Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From P’ot’i it runs 278 km to P’ot’i; allow about 6 h 52 of riding. It goes by way of Pitshora, Grigoleti, Ispani and Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Nabada
Georgia's Black Sea coast has a wet, green corner that few people think of when they think of the Caucasus. The Rioni river, the ancient Phasis of the Greeks, empties into the sea here, and around its mouth lies the Kolkheti lowland, a flat, humid country of alder swamp, peat bog, reedbeds and shallow lakes. Lake Paliastomi lies just south of Poti, and the Colchic rainforests and wetlands, listed by UNESCO in 2021, preserve a remnant of the forests that once covered the whole plain. This is the land of Colchis, where the Argonauts came for the Golden Fleece, according to the myth, and on a misty morning with the trees draped in lianas it is easy to believe in it.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nabada is where the day begins. Next is Pitshora.
2. Pitshora
Close to the Black Sea coast of western Georgia, north of the port city of Poti, the land dissolves into marsh. This is the Colchic lowland, where the Rioni and smaller rivers have built a wide plain of peat bogs, alder swamps and lakes, and Pitshora is one of the wetland areas protected here as part of the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands World Heritage site, listed in 2021. The rains are heavy, the air is warm and humid, and the vegetation is lush in a way that feels almost tropical, surprising if you think of the Caucasus as dry mountains.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pitshora comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grigoleti.
3. Grigoleti
Grigoleti is a strip of pine woods and black sand on Georgia's Black Sea coast, squeezed between the sea and the great reed beds of Lake Paliastomi, a few kilometres north of the resort of Ureki and a short hop south of the port of Poti. It is a holiday place for Georgian families rather than foreign tourists, with guesthouses among the trees, wooden cafés and a beach that stretches as far as you can see. The sand here, and even more at Ureki, is dark and magnetic, full of iron-rich minerals washed down from the mountains, and locals swear it does wonders for aching joints. After a long day in the saddle feel free to test the theory.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Grigoleti. Next is Ispani.
4. Ispani
Most of Georgia's Black Sea coast is subtropical, with tea plantations, citrus groves and lush forests, and on the plain near Kobuleti, between the sea and the hills, lies one of the strangest landscapes in the Caucasus. The Ispani mires are raised peat bogs, domes of sphagnum moss that have grown over thousands of years, fed only by rain, and they are among the few such bogs in the subtropics. They are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands, inscribed in 2021.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ispani, about halfway. Next is Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands.
5. Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands
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.