Category Archives: Ukraine

Crimea, Sibirsky Extreme, Ukraine

Back on the Road

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13.04.09 Krasnoperekopsk, Crimea

Well I decided to stay in Odessa for a day and half. Sunday to relax, and then Monday to get some work done, both on the bike and in terms of personal admin following Saturdays problems.

I am at an internet cafe which allows no uploads … so its just going to be text today.  Pics to follow

Sunday morning was time to wash the riding gear … the quick way –  in a car wash.

In the afternoon I was taken on a tour of Odessa by a couple of the guys, which included haaving 3 bikes at the bottom of the Potyomkin steps.  now where have i seen that before???

The evening was spent at a barbecue held by the bike club that was my security blanket in Odessa, the Motor-Life guys. Great shashlik (meat coooked on a skewer) and will have some mouth watering pics uploaded shortly. One of the guys, an ex Soviet Spetsnaz (special forces) troop chap called Berkut (eagle) tattooed the Sibirsky Extreme bike with a scull. The president of the club, German, gave me some great toasts and introduced me to the clubs mechanic, Viktor, who was more than happy to sort out a few niggling items I had with the bike first thing on Monday. Another guy there had helped host Simon and Monika Newbound when they stopped in Odessa for a month about 3 years back. Cant remember their webside off the top of my head, but they rode a pair of BMWs round the world. [edited … just found it  … http://www.spiritsofadventure.com/]

So Monday morning I wake up feeling quite chipper again. Good food and good friends puts everything into perspective. I said goodbye to Sasha, my host for the last two nights, as he dropped me off at German, the club presidents place early in the morning. German and I took the bike straight to Viktor who began working to remake in steel a broken plastic part from one of my panniers. Meanwhile Viktor’s electrical assistant Sasha went to work trying to find the occasionally shorting wires that was doing my fusebox in.

German and I went back to the centre of town to sort out my paperwork. First to DHL as I needed to send some docs to Moscow for a business deal I am working on. Second to a bank with western union counter to collect my emergency wired funds. And thirdly to a bank I almost forgot I had an account with. About 5 years ago I thought about buying a property in Ukraine just after the Orange Revolution and set up an account here and wired funds to it. As it happens I am still on the system and I will pick up a new card and pin number a few days down the line. So have funds and have a card within a few days… things are looking up.

Back to the bike, and all is fixed !!! Sasha found the shorting wires … some pinched wires around the touratech rallye front end I had installed. Viktor had mended my pannier. Everything was sorted. I was a happy camper for the first time in 48 hours.

Viktor and Sasha refused to take payment for their several hours work. German refused to take back the money his guys had lent me impromptu on the street on Saturday evening. It was an embarrassing way to leave for me, but I didnt want to force the issue. I said goodbye to the guys who had restored my faith in many things and hit the road about 2:30pm.  Had a funny scene when I stopped to photograph a wedding party and they all started to pose for me, including the hideous bridesmaid!

Riding till just before sundown when I passed the town of Armyansk in the Republic of Crimea, an autonomous Russian zone within Ukraine. The next town had a hotel with a small single room for 140 UAH (14 EUR), so I took it.

I am about to get kicked out of the internet cafe, so back to the hotel for some dinner for me. But its all systems go again from this end. Bike will get a service over the next few days in Yalta, and i have to wait 4-5 days to collect my new debit card. Should be a relaxed 4-5 days in Crimea.

So its goodnight from me …. (and its good night from him)

Sibirsky Extreme, Ukraine

The Odessa File

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A more comprehensive guide to yesterday:

11.04.09  Odessa

I packed up the gear and at about 09:30 left the sleepy Ukranian border town of Reni for the 4 hour drive to Odessa.  The plan was lunch and internet in Odessa, then do about 100km more and find a home for the night.

The cook in the hotel warned me the road was pretty bad.  Certainly the road out of Reni was in bad shape, but once on the open road it was comfortably manageable.  The first hour or so was weaving in and around lakes and channels in the Danube delta.

A young female car driver stopped me for a chat after spotting me taking photos of some local villagers, insisting I take some photos of her, before she zoomed off to Kiev at a high rate of knots.

I had to take a route along the coast, as the road between Reni and Odessa crosses into Moldova briefly a couple of times – which is easy for locals, but a bureaucratic hassle for a foreigner like me.  I sighted the Black sea for the first time, along with its beachy shore.  The beach didnt look too inviting tho today.  It was cold weather.  No rain, but about 10 – 11 degrees all day.

Eventually I reached Odessa, about an hour later than I thought, and it took a good half hour to get into the centre of town, where I knew I could find internet.  I parked outside a cafe with wireless internet advertised on the streetfront, took my 2nd wallet out of my tankbag to reshuffle what currencies were in my reserve wallet and what ones I carried witth me, and sat down to have a pizza, coffee and catch up on 5-6 days of internet absence.  There was a lot of catching up to do, and I spent a good 2 hours updating pics and text and responding to urgent emails.

When I got up to leave and pay the bill, I noticed my jacket pocket (my jacket had been draped over my chair) was open and both wallets gone.  It was a disaster.  All my cards were in the two wallets, along with drivers licence and about 750 eur in eur, usd and rubles.  It must have happened when I popped inside for 30 seconds to have a quick slash, and I kinda suspect the waiter himself who was covering the balcony area (of which I was the only customer).

After a frantic search, I called to cancel the cards.  I will get new ones sent out in due course, but that will take time, and I may not be able to have a reliable place to send them until Almaty in 5 – 6 weeks time.  Fortunately the bank is able to wire me some emergency funds by Western Union.  Unfortunately, it was now after 6pm on Saturday and those funds would not be accessible until banks affilliated with western union opened on Monday morning here in Ukraine.

