Coup de thé

There are two invaluable rules for a special correspondent — Travel Light and Be Prepared …remember that the unexpected always happens.

Evelyn Waugh, Scoop

Huge potholes scar the road from the Keda mountains to the Black Sea port of Batumi. My driver cannot see them for the snow, and I can’t feel the bumps because I have been anaesthetised by lunch. I have fallen victim to traditional Georgian hospitality: a meal that ends in toasts drunk from clay horns shaped so that they can’t be put down until they are drained. I raised mine to my driver, to my translator and to the two strangers who led us to our simple restaurant. Each of them raised his or hers to me. I try to do the sum, but the numbers defeat me. Whatever we have had, it’s too much.

As the car lurches down the valley toward the city, I glimpse features I saw more clearly on the way up.