Kicked out of a car in Georgia, I end my journey on foot

Reporterre leaves for COP29 in Azerbaijan, by train ! The world climate summit will be held there from November 11 to 22. To get there without exploding his carbon footprint, our journalist Emmanuel Clévenot undertook a 9-day rail journey, crossing 8 countries. In this travel diary, he tells us about his adventures and his encounters.

The roar of the locomotive died down at Kars station, in the far east of Turkey. The Doğu Ekspresi will not go beyond that. The rails continue to cut through the plain towards Yerevan, the beating heart of Armenia. They are the silent witness to an unfinished story. That of reconciliation between two peoples torn apart by the Armenian genocide, between 1915 and 1923. The promise of reunion was touched upon at times, but diplomacy is tough. More than these two furrows of steel, advancing aimlessly until disappearing into the misty horizon. Thus ends my railway journey.

The Kars bus station, on the borders of Anatolia, has an atmosphere of yesteryear. Torn from modernity, the waiting hall is made up of a few wooden benches and a stove. A little boy approaches it and rubs his hands. The thermometer dropped below -8°C last night.

At 11 a.m., an old man with leathery skin screams « Ardahan » and all sleeping bodies suddenly awaken. In exchange for 150 Turkish liras (around 4 euros), I find a place in the back of the minibus with its peeling bodywork. Next to me sits a little girl with yellow pupils, almost unreal and already betraying the shadow of a difficult life. She gets off the bus at the entrance to a hamlet, a plastic bag full of persimmons in her hand.

Hitchhiking with a soldier

Arriving in Ardahan, the bus option also stops. A hundred kilometers still separate me from the border with Georgia. I go into a convenience store, buy a black marker and steal a piece of cardboard lying around. Squatting on the sidewalk, I write in large capital letters my next step: « posof ». With a cigarette in his mouth, the local shopkeeper reads the sign aloud and says warmly to me: « Incha'Allah ! » I stick out my thumb at the edge of a highway, and barely half an hour later, there I am, sharing cashew nuts in a Turkish soldier's car.

At 3 p.m., Bayram and Umur take me into their van. Before our eyes white cemeteries, farmers and their flocks pass by, and the majestic Mount Ulgar, culminating at almost 3,000 m above sea level. In Hanak and Damal, two lonely towns in a magical vastness, I help them unload their cargo of trays of chicken.

Halim, and his double semi-trailer loaded with porcelain, covers the fifteen kilometers remaining to the border post. He too is on his way to Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, he has a pass that I cannot obtain. So during a trip, his harsh voice tells me stories about the bears and wolves living around us.

« You have to pay again »

« Taxi, taxi. » Barely through customs, I see this decrepit sedan and the two Georgian colossi sitting on board. A soldier in uniform had warned me, a moment earlier, that the night would be cool and that the road to the first village would be endless and deserted. In the dark night, full of reluctance and my fingers frozen by the cold, I walk towards them: « How much for Tbilissi ? » (« How much to go to Tbilisi ? »)

For three hours, the Toyota sped away, coming close to tragedy more than once. The duo doesn't say a single word. Only a playlist of ten tracks, including Imagine Dragons, runs on a loop. As we approach the Georgian capital, the driver hands me his phone. On the other end of the line, a man jabbering a few words in English: « If you want him to drop you off in Tbilisi, you have to pay again. » I refuse. The tension rises a notch, he brakes and stops at the side of the road, at the entrance to the town. I finished my way on foot.

It is 1:25 p.m. on November 9 in Tbilisi. In a few moments my plane will take off for Baku, Azerbaijan. The final step, inevitable due to the closure of borders, before the COP29. The end also of my travel diary, before the opening of another, behind the scenes of this great rally !

Stages of the journey to Azerbaijan:

• 1^is November: Paris – Stuttgart (Germany)
• November 2: Stuttgart – Vienna (Austria)
• November 3: Vienna – Bucharest (Romania)
• November 4: Bucharest – Dimitrovgrad (Bulgaria)
• November 5: Dimitrovgrad – Istanbul (Türkiye)
• November 6: Istanbul – Ankara (Türkiye)
• November 7: Ankara – Kars (Türkiye)
• November 8: Kars – Tbilisi (Georgia)
• November 9: Tbilisi – Baku (Azerbaijan)