Day 4 – Crossing Tusheti – Military checkpoint – Atsunta pass (3500m) – Girevi (31km – 10 hours). Hiking trails and single track. Crossing 17-18 rivers and streams. It was a big day.
I didn’t sleep well during the night. There was massive shepherds’ dogs around me and cows, and they did not stop barking all night. Some of them came close to my tent and made me very nervous. I might have gotten 4-5 hours of broken sleep.
I knew today would be the toughest day. I also didn’t even know if I could hike to Atsunta pass. I knew people had done it and had said it’s ridiculously difficult but I didn’t know if I had it in me to go through it. I also didn’t know if there would be snow there as the temperatures were at -3C / -5C and it had rain a few days ago.
My alarm was for before sunrise. I woke up and tried to negotiate with myself to get out of the cozy sleeping bag. My negotiation worked when I told myself that it is better to get up now than to walk in the night, use every day of light you have!
Got up, packed the tent, packed the bike and sat down to eat some of my old khachapuri I had carried all of yesterday. I didn’t fancy it one bit. Had a Cappy orange juice and some chocolate. That would do. But I had no water. The shepherd told me to use a hose the animals were drinking from but when I filled my bottle the water was brown… no thanks, I don’t want to get a stomach bug mid hike. He conceded to use water from the tap, but didn’t rinse the bottles so I was still a little reluctant. Anyway, I had some water now. Time to hike.
Straight from the camping spot it was a steep climb to the first platoe. In about 30-40mins I had gone over the climb and was now riding my bike on single track. Not fast but still nice to ride again. The views were incredible, I felt like riding on a narrow ledge with sheer drops around me, ridges carved like deep furrows into the mountains. The sky was cloudy but dry so far and I was praying it stays that way.
Coming out of the climb the path stretched out on a plateau. It was still climbing but much slower and I could ride, I was enjoying it, this is the bit that I loved. I tried to soak in the experience and the views, by looking, taking photos but constantly on my mind was the fact that I had a lot of very hard ground to cover, so I pushed on. I didn’t really stop for long, just short brakes for water and to catch my breath.
Second large push was on the side of a big mountain, following its curves while above me 4000m peaks were crowned in fog. It was exhilarating. Just me and the bike for hours.
The hike to the top of the pass was around 3,5 hours normally, but I expected it would be maybe 5 for me.
Made it to the base of the last big climb, I still couldn’t see where the pass (or the peaks around it) were. Luckily I got some running water and stocked up. I knew people normally camp in this area before climbing the pass or after descending it, none of that for me, pushing on.
The climb began instantly and hard. Very narrow single track carved into the hill as a deep furrow. 25% up straight from the get go. I looked back and saw the whole trail I had been doing for the past 3 hours and a bit.
On we go. The trail got steeper and the average gradient increased to 32%. The grass and soil gave way to gravel, and broken up rocks. It was slippery and quite difficult to get a footing. I made sure not to waste my efforts and focused on stepping security and pushing the bike up.
Reverting to my technique of yesterday, pushing to the next switchback, rotating the bike perpendicular to the path so it doesn’t slide down and stopping for a couple of breaths. Then continuing.
The higher elevation, possibly the lack of sleep, but maybe not having enough sweets with me and enough meals, made me feel weak. I sat down to take a break, looking at the beautiful mountains, seeing the valley I came from two days ago in the distance. Hearing a noise I turned around, a group of hikers was coming down, it was so steep it seemed like they’re going down a ladder. When they reached me we had a chat. It was a group of around 6 in their early 20s, from the Czech Republic. Hearing in from Bulgaria they got excited to share that they’ve been there and some of the hikes they’d done. They also said they respect the effort I was putting in, then they went down and I started pushing back up.
I focused only on the next step and the next switch back corner. Trying to get into a rhythm but it was hard, I had no energy. The climb got steeper, 38%. I entered the clouds and now couldn’t see anything apart from immediately in front and behind me. Looking back it seemed like the path disappears into a different dimension. The clouds and the steepness made me grateful that I was going up this way rather than down. And that’s when I realised it will be difficult to back out now. Going down will be much harder and sketchier, i would have even less traction on the loose stones and dirt. And just like that i saw two silhouettes above me in the fog. They reached me – a couple from Norway. They had moved to work in Georgia until the end of the year and were doing a few hikes at the weekends to explore. Weekends, was it the weekend? I hadn’t realised. Super friendly, we chatted for a bit giving me more of an excuse to rest and then they were off. There was a dog with them which I petted but. Turns out it’s been following them from Dartlo for the past two days and it wasn’t theirs. They were planning to get it some lunch at the military checkpoint. I gave them a few ideas on the options to get down from the checkpoint and the closest guest house. No more time to dilly dally, let’s push.
