Traveling to the Caucasus mountains has been in my mind for a while.

I missed it on my way to Africa in 2011 because of a late start from France, and cold and snowy conditions when i arrived in Turkey in October 2011. Since then, i have been waiting for the chance to go there. 4 years later, i made it possible.

Time has been set to 2015 autumn, which i think is a good season to visit the area, and, i hope, not as touristic as late spring or summer.

The mean of transport will be new : the mountainous tracks of Caucasus will be the test ride for me and my newly acquired land cruiser. (you can see it here)

For the last years, most travelers had to limit their visit of the area to the 3 countries of the southern side of the Caucasus, from west to east : Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, because of the tourist-proof border of Russia and the north Caucasus. But recently, some have reported the opening to all nationals of the border between Georgia and Russia first, and between Azerbaijan to Russia too.

The planned route was the following :

For political and practical reasons, we eventually followed that route: