The Expedition hit a major snag last week when the only border between Georgia and Russia was closed due to a major landslide which killed 8 truck drivers from the region. What this meant for our expeditioners who arrived later was that they had a few options. They could:

1.Try and find another way around through Azerbaijan or through Abkhazia
2.Return back to the Black Sea and hope they could find a boat running across to Russia
3.Return all the way back to Europe and then travel up through to Lithuania and Latvia adding weeks onto the trip and costing a huge amount.

In the end they decided on the third option as the visas would not be possible for the first two countries and no ferries were running across the Black Sea. However they just made it back into Turkey when they received confirmation that the border had reopened and they could return and cross from Georgia into Russia as originally planned.

Read the blog post from Mick McDonald of Compass Expeditions and see the photos from week 4 at the link below.