Day 1,481
Batumi Botanical Gardens
We finally dragged ourselves away from Batumi, but not far, just 6 miles along the coast! We weren’t going to the beach though, no we had somewhere rather special to visit, the Batumi Botanical Garden. Sat on the hillside at Mtsvane Kontskhi meaning the ‘Green Cape’, overlooking the beautiful shimmering blue water of the misnamed Black Sea, covering 270 acres, it is one of the largest botanical gardens in the former Soviet Union.
They were started by a Russian botanist, Andrey Nikolayevich Krasnov, in the 1880s. They opened in 1912, and though Krasnov died in 1914, the Soviets expanded the garden and used it as a base to study Caucasian maritime subtropical cultures. Quite changes my opinion of the Bolshovics! Krasnov was buried in the grounds and his house is still there, used as offices for administration staff, though how they get any work done with those views I don't know!
The gardens are laid out into 9 sections, covering Caucasian subtropics, East Asia, South America, the Himalayas, Mexico, Australia and the Mediterranean. Basically you want to see over 2,000 types of trees from around the world? Then it's all here, plus a few types of flowers, a hillside covered in roses, oh my, the scent of those! It's so vast they have little buses to ferry people from one end to the other, or for the more adventurous a zip line. We wandered for hours. After 4 years of travelling we've both become somewhat jaded, but neither of us could tear ourselves away. We'd arrived early so we were leaving as the hordes arrived.
Feijoa sellowiana (Pineapple guava)
It's just about perfect, an elegant cafe to rest at whilst taking in those world class views wouldn't go amiss, and a better map, seriously whoever designed the one for here clearly has no understanding of the principles of what a map is for. The best use most people could make of it was to use it as a fan, the kids as a paper aeroplane, but maybe that was the point, who needs a map, just wander at random in a garden created by nature and man, for once a match made in heaven.











After a night in a very very nice hotel - in our defense the basic one we booked turned out not to be close to the gardens so we felt we had no option but to book ourselves in. It wasn't UK expensive, but was way over our budget, but hey, we're only here once!
In the morning we had a choice of routes, ride back down to rejoin the main road and a longer but not as steep climb, or simply carry on up the rough concrete track that passed for a road, straight up the near virtual hillside. There was also the bonus of some ruins to wander around, no choice really. Up we went. The ruins weren't just any old ruins either, but rather the remains of the home of bon vivant, Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky! Ah him, I hear you cry, ‘didn't he have a fling with that famous Italian opera singer Lina Cavalieri?’ Yep,that's him. From one of the richest families in Russia, he sadly died young of meningitis whilst in Italy, his family lost all their possessions and wealth due to the Russian revolution, and his luxury villa is now just ruins.
Then it was back to the hill. I got 7th place from Strava for the climb. A bit of stalking seems to show everyone else rode it on unladen bikes so I was impressed with myself. However there was a price to pay. A few miles further on, feeling weak and dizzy I had to stop and rest. Yes it was hot and humid, but I'd coped with worse, OK that hill was pretty tough, but not unusual on a Tom route, I'd just had a few days rest. I should be buzzing, but I just wanted to sleep. Not good. I just hoped I'd feel better as the day wore on! We will see.





