BACKPACKING CANBERRAN WAKES TO SIGHT AND SOUND OF WARPLANES
The Canberra Times
14/08/2008 12:00:00 AM
Australia
Canberra man Courtney Krause woke to the sight of a Russian jet
firing a missile at a nearby communications tower in Georgia, so he
did exactly what any parent would want.
"I called my mum to tell her I was a bit worried. I couldn’t get to
sleep obviously, because I could hear all these jets flying around
Tbilisi. So that was a very scary moment," he said.
Mr Krause, a 30-year-old public servant, was midway through backpacking
through the region when he was caught up in the Georgia-Russia war
this week.
"I was in the mountains of Georgia for a week last week, and basically
no television or internet access, so I didn’t know what was happening,"
he told The Canberra Times from Armenia last night.
It was only when he got on a bus to Gori that he realised things had
taken a turn for the worse.
"No one could tell me what was happening, because I don’t speak
Georgian or Russian. Just all these troop convoys everywhere, tanks,
RPGs, big bazookas, all along the road. I stayed on the bus to go to
Tbilisi," he said.
The capital was chaotic, and there was little access to
English-language media. When rumours the Russians were marching towards
the capital spread, Mr Krause decided it was time to leave. The owner
of the expat Hangar Bar, Rebecca, was leaving the next morning and
offered him a lift. He did not get much sleep that night.
"I saw the TV and it seemed to be getting worse and worse, and the
fears were getting worse and worse, so I got all my stuff back to
the Hangar Bar," he said.
He, Rebecca and an Australian businessman "were crushed in like
sardines" in the car . "… We drove as quickly as we could to the
Armenian border … Just as we got to the border we got a call to
say there had been a ceasefire," he said. David McLennan