Lasīt tālāk
05.Jun
EIGHTEENTH DAY: DESCRYING OMALO.
04 Jun
- 2015 -
Author
Andis Pikāns
The lightning in the sky all around us was so intimidating, Osis decided not to put up his tent and to go to sleep under the tabele in the shed. In the morning, right after we packed the tents, it started raining and didn’t stop for another two hours.
After Jinvali we turn to a mountain road in direction of Akhmeta and 1 km after the first escalation, incidents start happening. There is road repair work in the first 10 km and the road has turned into a wet, brown ice rink. Trying to move on two wheels is further interfered by the escalations and drops.
With each kilometre the situation only gets worse- both ‘adventures’ start having problems with mudguards. Myself and Osis stop frequently to try and get the mud out, but it doesn’t really help to solve the problem- I can feel my front wheel block and my motorcycle slides another 10 metres forward. I land on my side in the soft, sticky mud. Thankfully, my speed wasn’t much more than 15 km/h. We get my ride up and assess the damage. Yes, my old ‘adventure’ obviously hasn’t been made for road conditions like these because of the construction of the front mudguard. The worst thing is that when the front mudguard’s brackets broke off, the brake tube also broke off and that blocked the wheel. We take off the remaining parts and fix the brake tube with plastic connectors and ‘slide on’.
After that, Normunds says he can’t take it anymore. I tell him that there’s no point in going back because we’re halfway there, at least that’s what the Georgian truck drivers, which rarely slide by, say. We have two options. The first one- I drive down and if I’m lucky I send them a message. The second one-we wait for a truck that can carry our equipment to come. Normunds calms down and keeps driving. After a moment, Osis feels that something will go wrong soon and takes off his front mudguard.
After 2 long hours, the muddy clay road is behind us and a rocky road appears in front of us, but the rocky road feels like the best highway. We slowly roll in village Tianeti and there’s a small, shabby repair shop on the side of the road, but for us, this is huge luck. The Georgian experts are quick to help us fix the consequences of the battle with mud. In two hours, I have new mounts and the box which was crooked after the fall, has been straightened out.
30 km of rocky mountain road leads us to Akhmet, and in Sabue village 7 km from Akhmet, in a beautiful spot, we find a guest house that belongs to a Chechen woman, Iza. The information about Omalo mountain pass is contradictory. Some drivers say it’s open, some say it’s closed.
The morning will know better.
