Last winter Bartosz Czauderna was talking a lot about kayaking in Georgia.
I listened with a bit of doubt.
Why is he the only kayaker who talks about Georgia ?
If there is so much whitewater, why haven't I ever heard of it in these 16 years of kayaking ?
Then early spring arrived and I had a text message from Bartosz:
"Hey mate! Do you wanne guide a trip in Georgia togheter with me".
Without a doubt I sayed yes straight away. Because why not ?
New country in a part of the world I've never been to !
But at that moment I still didn't know where I was actually going to.
End of april and I'm in the airport in Brussels again. Trying to get my "surfboard" on the plane. Quite succesfull way to check in a massive 9 foot kayak...
Due to a delay I lost my kayak somewhere in between Brussels, Frankfurt and Krakow. Luckily just in time for my next flight to Kutaisi my kayak arrived in Krakow.
In Krakow I met 12 kayakers with 12 kayaks. After a surprisingly smooth check in ( thanks Wizzair). We flew into Kutaisi.
Only 3 hours after the landing we were allready on our first Georgian river !
The hot weather and the amount of snow in the mountains made the rivers big !
Fast flowing water in the middle of the Georgian Jungle made a good first day on the Supsa.
After 2 laps on the Supsa we got changed and drove to get a typical Georgian meal. Georgian meals are filled with meat, cheese, salads and wine!
And to finish all the dumplings!
To teach you a bit of georgian meals, here's a summary:
- Khachapuri : bread filled with cheese
- Adjarian Khachapuri : bread filled with cheese, topped with cheese and an egg
- Khinkali : Dumpling filled with either mushrooms, cheese or meat
- Tsjatsja : strong liquor made of the leftover of the grapes
(very difficult thing to dodge in the country )
After the massive meal we drove to Kobuleti.
A small town close to Batumi and just next to the black sea.
The guest house in Kobuleti became our base.
Due to the high flow it was the perfect place to be.
Everyday we paddled a new river wich was fun and challenging at the same time!
I quickly learned that a russian grade 3 is a european grade 4.
Add high flows to that and you can quickly imagine how much fun we had ! 
The doubts I had were wrong and now I don't understand why it isn't the hot topic in the kayak industry yet ! There's a massive variety in rivers and it's easy to go to!
The shuttles are super easy because the awesome drivers know exactly what we need ! They know all the put ins and take outs of the commonly paddled sections.
Food is good and there's plenty of rivers to do!
And there's rivers for all levels!
The weather can be very unpredictable though.
The first trip had an amazing time in the sun the second was a bit rainy.
( still better than the belgian climate, don't worry)
Thanks Love it Live it and Bartosz Czauderna !
Thanks everyone who joined the trips !
I loved paddling with all of you in both of the trips.
See you on the river !
Here's a list of the rivers I've paddled in Georgia:
- Supsa
- Bzuzha
- Achistskali
- Kintrishi
- Machakhela
- Sakraula
- Tskhenistskhali
- Gubazeuli