It was strange being stuck in this place between increasingly steeper hill and a massive drop all around me, not seeing much more than 5-10 meters around. Alone, this pushes your mind internally. I was struggling more than I thought, it felt like a never ending loop and I didn’t have any views to distract me. But at least it was dry and there was no snow. I took some of the chocolate that I bought from Mutso and started chewing while pushing. It helped, which meant I wasn’t eating enough.
The path changed, it got steeper and a lot more loose, so I was struggling to keep my feet and push off, it was almost like sand. On the ma it looked like I was closer but I couldn’t see the pass. Shortly after a few silhouettes appeared in the fog above me again. It was a procession of 6 horses and two men. The men were shouting, giving directions to the animals. They reached me. The first man did not even find it remotely weird to see a cyclist up this side of the mountain. He just pointed to the side indicating for me to move out of his way, and I obliged. They had a massive dog with them, its head was near my chest. It did look at me suspiciously and I made sure to keep the bike between us. Since the men kept going the dog joined them and after less than a minute they were gone in the fog.
I pushed for anther hour, the only reason I knew I was going the right way is because of the gps on the map. We were now at 40-42% steepness and I was taking longer breaks.
Around the counter I saw another shape appear, a woman. She literally shouted something when she saw me. I think it was disbelief. It must be the German tourist group that the Norwegian couple had mentioned. The woman, evidently the guide, reached me first and asked me where I was from. The path was narrow and I moved to the side to let them pass. Around 8 people came in a line and each in turn asked me where I was from. They were a bit confused why I was there with a bike but I think they couldn’t articulate that into sensible questions and since it was cold they kept going.
Finally, after another switchback that took me around a rock I saw the pass. It had been 6 hours of hiking so far. I did not eat nearly enough. I had been building this thing in my head so much and now I could see it. I got emotional, and super excited. Trying to pace myself I still received a jolt of energy and soon was at the top. A photo, tried the drone but it got wet in less than a minute due to the fog. No views for me but I was glad to be there. Now the descent.
***
The descent was tricky. The surface was very unstable, a mix of black sand like consistency and small gravel. The gradient was similar to what I had just climbed. I decided to walk first past the first steep bit and good thing I did, because it was more like skiing down than walking. After the steep part the gradient evened out a bit and I put my dropper post low and managed to ride for a bit. I kept switching between riding and walking until I got out of the clouds and into the lower areas.
I had to descend 2000m almost until I reached Girevi. My plan was to pass Girevi and to ride to Dartlo maybe, hoping that a nice forest road was waiting for me at the bottom and I could zoom through the next 15km.
I rode all the way down to the bottom, it was fun. I passed two hikers going the opposite way towards the pass but didn’t stop, it was afternoon now and I wanted to just get there.
At the bottom I knew there was a river crossing, I got to it. The river level was high and it was full of water, flowing fast. The road was crossing it at a wide point so I decided to try on the side. I saw two rocks where the distance between them wasn’t too far apart. Took the bike and decided that I’ll put the front wheel in the water to use it as a support and then pull it out once I cross. Well, I’m never doing that again! As I put the wheel in leaning on it, hoping it takes my weight, the water was much deeper than I expected and the whole wheel disappeared underwater. That unbalanced me and I tipped over and fell in the water. The force was so strong! It sucked the whole bike in and it started to drag it. I couldn’t hold it and it started to drag me too. It swept me off my feet and I fell completely in, now the water was dragging me and the bike together like we were paper boats. The only thing going through my mind was “WTF!?!”. I remember the feeling of this situation turning so bad so fast that I couldn’t even think about it. The water dragged me and the bike to a shallower area and I felt my feet touching the bottom. I leaned and somehow still holding the bike with one hand, managed to get a footing and stand up. I dragged my pitiful self and the bike out of the water, catching my breath and waiting for the thoughts to enter my blank mind again. Wtf did I just do, how can I be this stupid, I know better. No time for these emotions now, need to act fast. I took all my clothes off, shivering managed to get some dry ones and put them on, then squeezed as much water as I could from the wet ones and put them separately. Evaluating the bike it seems to have paid having everything in dry bags (sometimes in two). Thank God I made it this well out of that. I was so tired at this point that I knew I am not thinking straight.
