rollingthunder
Well-known member
I am off for a 2nd consecutive visit to this very friendly and welcoming country and have been counting the days since we booked flights 4 months ago.
We fly Luton > Kutaisi with WizzAir and paid £124 return each.
We travel from Birmingham, Digbeth to Luton Airport by National Express at £22 return each. So with our rail fare from Stourbridge it works out at around £150 per person return for all external travel.
We arrive at Kutaisi just after midnight and have booked a Georgian Bus Company coach at 0130 for a 5 hour journey to Tblisi for about £3.50 one way. I will be birding all the time but the first week will be spent with 3 nights in the capital which we haven’t visited before and 3 nights about 100 miles to the East at Signagi - the centre of Georgian Wine productionB :t:
Tblisi has parks and a large river that runs through it so i will bird pre-breakfast and generally thru the day as we mooch around. At Signagi the hostel is more rural and overlooks hills and a valley so it will be interesting to observe whatever passage is taking place there in addition to movement locally in gardens etc. Georgia has the oldest known Viniculture from 6000BC and there are numerous vineyards to visit which is part of the itinerary:t:
Transport to and from Tblisi will be via local minibus which is about £2 each way. From Tblisi we will be taking the modern bullet train which takes about 5 hours to Batumi. We have 7 nights booked in Batumi Old Quarter at a lovely hostel with a choice of Black Sea or Lesser Caucasus views for £130 with en-suite for 7 nights:eek!:. Self-catering is available altho there are plenty of eateries and bars locally. Georgia is incredible value for money and works out about 1/3 cheaper than birding in Tarifa, Spain.
The 2nd week will be full on birding with pre-breakfast mooching around the little park areas between the hostel and adjacent to the beach. I plan 3/4 visits up to the Batumi Raptor Count Watchpoint #1 at Sakhalvasho alternating with a 20 minute cable car ride over the city up to the Argo mountain cafe. Here you can get beer, shelter if rain comes and toilets for the bride. Sakhalvasho has resident counters and bird groups coming and going plus Lonesome Doves like me - i can get a taxi to and from or will hopefully take a seat on a minivan run by BRC daily for a nominal charge. At Sakhalvaso little is missed and goodies pointed out but at Argo you ID your own stuff which is a good contrast imo.
We take an old Soviet cattle-class train to return Batumi > Kutaisi at 0.65p for 4 hours:t:
I will update with a daily summary on here and will do a trip overview on returning and hopefully will provide a bit of daily interest for anybody visiting the thread.
Good Birding -
Laurie:t:
We fly Luton > Kutaisi with WizzAir and paid £124 return each.
We travel from Birmingham, Digbeth to Luton Airport by National Express at £22 return each. So with our rail fare from Stourbridge it works out at around £150 per person return for all external travel.
We arrive at Kutaisi just after midnight and have booked a Georgian Bus Company coach at 0130 for a 5 hour journey to Tblisi for about £3.50 one way. I will be birding all the time but the first week will be spent with 3 nights in the capital which we haven’t visited before and 3 nights about 100 miles to the East at Signagi - the centre of Georgian Wine productionB :t:
Tblisi has parks and a large river that runs through it so i will bird pre-breakfast and generally thru the day as we mooch around. At Signagi the hostel is more rural and overlooks hills and a valley so it will be interesting to observe whatever passage is taking place there in addition to movement locally in gardens etc. Georgia has the oldest known Viniculture from 6000BC and there are numerous vineyards to visit which is part of the itinerary:t:
Transport to and from Tblisi will be via local minibus which is about £2 each way. From Tblisi we will be taking the modern bullet train which takes about 5 hours to Batumi. We have 7 nights booked in Batumi Old Quarter at a lovely hostel with a choice of Black Sea or Lesser Caucasus views for £130 with en-suite for 7 nights:eek!:. Self-catering is available altho there are plenty of eateries and bars locally. Georgia is incredible value for money and works out about 1/3 cheaper than birding in Tarifa, Spain.
The 2nd week will be full on birding with pre-breakfast mooching around the little park areas between the hostel and adjacent to the beach. I plan 3/4 visits up to the Batumi Raptor Count Watchpoint #1 at Sakhalvasho alternating with a 20 minute cable car ride over the city up to the Argo mountain cafe. Here you can get beer, shelter if rain comes and toilets for the bride. Sakhalvasho has resident counters and bird groups coming and going plus Lonesome Doves like me - i can get a taxi to and from or will hopefully take a seat on a minivan run by BRC daily for a nominal charge. At Sakhalvaso little is missed and goodies pointed out but at Argo you ID your own stuff which is a good contrast imo.
We take an old Soviet cattle-class train to return Batumi > Kutaisi at 0.65p for 4 hours:t:
I will update with a daily summary on here and will do a trip overview on returning and hopefully will provide a bit of daily interest for anybody visiting the thread.
Good Birding -
Laurie:t: