Thursday 28th July
In good time on the 11th day we made it to the border crossing between Turkey and Georgia. Up until this point our experience passing between countries had been easier than convincing Caleb to take his shirt off, however our luck was about to change. About a kilometre from the border itself we encountered the first lorry in what was a bumper-to-bumper line all the way to Georgia. “Oh balls” we all said in unison.
In good time on the 11th day we made it to the border crossing between Turkey and Georgia. Up until this point our experience passing between countries had been easier than convincing Caleb to take his shirt off, however our luck was about to change. About a kilometre from the border itself we encountered the first lorry in what was a bumper-to-bumper line all the way to Georgia. “Oh balls” we all said in unison.
The wait at the border ended up taking 7 hours which although sounds long,
didn’t feel it. We were too busy playing two-touch, word brain and listening to
Harry Potter slay Professor Quirrell whilst clutching the Philosopher’s Stone.
Half time entertainment was in the form of an audacious local bus driver who,
upon spotting a gap, seized his chance to complete a 180° handbrake turn cutting into the line. Whilst we were frankly quite impressed by this manoeuvre, the Turkish locals were not. Needless to say he was lambasted with horns and angry shouting. One man was so enraged I thought he was going to hurl his doner kebab at the windscreen.
 |
| Queuing at the border |
Realising this was
against our queuing DNA; the rally teams all joined in the mob mentality and
gave him a piece of our minds. After being severely bullied by the entire
queue, the bus driver eventually conceded defeat, spun round and joined the
back but not before flashing us with a cheesy grin as he drove past. Cheeky
git.
Over
the border and into Georgia we went in search of a hostel. Upon reaching the
city of Batumi we stumbled across a random house, which so happened to have 8
beds for the night. Sorted. Quote of the day came from Rich who wondered, “why
does a time lapse not have any sound?”. It’s a collection of photos mate.
Posted by: Rich