In the danger(?) zone

Ukraine border closed?

Despite the actual situation and as I did not had a Belarus visa, I decided to pass Ukraine on my way to Europe. My plan was to cross the Russia-Ukraine border as North as possible, in Sudzha.
I was ready to go!

But the night before I got the following alarming email from my Hungarian friends who I met a couple days before:

"Hi Dirk!

 

I read the news just now, that Ukraine closed down the whole Ukraine-Russia border line.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict more serious as was some weeks before.

Last Saturday near Luhansk a Russia friend group shut down an IL-76 military transport aircraft.

Check the news, and the possibilities!

Seems you must to crossing Belorussia.

 

Good luck!"

Not good!

I immediately checked the news and indeed the new elected president wanted to closed the whole Russian-Ukraine border within the following days, but a defined date was not announced....

The next morning, very early, I asked the person where I stayed to check. After a phone call she confirmed: Border OPEN.
Gone I was. And I can tell you: It gives you a certain adrenaline and definitely a boost in speed. By 1pm I was almost there. But then the traffic got less and less and with my previous China experience (see "Crossing the border part 1"), I was a little afraid that the history would repeat.

Ukraine border

But my worry was for nothing: the border was open!












But then, the moment I crossed the border, the hell started. The bullets were flying around my ears. 
One bullet almost punctured my front tire. Good that I had the Continental TravelContact tires with a kind of Kevlar safety protection....
I was shouting: "hallo guys, it's me, the CrazyBelgiumBiker. I am your friend and currently on my way to Belgium. Can you please take it easy????"




So proud of his Ukraine made tank...unfortunately, it was broken

Immediately the shooting stopped, we hugged each other and were shaking hands.....

All right. Nothing of the above shooting happened.....
 
Instead, on the border control, there were very friendly, relaxed people. They only asked where I wanted to go, if I had guns with me and advised me to stay on "low profile".

Which I did. From now on, I tried to stay as "low profile" as possible....incognito!

No, no, that's not me!

The way to Kiev

In Ukraine!!!

I MADE IT: I was biking in Ukraine!!!!
My first stop was Sumy, 60km from the border.

I have to say, the landscape and environment reminded me to Kazakhstan. Churches, horses and not so good roads....

A church under renovation, I think already some decennia's long....

Ultra eco friendly transport

 

 

It took me 2 more stops before I reached Kiev

The DREAMhouse

Entering Kiev, I asked a person that passed by the shortest way to the city center and if he know a good place to stay.
Alex was his name and he guided me all the way to an hostel, the "DREAMhouse". A perfect place which is really a dream place for bikers and travelers.  Great people, great accommodation, great service!!

The superb DREAM house team and Alex

Superman George

I stayed in a dorm together with 3 other people. One of them, George, was wearing a shirt with the well know, red-yellow "S" logo.
What a coincidence....I met already Zorro Jr. in Kazakhstan and now I was sleeping together with Superman George.
Superman came from England. I started to chat a little bit but then saw that Superman got upset....
He said: "I get mad when people start to talk with me in English while I am in a foreign country...."
Well, I said:" I thought that Superman only could speak English". So the next few moments I found myself in the ridiculous situation talking in GERMAN to the English speaking SuperGeorge....

As there were no dramas to solve, Superman George was clearly unemployed and bored.
To compensate, he was either playing the whole day online computer games or sleeping.
He also had clearly an identity problem. In fact he was Batman as he got active in the evening, going out and came back in the early morning, completely drunk.....

Peaceful Kiev

The next day I got a private city tour from Alex, the great person I met the evening before....

Although no experience, Alex was the perfect guide who knew everything.....thanks to his smart phone and Google!

I like Kiev. It was calm, almost no tourists and....the streets are full of mobile coffee cars.....

One of the many merchants on the street

Coffee, coffee, coffee.... everywhere: Great!

Alex brought me to the old, historic center:

Areal view of Kiev city

One of the many churches

The Pechersk Lavra or Holen monastery

But we also visited the place where the revolution started a couple months ago.
I was impressed.....you clearly still can see the result of this revolution.

Demonstrators headquarters with wall of victims

In front of the self declared headquarter of the demonstrators,  a wall with all the victims are showed. 

The main independence square is still occupied with people waiting and observing. It gave me a strange feeling.

 

The homes of the hard core demonstrators

And the other left overs....

