own story to tell.

The river gorge finally leveled out at the border with Georgia. Crossing back was not an issue at all and the road back to Tbilisi was still as beautiful as when I had left. The drivers were also just as terrible as before. Ugh.

I did get to see a fantastic sunset painting all the clouds in the sky in pink and orange. What a wonderful way to end the day.

Well, it would have been. I still had a thirty kilometers to do, and now in the dark. Plus, the last ten kilometers into Tbilisi the wind really picked up, so I was fighting that as well. Not fun, but at least I knew where I was going. I made it back to the hostel I was staying at before and went right to bed.



-Dravis

Date: March 28th, 2016
Distance: 126 km
Song of the Day: Foxgloves - Fey Moth

This morning I left Yerevan heading straight west. It has been a while since I have needed to do that.

My first stop was Zvartnots Cathedral, or what was left of it. Just my luck, when I got there the ticket booth was closed. A couple of random dudes hanging around the front gate told me it was closed today. Crud, I just came here and now it's all locked up. Poop. The gatekeeper saw how disappointed I was and took pity on me, letting me in for the normal ticket price. Woo. It isn't every day that you get to be the only one at a UNESCO world heritage site.

The cathedral is just a shadow of its former self. Built in an unusual round design, the sanctuary crumbled during the last millennium. All that remains now are a few columns and walls. Even the columns are rebuilt, though. There are a few large chunks of broken masonry at the site, almost enough to imagine what the dome must have been like. Even more, how scary it would have been to see those stones come crashing down. There isn't a definite reason for why the structure collapsed, but theories include destruction by invaders or earthquake as likely culprits. Still, the pieces that are left point to what must have been an amazing building. The stonework is impressive, especially considering that this was being built while Europe was going through the Dark Ages.

From Zvartnots I headed almost straight north. The road was going only a bit uphill. This is probably the closest thing I have seen to a flat plain the whole country. The landscape is beautiful, but it has a bit of a Mad Max feel to it. All over are abandoned or half-built structures. Ruined vehicles sit rusting in the fields, some have been converted into makeshift sheds. There are lots of boarded up homes. And of course, there's trash everywhere. I stopped to buy an apple from the hood of a Lada. So much of this place reminds me of Africa. The trash everywhere, the produce vendors on the side of the highway. I was really happy for my snack, but I couldn't help but wonder about the life the hawker was leading.

The conditions for the day kept getting worse. The road became steeper and I knew I was going to be climbing up into the mountains again. I was ready for that. It also began to rain as the day went on. I was ready for that as well, but that doesn't mean it was enjoyable. Rain, yuck.

I was hoping to find some extra food along the way, but pickings were slim. I stopped at a gas station, which I thought might have something, but I was wrong. There was not restaurant or even a convenience store. The guys working there were super awesome, though. They scrounged up an egg, cheese, and some tea for me. Very sweet.

After stopping for food, the rain had let up. It sprinkled a bit of snow after that, but nothing too bad. The mountains around me were cloaked in clouds and fog, though. It was fun to try and guess where the road would go next. Eventually the road crested the pass and lead down into a long winding valley. I went as far as I could, but eventually the cold and lack of food got to me. I made it to Vandzor before giving up and making camp.



-Dravis

Date: March 27th, 2016
Distance: Rest Day

Today I just spent time exploring Yerevan. I went on the walking tour. This city is a bit like Tbilisi in that it was destroyed and rebuilt many times. The last time was actually during the soviet period when churches, synagogues, and mosques were being destroyed. There aren't very many left from before the communist period. There is only one mosque left, and that was mostly rebuilt by Iran in the last decade. Oddly enough, it now sits next to a casino. The churches that were spared don't make much sense either. They weren't the biggest or the best, just ones that some soviet bureaucrat could save.

In the evening I went up to the Cascade, a giant staircase on the north end of town. It isn't quite finished. The architect got into an argument with the planning committee about how things should look and the whole project ground to a halt. That seems an apt metaphor for the city, though. There are so many amazing projects here, but so many of them seem half-finished. Either that, or things are just not quite right. Not that Yerevan isn't a beautiful city, it is, just that it seems to be caught between being an ancient and historic place while also trying to be a modern metropolis. I will be interested to see what happens here in the next five years.



-Dravis