Rain is the first thing you notice on Georgia's Black Sea coast, which gets some of the heaviest rainfall in the Caucasus and grows a green, tangled forest to match. The Colchic forests and wetlands lie between the sea and the foot of the Lesser Caucasus, behind the resort town of Kobuleti and inland from the lanes of Ispani, with Chakvi, a small coastal town of eight thousand people, about eighteen kilometres away and Batumi not much further. UNESCO listed the Colchic rainforests in 2021 as a remnant of the temperate forests that once covered this part of the world, with trees such as alder, hornbeam, beech and the evergreen cherry laurel, hung with lianas and ferns.
Colchis is a name from myth. This is where Jason and the Argonauts sailed to steal the Golden Fleece, and the river Phasis, today the Rioni, gave its name to the pheasant, which the Greeks first met on its banks. Real history was less romantic: Greek traders had colonies on this coast, and the region later passed to Rome, Byzantium and the Ottomans. In the nineteenth century the Russians introduced tea and citrus here, and the hills above Chakvi hold some of the first tea plantations in the Russian Empire.
The wetlands are the quiet side of the place. Peat bogs, sphagnum mats and shallow lakes near Ispani and further north around Lake Paliastomi are a key stop for migrating birds, and in spring and autumn, raptors and storks stream along the coast. Boardwalks cross the bog at Ispani, which makes it easy to see sundews and dragonflies without sinking in, and the whole place smells of wet leaves and peat.
On a motorcycle the coast road from Batumi north through Kobuleti is mostly flat and fast, with heavy traffic in summer, and the roads that climb into the hills towards Chakvi and Churia are narrower, wetter and often patched, with a mix of cobbled villages and fallen branches. Mist hangs in the valleys, and a dry day can turn into a downpour within minutes, so waterproofs are not optional. The best months are May, June and September, when it is warm but not too crowded or humid.
Fuel is easy along the main road, with stations at Chakvi, Kobuleti and Batumi, and the towns offer khachapuri, a cheese-filled bread boat topped with an egg, and fish grilled on the beach. Tea is served in tiny glasses, often with jam.