It supposed to be my "rest" day but we walked 7 long hours.....
As hungry I was, the "short" city tour ended by 5pm where I invited Alex for an early dinner.


So, the city tour was a big success and even with the current situation, I only can recommend: put Kiev on your city trip agenda!

Before leaving Kiev, I just wanted to say my friend Super/Bat-man a well meant good-bye and left a note.....

 

 

The Ukraine fauna and flora

From Kiev I had to go further West, to the next border at Poland. 

Beside full wind ahead the whole time, it was a nice biking scenery with a high variety of fauna and flora: forest, grassland, mini lakes, foxes, a lot of storks and other different birds.

Hunting fox

A lot of storks.....nice bird!

In the forest, along the road, you often see cars stopping, people jumping out and disappearing. In fact they are harvesting the wild fruits: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.

Wild strawberry

Picking wild fruits: clearly a family business. Grandma was 77 years old!

I am currently in Kovel, my last stop in Ukraine.
I can smell the European air already: Tomorrow I will be in Poland. 

Transiting through Russia

Express delivery...

The spare part package finally arrived after almost 2 weeks on the way. Thanks to A.K, owner of  Raam"EXPRESS".....
There was a delay due to some custom issues.

The SOS spare parts package

Maybe the non declared cans of Hoegaarden beer and an "aphrodisiac male magazine" were the reasons.














Also a big thanks to Caterina and her manager of Pushkin Hotel for all the time they spent to arrange all the needed additional documents and the overall great service!

The very supporting Caterina and her manager

Transfer Visa

Due to this delay, I consumed already 3days (of a total of 10) of my Russian transfer Visa. So, 7 days was to short to cover the 1300km.
I normally needed a new application and do it all over again....

But good that there was the helpful Russian consul.

Russian transfer Visa

On his own advise I had to do some  "unconventional maneuver". 
It worked out all well and got another Visa with the right dates. You might understand I can not go too much into the details here....

After several days of non-activity I was now again on the bicycle....and it felt good.

The next stop was right at the Russian border but still in Kazakhstan. I saw some tents a couple hundred meters from the road. It turned out that this was a military basecamp. The people there were soldiers making the border.....
Extremely friendly, they offered me dinner, a shower and a bed.
Also here I have some pictures but was asked not to publish them....

Endless Russian crop fields

Crossing the Kazakh-Russian border  went without any issue....

The endless Kazakh steppe became endless Russian crop fields.....corn, wheat, sunflowers and other crops as far as you could see....

Endless crop fields

I was even the witness of a Russian Antonov-2 crop duster, while spraying the fields and almost fumigating my head too!!!!
NICE!

An-2 crop duster

.....almost crop-dusting my head....

I recently also discovered a new type of lodging. A room without bad, shower or toilet. Instead you have the common "facilities" on the floor/hallway.
Most of the times they are very clean. Sometimes they are not.....like in Kalininsk. The shower (???) seemed more a public mushroom and fungi cultivation place....



A shower or mushroom farm???

But do you know what? It is part of this trip and I don't care at all!

They told me that this was the only place in town to stay....
Afterwards I realized that it was more a place for homeless people....which somehow I am, right???
In Singapore they often put some nice smell in the elevators and the air-conditioning. Also here.....except the smell was a mixed aroma of sweat and urine....

That night I did not sleep so well. The 2 dozen of local mosquitos were the main reason. They must have thought that my body was Ukraine territory as I was attacked the whole night long.


Balazs and Gabor

Between Saratov and Voronez, I met 2 very nice and friendly motor bikers from Hungary: Balazs and Gabor.
We shared our stories. They almost did the same route as me but in the opposite direction. Their plan was to go to China too but due to some administration issues and sky rocking custom fees, they did not push through....what a pity!
We did some trading: I gave them my secret energy food, a Snicker, and got an apple and a baby like fruit juice in return....

Gabor and Balazs on their way home



The so needed good Russian map

Balazs noted that my Russian map was in fact a copy of Google maps. As kind as he was and because he know the road all the way, he offered me his South-West Russian road map which was indeed exactly what I needed....
Thanks again!



Nearing Ukraine


As good as the weather was in the past, as wet it is in Russian. Rain showers and thunderstorms almost everyday....
As closer I got to Kursk, the last big city before Ukraine, the better the roads were getting. Also the landscape changed with more forests. And I admit, after seeing steppe and crop fields for the last 3 or 4 weeks, I was happy to see again some ordinary pine trees and forests....

