A long day on the bus in the Kaçkar mountains and Georgian valleys, which are not in Georgia - but close. We started with a loud and enthusiastic argument between a late-arriving passenger and the bus driver: 45 minutes on (I think) whose fault it was that the bus wasn't where she expected it to be. Someone at the back eventually told them to pack it in.

At the southern end, the road follows the river and the valley floor, though there is evidence of roadworks above: tunners, viaducts and high bridges, and quarrying, crushing and cement-works. From the mid-point, about Yusufeli, we are on the high road with the old road, dams and new reservoirs below us. It's all on a colossal scale. After Artvin the hill-sides are suddenly lush, as we approach the Black Sea coast.