Choosing to abandon the main road and walk down a narrower, village road, seemed like a good idea at the time. According to my German map it was supposed to save us around 15 km and there would be plenty of villages along the way for us to find a place to sleep. We hoped to finish the trip on a quiet road with lots of beautiful landscape. It turned out that our assumption was only half-right - the German map had failed me again...
As we left Gori we tried in vain to find a place to have a cup of coffee but as in most other parts of Georgia it seemed easier to buy a bottle of vodka at 8 a.m. The secondary road from Gori (south) got narrow pretty quickly. The first 5 or so km were aligned with the same old Russian- styled houses typical of Gori but to our amazement we soon found ourselves deep into the countryside. We passed one or two tiny villages and by the afternoon we were having a hard time finding something to eat, let alone a place to sleep...it felt that we were far, far away from the slightest sign of civilization. Not many cars passed along the bumpy, muddy, country road and we felt isolated from the world - left alone to walk and listen to our thoughts...which were becoming darker and darker...
After a silent meal in front of the only village store we found along the way, Tim and I decided to sleep anywhere we could. According to my map, we should have made it to the village of Khatveti already but the locals warned me that it was still 15 km away and that the local church was another 5 km off the road. We were sullen but the thought of how close we were to Tbilisi kept us putting one foot in front of the other.
"Ben, Caroline!" Again we had come across our French bicyclist friends in the middle of nowhere! We hugged and inquired about each other's adventures the last few days. They too had opted for the small village road, hoping for better scenery and a quieter setting. Seeing them was comforting. Knowing that we weren't alone on the road meant a lot and seeing a familiar face warmed our hearts, giving us precious motivation to keep going...after a few minutes, we departed again..."See you in Tbilisi!"
"Voda? (water)", Tim asks a man unloading a van of flour in front of a house in the small village of Sirtredi. "No problem," he replies and disappears into his house. "Ask him if we can sleep in his house," Tim tells me, "Explain our situation, show him the letter." Reluctantly I abide and show the man, Mamud, the bishop's kind words. "I'll try and call the nearest church," he explains, "but come in for now, warm up." It was cold, and had been ever since we passed Rikhoti pass. I was wearing all the layers I had with me but the sharp wind was still chilling and we were glad to sit next to his fire and warm our bones. "Here, have some coffee, have some chocolate." I smile at our cheerful middle-aged host. "Madloba (thank you in Georgian)." "No need for thanks. We're Christians too."
Mamud was generous and we shared a hearty meal with him and his brother who joined us after hearing that two foreigners had walked to his village. Mamud had two beautiful children and a kind wife. We toasted and drank some chacha and wine during our dinner. "Mamud, my friend Tim and I are tired and if we stay any longer here we will have to sleep in your house. Is that OK?" "Sure," Mamud smiles, "of course you can sleep here. Drink, drink more my friends!"
"Whooooo! Lets go!!!" Mamud was drunk and in the mood for dancing. His brother, Tim and I joined him in his kitchen and were all dancing to some Georgian music that oddly had a kind of Reggae beat to it. His 12 year old son took some pictures of us as we hugged, laughed and hopped together to the rhythm now blaring from his speakers. Mamud's father, an old grumpy man enters the house and upon seeing us, exits right away. We were having a really good time, too good maybe... "You guys are great," Mamud tells us as we sit to drink another glass of wine. "To our guest, gifts from God! Gaumajos! (cheers!)"
Tim and I were pretty drunk and tired but we didn't care that it was already past midnight. We had a warm bed to sleep in and only two more days to go. We could handle one night of drunken fun...
"Good night nigger," "Good night, man."
An hour later there is a knock at the door and Mamud enters the room. "Sorry guys....errr.....My father, you know, he's an old man...er....and this is his house after all. I'm really sorry but he wants you to leave....there's nothing I can do about it..." Shocked, I shake off the cobwebs of sleep already in my mind and ask him to repeat himself. "I'll drive you anywhere you want, anywhere...but you need to leave...there is nothing I can do," he replies with his head low, barely able to look at us.
"What the fuck do we do now?! What the FUCK!!! Son of a bitch!" I was furious with anger as I put on my boots and packed my gear hurriedly. "We walk, nigger, there's nothing else we can do." "Son of a bitch, son of a bitch!" I was losing it. As we leave the house, Mamud is at our side, begging us to go with him by car to the nearest city..."You can walk another day...the nearest hotel is only 60 km from here...." "We can't take a car!" I reply angrily, and I spit on the ground from anger..."I could punch him in the mouth," I tell Tim, "Son of a bitch! We're going to die in this fucking asshole of a place..." Tim surprised to see me so angry, tries to calm me down and to think rationally. "Ask if we could sleep in his car."
