After my weird few days in Svaneti and Shekvetili I returned to Batumi for a night. From here I was travelling to Gormaduli. After asking around at the bus station and being pointed in the right direction several times, I found the right marshrutka to Gormaduli. It already seemed very full of stuff - big bags of onions and pasta and flour, and general luggage. I squeezed myself and my bag on and we set off. Everyone on the bus was Georgian, except one Ukrainian guy who spoke english. It was the most bizarre bus journey so far. We picked up lots of people on the way, until the bus was definitely at capacity. But then we still picked up people and squeezed them on. We kept stopping for what seemed to be errands. We stopped at a gas station and one man filled up a gas canister. We stopped at a bakery and everyone on the bus bought several loaves of fresh bread. I wasn’t complaining about this one though, it made the whole bus smell like freshly baked bread, and the lady next to me gave me some of hers to nibble on. This was the first of my bus snacks. A little while later we stopped at a shop, and the lady next to me bought me a lollipop which was cool. The less cool bit was the near-constant brushes with death, with the bus driver driving like an absolute lunatic. I’d say I’m used to crazy drivers after the last few months and my time in the balkans, but this was something else. The passengers near me kept asking if I was okay after each near head-on collision, so I clearly looked quite concerned. But we didn’t die, and before I knew it (not really, it was a long journey) we were departing from the main road to head into the mountains. The road was insane, nothing more than a muddy track most of the time, and we often had to do 3-point turns to make the hairpin corners. At one point we went up the smallest, steepest dirt track and I thought there’s no way that this is the road. Google maps agreed with me. Turns out we were driving up to a ladies house to drop her and all of her shopping off at the door. Still no complaining from me though, as she brought out a tray with crystal glasses and a jug of homemade juice for us all. The bus zoomed onwards and we continued to drop people off in the middle of nowhere, with huge amounts of groceries. We also delivered some of the bags of bread to other houses in the area. Eventually we made it to my stop: Gormaduli Dao Space. A retreat centre in the mountains where I’m doing a workaway for the next few weeks. Victoria was there to greet me (and the Ukrainian man, turns out he was coming here too!), alongside two guys sat on tree stumps playing drums. It’s a really cool place. Five ski chalet style houses and a bigger building in a row, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. The most beautiful setting! There are kittens, and a pregnant dog that’s about to give birth. There are 8 other volunteers and they’re all really great and interesting people. Expect a very interesting post on this experience once I’ve finished here!
My bus refreshments:
