Georgia trip/the Saga continues (Chorokhi right tributary)

After a good night in a real bed, we are more or less ready for some further abuse on another well filled river, no rest for the wicked... Day starts with a few unsuccessful attempts at getting a dent out of Ward's boat and Egor surprises us with a cultural intermezzo, a short visit to an old mosk that is turned into a museum. We are very close again to the Turkish boarder and as the road is closed, we have to carry our boats down to the put in, a quite steep 30min hike, luckily all downhill. According to Egor, this may be the nicest river of the trip but unfortunately, as we have rain during the descent, we do not have that much multimedia evidence (and our mind was more on survival than taking pics anyway).

Getting at the putin, there is some unclear beta on 3 riverwide drops as warm-up with some specifics on the lines that I failed to register. Due to the high water, the drops are more or less transformed in meaty stopper-wave combinations and getting down in the back, a rather worrying scene develops before me with several boats upside down and Ward abandoning ship. A similar scenario develops in the next rapid and Ward somewhat gutted, decides to take out at the entrance of the next gorgy part. After a quite beefy entrance (Egor: do not mess with the stoppers guys!), we luckily take a chicken line on the far left that brings us via a sequence of small drops safely past a big syphon section. After that, the river continues in its old pace, quite big&pushy rapids with short recovery sections in between, really good stuff once you feel it. Past the first roadbridge, an easier section starts at mainly grade III with 3-4 bigger rapids that required a quick check. On one of those, I manage to hit a rock and dent/split the nose of my Zet. Ouchh, those Belgians manage to break anything and my belief in the build quality of Zet somewhat deteriorated...

That night, we sleep in a real luxury hotel in the coastal city of Batumi, not bad after all the beating off the day. Ward invites for a small stroll along the Black See and some cheap beer makes for a nice finish to the day.