Mamud's van was full of flour so our only option was to sleep in his barn. "We'll be fine here, no worries," Tim says as we enter the drafty, dusty barn. Mamud soon leaves us, ashamed that he had to turn out two guests the way he did, ashamed that even at the age of 45 he had to listen to his father like a schoolboy. I climb the pile of hay and start plucking away pieces making us two flat places to sleep on. It was not my first time sleeping in a barn and I knew how to make a bed of hay. We stretch out our sleeping bags and try to make ourselves as comfortable as possible...
"Move a little, would you." Tim says, waking me up right after I had finally fallen asleep. "I don't have any room to stretch my legs, nigger." "You have the whole fucking barn to stretch your legs," I reply and remain in the same position. "Move man, my legs are killing me, there's no place for me to stretch them!" I don't budge. "Bullshit, look around you." "What the fuck is your problem, just move your legs a little would you?!" "Make yourself another place to sleep, you have the whole damn barn full of hay...leave me alone!" and again, I don't move an inch. "Damn it!!!" and Tim begins to rant and yell in French as he jumps to his feet..."Asshole!!!!!" "Here damn it, here!!!" I was up now and began grabbing hay from the large stack above us..."Here son of a bitch, take the fucking hay and make yourself a God damn place to sleep!!!!" "$%!#@#$$@%!!!! (swearing in French!)" ..."Fufufufu," I reply, mocking Tim as he grabs some hay and makes himself a better spot...
We get up at dawn the next day, my nose and throat painful from the dust in the barn and from the cold air that came from the cracks in the wooden walls...Without saying a word we pack and leave...
"What happened last night?" Tim asks me after we walk our first 15 minutes in silence. "You didn't want to listen to me, that's what happened." "I didn't want to listen to you? That's what you think happened? Why didn't you move your feet after I asked you to?" "I told you to make yourself another spot, didn't I? You had the whole barn of hay to do it." "But I didn't know that. I thought the hay was all one piece. Id never slept in a barn like you before. Why didn't you show me?" "I just thought it was easy...you should have figured it out yourself," I coldly reply. "What's wrong with you Vjeko? Nobody is forcing you to be here, to walk." "What do you mean?" "If you don't want to be with me, if you don't want to walk, then quit." "Who's talking about quitting and who says I don't want to be with you?" "You are, with your actions. You couldn't even move over when I asked you to. You know I wouldn't have been so stubborn about it if I knew what else to do. You know me." "I know..." I slowly reply, beginning to realize how the situation must have been from Tim's point of view. "It felt like you were torturing me by not moving...fuck, you know how it is when you can't stretch your legs after walking all day...and the way which you talked to me...I never yell at people like I yelled at you last night..." "OK, so maybe I should have moved. I made a mistake, I thought you were just being lazy and didn't want to make yourself another place to sleep." "You know that's not true, you do!" "Ok, I should have just moved, I should have known better, sorry...I'm not perfect what can I say?" "If you're not into this all the way, then go home. I don't need to walk with someone who doesn't want to be in the walk all the way. If I can't trust you, if I don't know you are with me all the way, then I can't walk with you." "I'm not perfect!" I reply loudly, "You're always pushing me, expecting me to do everything the right way, to never make a mistake. I'm not a saint!! What the hell do you want from me?!" "I want everything!!" Tim yells, " I want everything our nothing! Either you are my brother all the way or just go! You know we can't do this walk half-way. We don't do things that way, we never have, that's how we got here! Even with two days left, you should stop if you're not into this..." I realize Tim was right...his expectations of me, were in fact, my own expectations of myself. I had learned during our walk what it was to be a brother, to put someone in front of yourself, to love another more than yourself...I had betrayed him and I was sorry...again it seemed like my brother had a higher opinion of me than I did..."I chose you to come on this walk with me...I couldn't have done this with anyone else..." "I know Tim...I know...I couldn't have done this with anyone else either...I am grateful....please forgive me. I was so full of anger last night...I thought I would punch Mamud, but it was really myself I wanted to punch...I am mad at myself for being in such a horrible state...I'm falling apart nigger, I have been for a long time...I'm so tired...I don't know if I'll even make it these next two days..." "You will, nigger, you will...we will...together..."
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