Not “JUST” another rainy night in Georgia

Yesterday we found out that it’s one thing to read about “extreme weather events” and quite another to walk through one for 5 km with heavy rucksacks looking for an obscure hostel in a large foreign city as darkness falls.

On our knuckle-whitening 8 hour mini-bus Helter-Skelter ride to Tbilisi, we’d already spotted a mighty column of rain falling on the distant mountains of the Georgia/Russia border to our north.  But arriving at a muggy but dry Tiblisi bus station we declined the taxi, deciding to stretch our legs instead with a walk to our pre-booked hostel.

The part of Tiblisi we’d landed in was more like London’s Knightsbridge than the quaint romantic ancient town we’d imagined.   As we trudged along beside the angry rush hour traffic, thunder peeled and rain began to fall in monster dollops.  We sheltered in a shop to get our waterproofs and our bearings, then bravely carried on, thinking we’d maybe flag down a taxi or bus after all.

But the rain just got heavier and heavier, the roads began to fill up with water and the pavement we took turned out to be under reconstruction – mud, rubble and the occasional sink hole. By now no taxi-driver was going to stop and step out to open his boot.  Cars were having problems of their own.  Several decided to speed up, with no regard for us on the roadside, literally drenched by their wake. Cats cowered, dogs became alarmed and defensive, we became wetter and semi-delirious, singing “Singin in the rain” to keep our spirits up as we crossed a bridge and laboured up a steep hill where petrol and oil waste washed out from a petrol station down to the river below. Luckily our destination was on higher ground.

After 3 hours we were near the hostel.  We invoked Mighty Thor as lightning crashed nearby setting off car alarms, and then a welcome vision had us invoking the Mighty Spar, who’s retail shrines are unexpectedly common for a city located between Tehran, Grozny and Baku. The water in the narrow lane was only ankle deep as we waded finally to the door of our hostel, while the city in the valley below us flooded.

A warm welcome from other residents, mainly young people from different parts of Asia and Russia and Eastern Europe, and a warm takeaway in a comforting kitchen, was the reward for our heroic quest.

But it could have been so different for us.  Locals told me that this was not “normal”.  But “not normal” is the new normal now. This is climate change induced by burning fossil fuels.  And by the look of the massive new roads being built with the help of additional Governments across the green hills and valleys of Georgia, no one’s intending to stop burning them any time soon.

Here’s some footage of last night that someone else took:

https://youtu.be/o1XwhRsBtnI?si=E4n6gwV7_j1cCfg9