Day 13 | 12.05.2016: From Georgia Back into Turkey

Starting point: Tiflis (5’262 km) Destination: Dogruyol (5’678 km) Daily kilometres: 416 km

Today’s journey took us from Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, to Dogruyol on the Çıldır Gölü (a magnificent mountain lake), where our next camp site awaited us. The trip led us through very beautiful landscapes and valleys in Georgia. At the border at Akhaltsikhe we left Georgia behind. The border clearance went surprisingly quickly, which was something we weren’t used to up until now. In Turkey the road took us over mountains and passes so high that we even got to see snow. It was very cold, so there was only time for a quick photo at the summit before pressing on. As Swiss people, we felt very much at home in a wintry kind of way. As darkness fell we drove down the pass and reached Çıldır at around 22:00. While searching for our overnight camp we drove through Çıldır and came across an odd situation for us. In the middle of the village, teenagers were standing in the road threatening to beat our cars with sticks — though in the end they didn’t. After this experience we reached our destination on the Çıldır Gölü about 20 minutes later. After the exhausting and concentration-intensive drive we went straight to sleep in our cars. The entire camp was guarded by police and we felt safe in our sleep, and slept divinely as a result. Early in the morning we set off without breakfast — our next destination was the school in Karahan, where we handed over filled school bags (backpacks) as well as writing pads, exercise books, pencils and coloured pencils, and a soft toy for each child. We also handed over board games.