Georgia 🇬🇪 Caucasus Mountains Tusheti National Park: Omalo-Abano Pass

I am standing at the gate of Guesthouse Shina, the very first guesthouse of Omalo 14 years ago, ready to close the gate to Tusheti behind me again.

მშვიდობით თუშეთ! მე დავბრუნდები!

I am following the exact same route as 4 days ago, but in the opposite direction. That includes the 30 km long Abano Pass down, a thrilling off-road downhill experience, from 2800m altitude to 500m. But first you have to get to the top of the Abano Pass, of course. And that is, after a descent of 10km, a climb of 20km.

I don't understand why this shorter side of the Abano Pass feels much harder than the infamous climb of 30km. Especially in the last 10km the Abano Pass on the Tusheti side is a monstrous climb. In those 10km you bridge 1000 meters of altitude, including some real torture sessions.

In every bend the percentages on my GPS screen increase from 10 to 15 to 18 percent, like O'Brian increased the electric shocks during Winston's torture in George Orwell's book 1984.

At the sight of every steep section in front of me, I feel like Winston: knowing that in a few moments there will be another electric shock. Aggressively gasping for breath. In addition, it is sweltering hot up to 2600m altitude.

But just as Winston kept insisting that 2+2=4, I refuse to give in. Keep believing in the power of the individual against the power of "the Party" (in the book) and the power of nature (during the climb).

Close to the mountain pass, when I look behind me with a face like that of a living corpse, I can hardly believe that I did all that on a bike.

But then… the most sensational off-road downhill I have ever experienced. The bends with the abysses of hundreds of meters deep next to you, the bumps in the gravel road, the boulders that you can skim over, it is a pure pleasure on a mountain bike.

From above the tree line where you imagine yourself above the mountains, into the gorge and the forests, all the way to the foot 'back in Georgia' (Tusheti is like another country, remember).

In one bend, two bulldozers are busy digging away a piece of the mountain to widen the road. There had been a landslide, so the road had become too narrow.

Here, I understand how insane the construction of this road must have been.

Doing this road in reverse has also made me understand better that the real gateway to the wonderful Tusheti is not the Abano Pass, but Omalo. There lies the wonderful world hidden between the mountains, the world that only seems to exist in dreams. Hiking tours usually start from here. What comes before Omalo - up and down the Abano Pass, and the climb to Omalo - is of course beautiful, breathtaking even, but not part of the heart of Tusheti. That is difficult to describe. You have to feel it.

Feeling it, understanding it, is easier when you do everything by bike.

At the summit of 2826m, I think of what Nick Schuermans (www.deparcoursbouwer.cc) wrote. Among all the people who are there with the help of motorized vehicles, I am the only cyclist. I am proud of that, but I also think it is important. Tusheti once belonged to the Tushetis, people who know the hard life. They crossed dozens of mountains and valleys, on foot and on horseback, to settle in the most hidden places between the mountains. They lived on animals in ascetic villages. It was not until the end of the 1970s that a road was built in, which changed everything. Experiencing the hardness of this environment in Tusheti, for example on a bike, feels like paying respect to the people and the soul of this place.

These are purely personal feelings and I do not want to get involved in the various motivations of others. Because: do not judge too quickly. A number of these people who drive into Tusheti with a 4x4 to Omalo, do hiking tours from there. A Belgian couple that I met in the evening in Guesthouse Alvani, for example.

And after talking to the Maastricht bikers Stef and Maarten, I can also empathize more with the adventurous spirit of some motorcyclists. But cyclists who do everything on their own, that's what I admire most. And I'm glad to be one of them.

I admire Ditmar and Christine, a German couple that I also meet in Guesthouse Alvani. They are going to have an unforgettable experience. Tomorrow they will cross the Abano Pass on their MTB’s. For them, everything is still beginning, for me it's over (for now). You can imagine the kind of conversation we had at the dinner table.

Ditmar has been an adventurous cyclist since the 80s. 'Today I did 30km downhill, what a sensation', I say. His answer: ‘When I was young, I once did a 3-day downhill in Nepal and Tibet, from 5000m to 200m altitude.’

He also gets me excited about cycling in Svaneti, the region with the highest mountains in Georgia…

Georgia, this is just the beginning!