Sunday, 18 October 2026

 

Start: Grozny (RU) 8:00

Arrival: Mtskheta (GE) 16:00 / 17.00 in Georgia

 

Total: 291 km

 

 

When we left our hotel the next morning, the pale sun hid behind clouds and the air was cool and ... well, not really fresh, what with all the dust and exhaust fumes lingering about.

 

 

We were headed north along Putin Avenue. Yes, named after the president of the Russian Federation, for his help against the terrorism that had plagued Chechnya around the turn of the millennia and the economic aid to rebuild the city after the civil war. If only we had walked this way yesterday evening! All along the tree-lined boulevard, we saw pretty restaurants, large new malls and stylish coffee shops. "The dinner yesterday was great", Sonia reminded me. She was right, of course. Still, it would have been great to visit that cute little café over there. "At least take a picture of it", I begged my sis. Sonia rummaged around for the phone. When she finally snapped the photo, all the good spots were of course long past us.

 

 

We filled up at a gas station called "Super". Oddly enough, there are none of the well-known petrol companies present in Chechnya, Russian or otherwise. No Lukoil, Shell or Q8. Instead, we saw a Lyuksoil, a Shel and a Kyuait. Well, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

 

Luckily, we did not encounter any more military roadchecks. We saw a lot of traffic police, though. They were all busy handing out fines to some other unlucky bastard though. I did try to stay within the stated speed limit anyway. Law-abiding citizen and all that.

 

Soon we crossed the internal border into North Ossetia. When we rolled into the suburbs of its capital, Vladikavkaz, Sonia squinted at the horizon. "Are those mountains? Clouds are not that starkly delineated, are they." She pointed into the sky. Up there? That must be clouds, for sure. The town's name - Vladikavkaz (Power of the Caucasus) might have given us a hint that we were indeed looking at the highest mountains in Europe. Mount Elbrus, over 5,600 meters tall, almost right in front of us.

 

 

 

 

The border crossing at Verkhny Lars made for an interesting experience again. Two tunnels lead to the border station. One narrow lane each way, with trucks clogging up the right lane. Cars have the choice to either get in line behind the trucks and spend an eternity to get across, or they think "Here goes nothing, pedal to the metal in the left lane, let's hope we cross the tunnel before there's an oncoming car. Of course there's always an oncoming car or truck. We squeezed behind another car into an opening between two trucks. The oncoming truck honked. Ten more centimeters, bumper to bumper parked sideways into the raw rock wall, the truck inched past us, millimetres away from us. Will he care as much as I do if he scratches our vehicle? Please, let our line move forward before the next truck thunders along. Luckily, we made it out of the tunnels without a scratch.

 

At the Russian border, Sonia was singled out for a longer interview, so I waited for almost an hour on the cold and windy mountainpass, not knowing what was happening to my sister, nor when they would let her go. Super annoying.

 

 

On the other side of the mountain, the Georgian checkpoint. The border guard asked me to open the trunk for him. "Where are you headed?" "Home!" He smiled and motioned for me to move on. "Safe travels."

 

Driving through the mountains of Georgia felt "almost at home". I pointed left and right, recalling how I had taken this exact same route nine years ago, at almost the same time of year. Back then, I had been driving through a freak snowstorm. This time, the weather was much more clement. Sunshine and T-shirt temperatures.

 

 

We made a stop to admire the view. Whereever you are in Georgia, a dog is never far away. Here, a fellow traveller of the canine persuasion is as awestruck by the grandeur of the surroundings as I am.

 

 

 

In retrospect, we could have used one more day to visit some more sights in the mountains. But after ten weeks on the road, both Sonia and I were a bit travel weary. Especially the many borders were getting to us: endless waits, chaos, checks, new currency, new car insurance, new SIM card, new traffic rules every few days. So we drove straight through to the outskirts of Tbilisi and looked for a room in the old town of Mtskheta.

 

 

We found a charming guesthouse right next to the walls of the old cathedral. A basic but cosy room in a chalet-like house. Perfect! Although it was already dark, the cobblestoned alleys were still full of people. We went for a walk around the old town, had food on a veranda in front of the cathedral and then called it a day.

 

 

The mattress was rather bouncy, each time one of us moved, the other risked getting motion sickness. LOL But it was quiet and cosy. Around 10 o'clock at night, a thunderstorm raged right over the roof of our house. A storm in the mountains! So romantic. We promised ourselves not to rush through Georgia after all. I had loved this country when I had been here the first time, Sonia should see at least some of its sights too. To the comforting sound of crashing thunder, we slept towards another eventful day.