There they are again: the well know pine forests

 
I just checked: I have done so far already 10 000km and it is progressing well.
Next big challenge is passing the Ukraine border. Let's cross the fingers to cross this border.....

On hold in Uralsk

The endless Kazakh steppe

Some people warned me that the Kazakh steppe are endless and a bit boring. 
I agree they are endless but for one or the other reason I dont't find them boring.

Endless roads.....

Endless steppe

With the good road conditions, almost no traffic, the nice weather and the clean and fresh air, it gave me a certain feeling of freedom.....
I enjoyed it!







Meeting the fastest woman on earth.......

She was alone, rode a motor bike, came from Finland and worked for the Orthodox church: Maria.

She stopped me and told her story: she wanted to be the fasted women on earth to travel around the world on a motorbike.

But in the short talk I had, she complained almost about everything: bad roads, terrible border controls, accident she just got and the Guinness book that will not recognize her attempt. Poor Maria!

She also told me that she accumulated her holidays of the last 2 years, 20 in total, so she could do this trip.
20 days for an attempt that anyway will not be recognized??? Maybe her accident has something to do with it but I don't know if Maria knew what she was doing.

Maria, most probably NOT the fasted women on earth....

One thing was clear: the Kazakh steppe were more interesting then Maria so I said her quick good-bye as I didn't wanted to be the guilty one holding her up and not succeeding her anyway impossible record.....




I continued and made a lay-over in Aqtobe, a middle size city close to the Russian border. You clearly see and feel the influence. Alcohol is everywhere and definitely an important part of everyone's life. I like Aqtobe!!!
From 11pm onwards, this transforms itself into boem-boem music and fascinating street races ....

From Aqtobe, I needed to go 470km west, to Uralsk to get my Russian tranfer Visa. When I checked the info site on Saturday evening, the Russian consulate is only open for Visa applications on Tuesday and Friday...

As I did not wanted to wait until Friday, this means I had only 2 days, Sunday and Monday, to cover the distance, 235km each day.
A lot but possible.

It turned out different.....
Due to a long sleep and a flat tire, I started very late, 3pm and stopped in Qobda, covering only 120 km that Sunday.


It was a long, long day.....: The Qobda-Uralsk leg

If I wanted to reach Uralsk, I had to bike now 350km.....

I never had done this, didn't know if it was possible but positive I was, I made again a plan: waking up very early (4am).
In Zhympity, approx. 220km further, I gave myself the go/no-go point. I will continue to Uralsk if I reached Zhympity by 6pm.

I was on the road a little later then planned (5am). The first 3 hours were horrible.
Did you ever felt asleep on a bicycle? Well, I did......
It was so bad that I had to stop twice, put my jacket in the grass and slept for 25 minutes.
The first 3 hours I only covered 40km. Not a good start!
After a late breakfast it went better.
Superlies must have gone to church the day before because the weather became perfect, with a nice tailwind (strait in the back...yeye) all the way....

It went all well, except that 15km. before Zhympity where I got a flat tire. It got repaired at lightspeed this time: 25minutes....

At 6:15pm I finally arrived Zhympity. Although 15minutes later then my committed go/go-no go point, I took the flat tire as acceptable excuse and continued to Uralsk, another 135km further....

In Zhympity, I got a good dinner and on the way I was again. All went smooth until on km 285 there were some road construction, slowing me down for 1 hour.

I now was biking in the dark and completely on "auto-pilot".
And when seeing, after 346km, still 26km to go, it became difficult. I can tell you: it's no fun anymore....

But I made it.....



Some analysis of a long, long day!

Afterwards, the wise man said: "Not normal anymore" and he is right!

But let me explain why I did this. Mainly because of the following 3 reasons:

1. Russian consulate availability: If I should have arrange my Visa on Friday, the visa only will be available 3 working days later. And with a week-end in between, this means I will got it the next week Wednesday. So, by applying on Tuesday, I could save 5 days.
2. Weather forecast and conditions: I knew that the weather will be perfect. Doing it in 1 or 2 days longer, the wind should have come from the opposite site.
3. Rest: After applying the Visa, I had to wait anyway, so I got 3 days of rest and could recuperate......


I am now in Uralsk "on hold", taking the deserved rest while waiting for my Russian Visa and the spare part package.

Talk to you next time....in Russian territory!