A road too far in Georgia?

After a pleasant night at the castle/church at Ananuri and after taking advice from a couple of Russian tourists ("Niet! There is no road.") and a local police man ("A bit rough at first but should be no problem.") we decided to take the road from Zinvali to Akhmeta so we could visit the wine growing region around Telavi.

On the night of the 8th of May after covering only 45km in three hours we debated if we should continue, however after sitting round a fire with two bottles of wine we opted to go on. Another group meeting in the morning confirmed the decision. Possibly a mistake!

On the morning of the 9th of May after a few kilometers the road disintegrated into a muddy boulder strewn track and Womble, K-Nine and Kon-Tiki all had to be towed by Mog or Bigfoot. Kon-Tiki also suffered a double puncture.

We covered only 10km in 5 hours.

However after Akhmeta the road improved and we eventually "camped" on the main road in Telavi. After a fruitless search for a recommended restaurant we ended up in the "Lucky Strike" cafe (a fine meal with wine for $5.00 a head!).