Hello,
I am just planning a 6 week bike trip to the Caucasus for july and august. Here especially Georgia and Armenia I would like to visit. The tour should be as follows:
Now I am working as teacher in Ucraine. So I would like to travel from Ucraine to Georgia by ship.
Ferries leave from Ilyichevsk near Odessa. It takes almost 2 days to get there by ship which costs at least 140 dollars. So I would start the journey from Batumi or Poti heading to Tiflis via Sarsma monastery, Akhaltsikhe, Aspindza, Vardzia (cave town), Akhaltsikhe, Borjomi, Gori and Mtskheta. After visiting Tiflis I want to continue my journey towards Armenia. As the south of Armenia is supposed to be amazing I want to cross Armenia by bike down to the Iranian-Armenian border. In the internet I have found a proposal for such a tour:
transit Georgia - Iran, for example via: Tbilissi - Alaverdi (crossing a picturesque valley) - Vanadzor - Dilijan – via an alpine pass to Sewan lake – via its Eastern shore to Martuni – good road crossing a meagre plateau to the Selim Pass – really steep descent to the transit road to Iran (at the beginning about 10 km on a pretty bad road leading steeply downhill) - Eghegnadzor - Vajk (road going up and down in front of a desert panorama) – beautiful valley and long pass on a plateau (looking like Lapland) with storage lake - again desert panorama around Sisian - again pass - Goris to Kapan (Kafan) possibly clouds, fog and drizzle via a dense, wet wood - picturesque valley to Kajaran (dam under construction) – last pass (with an altitude of up to 2535 m) with alpine panorama - 40 km descent to Meghri in the Aras valley with southern vegetation and bizarre rock scenery.
(from
www.cramers-web.de (web site in German))
There are also some good proposals on this site (in English):
http://www.cilicia.com/armo5_bike-armenia.htmlThe whole route from the Black Sea to the uttermost South of Armenia are 770 km air line. I think this distance can be done within 4 weeks considerung the many inclinations and that we will need a day off in between. Every day I want to cycle between 80 and 120 km depending on our mood, the inclination of the road, wheather and so on. On my last bike tour we made 90 km on average every day. And experience tells that all 4 days you need a day off.
I am just planning how to continue this tour from Armenia. I would like to reach Baku on the Caspian Sea by bike. Unfortunately the Armenian-Azerbaijanian like the Armenian-Turkish border are closed. An option would be to go back to Georgia using public transport for example. Another way to get to Baku would be to continue our journey via Iran and to enter Azerbaijan from this site.
I´ve already read some articles in the net from other travellers and I think that all these countries must be amazing. Safety in Georgia could be better but I think that nothing will happen to us if we are careful. For accomodation I prefer couchsurfing. If that´s not possible we can take a cheap hotel or camp. For any case I will take my tent with me.
I would be glad if somebody would accompany me on my journey. If you don´t have that much time you can come with me for only a part of the journey. As you see my journey is not fixed in every detail so we can still discuss about it and change it.
At last a little bit about me: I am male, 29 years old and actually an easy going person. Now I am working in Kiev. Thus I can already speak enough Russian to get along well in Caucasus. I already have some experience with bicycle tours. Last year I went to the Balcans (Serbia, Macedonia, Albania) for three weeks which was really amazing. Of course it would be good to get acquainted to each other before going on such a big journey. So if it´s possible for you, you are welcome to visit me in Kiev.
I am happy about any advices to Caucasus.
If you have any questions, don´t hesitate to ask me!
Hope to see you
Hansometer
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