According to Georgian legend, when God was allocating all the lands on earth the Georgians turned up late because they had been busy drinking. After God said there were no lands left for them they told him that they had been toasting his name. God was so impressed by their devotion that he gave them the most beautiful place on earth that he had been saving for himself.

Not much has changed today. This small ex-Soviet republic is green and mountainous and the locals certainly like to drink. We arrived in the town of Hasuri having negotiated the muddy and bumpy road from the Turkish border and were immediately greeted by cries of 'Cognaciiiii!' from a group of guys on the side of the street. Glass after glass of spirits were thrust towards us as we took on everybody in downing competitions, which involved a ritual of linking arms, knocking back the drink, breaking off a bit of bread and finally kissing your opponent on the cheek. During this blur of handshakes, hugs and smiles it became apparent that someone had walked off with my camera. 'This is Georgia's shame' insisted the only English speaker and a search party was dispatched in a cloud of wheel smoke. A few tense minutes later the camera was returned to my eternal relief. Georgia might not have the moral guidance provided by the Koran but the social pressures are obviously still there. By this stage it was getting dark and so we gladly accepted the offer of somewhere to sleep. Shoto and Tengo showed us back to their homely apartment in an ugly Soviet tower block. Their mother was not at all fazed by the three smelly, dirty and bag-laden drunks on her doorstep and she welcomed us in and rustled up a meal.

We awoke to sore heads, drizzle and the prospect of 140km to Tbilisi. Fortunately the wind had shifted and strengthened overnight and so the going was relatively easy. It is difficult to see how anybody can drive worse than the Turks but the Georgians manage it. We witnessed some spectacular manoeuvers; BMW overtaking Truck overtaking Lada overtaking three nervous cyclists, all oblivious to the oncoming cars. A significant proportion of the traffic between the border and Tbilisi are connected with the construction of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey oil pipeline. This BP led project has criss-crossed our route since Erzurum and has left a scar on some otherwise great scenery. Nevertheless the scale of the thing is impressive and if it keeps the petrol flowing for a few more years I'm sure few in the West will complain.

Our expectations of concrete and communist gloom were wide of the mark. Tbilisi's tree-lined streets and grand facades reminded us of a slightly dilapidated Paris. Our opinions of the place were further raised by the restaurant we found in the evening, where we treated ourselves to dumplings, pork chops and vodka. At 3 pounds per litre it was no wonder the whole place was buzzing with laughter and singing. Tbilisi is not geared up for tourists and so finding your way around is difficult, particularly because Georgian has its own script. Just buying one of the mouth-watering pastries from the multiple bakeries put our charade and pictionary skills to the ultimate test. Give it a few more years, however, and it has the potential to become a great new city-break destination.

You might have noticed that the Chinacycle media machine has been quiet for the last few days. Whilst still in Turkey Chris showed that he is well suited for his future career as a lawyer by firing off a very grumpy email to the Iranian visa agency. The eventual upshot of this is that, after some intense negotiations, they have now decided to let us in! An overnight train followed by a bus has brought us back to Erzurum for the third time and we have just returned from the consulate with a 20-day visa safely stuck into our passports. We did not want to build up everyone else's hopes as well as our own so we adopted some Soviet-style censorship until we were sure of the outcome. Many thanks to everyone who offered their commiserations on the forum! The detour to Georgia has been fascinating and well worth it but we are now looking forward to making some decent headway towards China and, of course, a few weeks off the alcohol.