We drove from Trabzon to the Georgian border, roads in Turkey are perfect, but these two days were challenging for us and our truck. On the first day, we left Uzungöl lake in the afternoon and drove in the rain on good roads through Kaçkar Mountains with steep rocky peaks (the highest part of the Pontic Mountains) to Aşağı Özbağ, where we stopped for dinner and overnight. The next day our adventure started. We drove first through the scenic valley on a good road around dams on the Çoruh River. A total of 27 large hydroelectric dams are planned to be built. Eight are completed, and also new highway with many tunnels and bridges will be finished soon.
Then we crossed the wild river on an unreliable bridge to get on the old narrow road D050. Driving through villages like Tekkale with our huge truck was pretty dangerous. No idea how we could overtake there with a big truck, which we met after a few minutes, luckily on a broad curve. Several times, we did stop to navigate to be able to pass narrow curves above a deep canyon and not hit the solid rock wall on the other side. After the Yusufeli road became good, we could speed up to reach the Yayla Gecidi pass (2303 m) on our way to Damal, where we did overnight.
