We had spent the night at a parking, which probably every camper uses in Batumi, close to the beach and the center, but at the same time quiet enough. We still needed some spare parts for the shocks, getting our washing done and a haircut, but we also wanted to visit 2 museums and the botanical garden.
For the bolts we first went to Mercedes Benz, but no luck. We stopped at another car supply in the same road, where Archil had what we needed.
We found a hairdresser, where Cordy got a cut and a blow dry she didn’t ask for, only the third time in here life with straight hair!
We decided to visit the Ethnographic museum of Adjara, the south-western province of Georgia.
Our next stop was the Nobel museum, which is about the oil industry, established by Robert and Ludvig Nobel, the older brothers of Alfred Nobel, at Batumi. Oil from Baku/Aserbaidschan was transported to Batumi, which become an important oil harbour at the end of the 19th century. The Nobel brothers invented oil tankers, better refineries, and pipelines. Also the Rotschilds and Alexander Mantashev from Tiflis invested in Baku oil and made a lot of money. But there are also some exhibits of the tea and tabac industry of that time.
We had used the north entrance to the Botanical Garden, where we had spent the night at the parking for free. The garden is dominated by huge trees of different continents and it was a nice walk to the southern end and back. As you can see we found some flowers as well.
We are now on the way to the Caucasus and its high mountains – more on our next post!