Ukraine turned out to be another highlight of the trip. Much of this due to a chance meeting with two mysterious German cyclists back in Russia. They were on their way to Siberia (in winter!) and had just ridden the exact opposite of our direction to Dresden. They furnished us with a map of poland, and their expert knowledge of the current road conditions ahead.
From Sumi to Kiev we were on a quiet road, through beautiful small villages and nice peaceful scenery. Roads were lined with apple trees, which were at just the right time of season. We suplimented our diet of apples with plentiful icecream stops. It turns out that Ukrainians are nuts about icecreams. A typical convenience store would have two or three freezers full of them!
Kiev was a bit of a drag, like any city of this size, but we had already been armed with an exit strategy. Unlike our team-mates Arnold and Marieke, we headed slightly north, aiming to reach Poland near Chelm. There was little traffic all the way to Kovel, thanks to the closure of the road for a surface upgrade. We had our own private, brand new road for 100km! Traffic didn’t really get busy until the last 50K to the border.
We our last night in Ukraine was in the beautiful town of Kovel, staying at some version of Ukrainian youth hotel. It was the only time in the whole of our stay in the former soviet union that we managed to get our bikes into a hotel room. (Having done this almost every day in China!)
We would have liked to stay longer, especially since we hadn’t had a rest day since Saratov, and Ting had caught a cold. However this would make the rest of the trip tougher, so reluctantly we made for the border.
0 Responses to “Day 99: Kovel, Ukraine (near Poland) – 10,303km”