An opportune four day weekend in mid May meant that Tim could take me into the mountains along with ex-pats Stephen and Ally, Heather and Etienne to make a party of six. Squeezing into a Landcruiser we drove north from Tbilisi, about 100 kilometres in a straight line but with the road becoming gradually more like a track it was a trip of several hours.
I said to someone recently that it’s “easy to revert into wild animal mountain mode”, and while I’m certainly having new adventures, it’s been on an old stomping ground – Western Europe. I’d tell you all about it, as I’ve only just lost the list I made of topics to discuss, mostly about France – the conservative attitudes and duty of conformance; the French thinking really hard of what the English word could be, when it’s the same as the French word (macho, volatile); my friends’ poor young Ivan who I can never understand, but to be fair some of the things he says are pretty random (it looks like your face ate your nose); the subtle and laid back humour; the humble and ever dissatisfied self esteem of the French, waiting an hour to hitch, french shopping, bureaucracy, this and that… one day I might expand on these points in such a way that they make sense…
… but now I’m off to EASTERN EUROPE! Something I haven’t done before… and since it’s taken so long, I’m going really far east – all the way to Georgia (some consider it Asia but the locals consider themselves European).
It looks like I’ll be spending a third night in the same hut high in the mountains in Corsica, retreating after following the GR20 route northwest to the col, and now listening to the wind howl as snow and hail falls in the murk. Looks like I won’t be flying today! My solar panel is hanging by the window but it isn’t enough to power the screen on my phone which has 17% charge, I’m going through the last of my food, and I have to admit the weather is getting worse so I think I might be losing this stand off…
Ramble on, sing my song 