I decided to push the bike for a bit just to gather myself together. I was still shook and hadn’t fully processed what just happened or the possible consequences but I also didn’t have time to do it, it was getting dark in a couple of hours. The path was stony and some big boulders on the way. If only that dirt road could come, I’ll be through it in no time. However, it didn’t come. Instead the trail went on the side of massive mountain slopes, climbing up and down to avoid gorges that the river had carved and then drop back down to that same river.
A few times I got cows literally barricading the path, and towards the end I was so numb to it I didn’t even try to go around, just walked straight through.
I thought the descent to Girevi would be easy – 15km, 2000m descent and a nice road. Not to be – instead I got a proper trekking trail, narrow with a lot of boulders, a fair amount of steep climbs each of them draining the last reserves of energy I had.
I decided to change my mental focus and not hold for the road but accept the trail, to have a bit of food and hopefully get some energy for all of these tough steep climbs.
I also ran out of water, and was afraid to drink from the river knowing the animals k saw upstream. Instead when crossing small streams coming down from the side of the mountain, I filled a bit my bottles to have some for emergency. I was getting dehydrated now.The thing constantly on my mind is that I told my family i should arrive by 15:00-16:00 the latest but it was getting closer to 18:00. I hated that I am getting them worried and was determined to make it all the way today.
On the way, the path went out into the river, going on some small stepping stones on the side of a rock face. Finally it went over a massive boulder that was just narrowly above the water. There was not enough space for both me and the bike on the boulder it was too narrow. I pushed the bike up in front of me and then somehow managed to climb behind it. Then slowly lowered it on the other side. Another sketchy moment I didn’t really feel like having.
Wire across the path
The sun was now setting and everything got much darker, but luckily the trail flattened and widened so I could ride and I did so probably faster than I should have.
After another river crossing and a climb I heard barking and in the distance on the left saw two white dots charge from the top of the hill, at least half a kilometre away. I had read a lot about Georgia and most of the problems people had were with dogs. The Georgian shepherd dogs were their own mountain breed, well known for having no fear and attacking at the slightest sign of trouble. Immediately I got off the bike and put it between me and them. Another black dog joined the first two from a second direction, they got really close, maybe 30m from me, barking and growling, showing their teeth. I had no chance against them. So I did the only thing I could – I started literally screaming with all the voice I had, hoping the shepherd would hear me and call them off. At the first instant the dogs were confused but it actually didn’t deter them. They still kept walking closer to me. I kept screaming over and over and over, non stop, making it long and loud. That seemed to at least keep them a few feet away. So slowly I started walking and screaming, looking like a lunatic. There was hope, I made some progress and then when I saw the road was going downhill jumped on the bike and started pedalling like a maniac. They chased me but stopped. Further down I saw the shepherd’s hut.
I kept riding, fast, probably taking too many risks but I want to get back. It started raining, I finally stopped and put my jacket and head torch on. Keep going. I crossed at least 15 streams and small rivers, just walking through them as my feet were soggy anyway.
The path passed all the hills and grasslands and got closer to the side of the mountain, eventually becoming a trail on the side of a cliff. It was dark so I could only vaguely see the drop on the side. I ignored it and focused on careful steps and making progress. Another half an hour and I saw the lights of Girevi in the distance.
I arrived in the village destroyed but happy that I made it. It would take me a while to unpack today’s events. I reached quite a few limits, I also did a lot of stupid shit – could have managed food and water better, could have made less haste, could have stopped to sleep earlier, etc. But I was grateful to have made it all ok. Found a guest house and went straight in as it was pouring. A man came out, but said he wasn’t the host, he found her and she gave me a room. There was no hot water but there was food. I showered nevertheless and sat down to eat and talk with the other hikers staying there, exchanging stories.