I’ll admit getting turned back at the Turkish border on Tuesday was a blow. Frankly, it was the first time I felt anything but exuberant about this trip. So on Wednesday (15 April) we rode into Batumi on just the R1200 GS – Paul on the controls, me taking the back seat. They say some people enjoy being passengers – I do not. (just to make it explicit – it’s not because of Paul’s driving, it’s purely me not feeling comfortable as oversized luggage on the back of the bike)

We added our names to the piece of paper that docusmented the queue outside the ferry ticket office (all the six names before us were written in Georgian). One of the gentlemen was kind enough to explain that tickets for the ferry we wanted (due to leave the same evening) were for sale at a different office just round the corner. There, the system was based on the more traditional “who’s the last person in line?” question – which meant that here, too, there were six people ahead of us. Once the office opened (around 10am), the line moved swiftly, and the lady in the office confirmed there were still tickets available for that night’s ferry – as I didn’t have Paul’s documents on me, she asked me to come back as soon as I did.

When we returned a few minutes later, a colleague who had arrived in the meantime explained that she was mistaken – there were no more tickets for 15 April. So we rode to Poti – only 70km away, but with traffic and speed restrictions all the way, it seemed further.

Poti is a rather beautiful place, albeit rather quiet this time of the year. The lady at the ticket office for the ferry to Constanta, Romania, disappointed us by pointing out that tickets were only available for 20 April, and at a price higher than what we’d seen on the website.

So we headed back towards Batumi. Hotel Estonia in Kobuleti was a treat, the owners extra nice and helpful – I can’t believe we both turned down the offer to have our bikes pressure-washed and the sumptuous breakfast they had prepared for us, even though we’d said it would be only coffee as we wanted to get to Batumi early…