Day 205: Didvake-Borjomi

In the morning the police was indeed still there and followed us as we made our early take off. The road was difficult with a lot of holes in it forcing us to crisscross along the road. The trees in the valley were black and looked like burnt, giving this sunny day a spooky touch. Before joining a bigger paved road again near Surami, we needed to cross a little pass. We advanced very slowly on the bumpy road and it got worse when the climbing started. So Sungjong and Jihyun decided to render our pursuers and their jeep useful, loaded their bikes and mounted the vehicle. I wanted to continue the ride and tried to make them drive ahead, but the policemen refused and continued tailing me.  Jihyun tried to delay them a bit by asking for toilet stops and for some time it was a quite enjoyable ride. I could push with everything I got into the pedales, knowing that there would be backup if needed. I almost felt like a pro-rider. There were less than ten kilometres left until the main road, shortly before the pass and the track got steadily worse (muddy and bigger holes) when we had to take a turned into a narrow side-valley where the snow hadn't melted yet and was piling up knee deep. There were some traces in the snow, but I kept wondering what kind of vehicle is able to deal with this kind of extreme conditions. I by now I know a lost cause when I see one. These couple of kilometres cost easily three to four hours when you have to drag and carry the 50kg bike (done that) plus after a couple of hundred meters the feet are totally wet and it won't be long before they feel like clumps of ice. The policemen pointed at Wolter and their car again. I asked wether we have to go back and take the train, but they shook their heads and dragged me almost in the car. I thought we would turn around but the driver hit hard on the gaspedal and drove the car towards the deep snow, without having bothered to put the chains on. During the first hundred meters we went a dozen times back and forth to give the car momentum, this way the driver was basically digging his way through the snow masses. The motor went loud and the tires headed up and steam raised from the four corners of the car. I waited until we would turn around, but the driver kept trying and forced the vehicle slowly ahead. After we managed to pass the side-valley we went faster. The three of us were violently thrown around in the car and after our shoulders had hit the doors and our heads the ceiling we clinched to whatever we could grab.  Jihyun clambered screaming to Sungjong who bounced around in the middle without anywhere to hold on, the driver had a huge grin on his face chasing his car like a made man through the landscape, his colleague was laughing and I thought this car will be wrecked any moment. I kept checking on our bikes and luggage on the back of the jeep, worried. From time to time the driver stopped to check a hole. Even with the car these six kilometres took forever and I, was quite impressed that we made it.
In Surami we were dropped off and we said goodbye to the rally-driver and his co-worker and minutes later they were gone.
The last 30km to Borjomi it started raining and we had to fight some headwind. We arrived pretty exhausted, wet and cold. At the tourist information we were pointed to, a cheep home stay and given a lot of information about the, attractions oder the regions. When I asked the man there his opinion on our police stories of the last day he looked a bit puzzled himself and did not find any other explanation than the police just trying to be helpful.
When we arrived finally at our hosts place far up the hillside, we cleaned equipment and ourselves and dropped into our beds.