I found 200 reserve EUR I had tucked away in a safe place and changed half of it into Ukranian hryvna so i could pay the cafe bill and top up with fuel.  I made a search of the alleyways around the Grand Cafe where I had the wallets stolen in case someone had just taken the cash and thrown away the wallets and cards, but no luck.

For both travel and business I had been to the former soviet union (FSU) over 70 times in all, and never been robbed.  I had been swindled out of a 50 buck “donation” by a dodgy Russian immigration official once, but in over 70 visits in over 15 years, I had never been robbed.  I guess while most people are paranoid about security issues in the FSU, I had gone the other way, and treated Ukranians, Kazakhs and Russians like trusted brothers.  Certainly the friendliness and hospitality I have always received in these parts has always been first class.  It seems I had relaxed a little too much.

I drove to the main pedestrian street, Deribasovska, where I once knew a couple of western guys who had an apartment business.  I guess I wanted to see some friendly reassuring faces.  By now it was after 8pm and I needed to sort out accommodation.  If I couldnt find the guys I once knew, I would just ride out of town and into the night, stopping at a hotel by the highway.

By total luck I stumbled across 20 or more bikers having coffee and some food by the side of Deribasovska.  They loved the sound of my Remus exhaust but on hearing my sad story, they insisted on giving me a home for the night and had a whip round for some cash.  I refused to take it, but they shoved it in my pocket, insisting “bikers always help other bikers”.  This is an attitude I had seen several times while on a bike in Russia, and it seems it was no different in Ukraine.  They are always very generous and helpful.  After their street meet split up, a guy called Sasha from the Motor-Life club in Odessa (http://motor-life.ucoz.ua/) told me to follow him.  He had a ground floor apartment and a secure garage.

It was good to feel looked after and to have a home for the night.

Sibirsky Extreme, Ukraine

Those damn thieves

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Well just as I wrote and posted that long series of updates, it seems I have been deprived of both my wallets, and all my credit and debit cards by some light fingered son of a gun.  I did at one point leave my table and go to the toilet and left my wallets in the jacket pocket on the chair.  I had both on me as I was in the process of switching between currencies and cards to ones that worked better in the former soviet union.  So here I am now with no cash and no cards.

By chance while riding around wondering what to do next (I just had enough change in my pocket to pay the cafe bill) I stumbled across a bunch of bikers – The Moto-Life Club of Odessa – having a few drinks in the centre of town.  These guys took me in, passed the hat around and got me a bunch of cash to get me through till Western Union branches open again on Monday, and one of the guys has kindly offered me a place to stay for a night or two and a garage for the bike.

All my cards are cancelled, and the only document in there was the driving licence.  But I have the paper copy and an international driving permit so that should be fine.  But I did lose a decent amount of EUR and USD … and it will take at least 2 weeks to get new cards to access my accounts.

So its been a worrysome first 24 hours in the Ukraine, salvaged by typically outstanding hospitality from local bikers in this part of the world.

I will need to be more security conscious in future.

Moldova, Romania, Sibirsky Extreme, Ukraine

Alone: to MD and UA

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Apologies.  I havent had internet for 5 days.  We havent looked for it specifically and ended up staying in very out of the way places.  But I am now here in a cafe in Odessa (Ukraine) eating pizza with wi-fi access so here goes 5 days updates.

– – –

Day 12: Good Friday

A look out of our window early in the morning said the weather would be good, so Marcin and I rose early to tackle the Transfagarasan.  This road had been built as an escape route across the carpathian mountains to provide and escape route for communist dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, in case the Soviets invaded as per Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.  Romania is split in two by the curved Carpathian range.   The plains along the Danube to the east and south of the country, including Bucharest, could be easily invaded by the soviets.  But the land within the curve of the Carpathians would involve crossing the Carpathians somehow.  The road is said to be a feat of road engineering up there with the best of them , and very scenic to boot.

The Transfagarasan road is supposedly only opened in mid May each year as the high pass is around 2030 metres up.  I had just ridden the Arlberg pass in Austria last week and was feeling up for it.  As we climbed up from the base of the mountains at about 500 metres to the level of the first lake at about 850, the temperature dropped dramatically.  In theory, temperature should drop about 1 degree C every 150 metres in altitude, subject to a couple of variables, but in this case, it must have dropped 7-8 degrees in just 350 metres.  By the time we would our way around the lake and climbed up through 1000 metres, the snow was becoming more and more abundant.  By 1300 metres there were avalanches across the road, with narrow paths just wide enough to fit a car cut through them. and by 1580 metres, the road became impassable.  Snow covered the whole road, to a depth of several feet.  we were defeated.  We turned back dejected for the one and a half hour ride back to the bottom of the mountains.

At Curtea de Arges, Marcin and I parted ways.  He had to head North West to get back to Poland, and I had to head East and get to the Ukraine.  24 hours earlier, we had been 3.  Now it was just me – “And then there was one”.  The first half an hour was strange.  For the first time in the trip I had no-one in my rear view mirrors; No-one in front of me; No-one to bounce ideas off; No-one to tell me my ideas are stupid.  As much as I love the freedom of riding alone, I will surely miss the company of Jonathan and Marcin.

I decided to head to a bizarre double border crossing at the southern tip of Moldova.  Due to the Danube estuary and delta, there is no border crossing between Romania and Ukraine, to the south of Moldova.  I had to go through Moldova… but recent Romanian news reports were of revolution and demonstrations in Moldova.  One voice even said the borders were closed.  I took a chance and headed for the Romanian city of Galati, near the crossings I wanted to try – from Romania into Moldova, then about 1.5 km later, the Ukranian border.  I wanted to be in Ukraine for the night so it was head down 120km riding all the way to Bucharest.  Then I hit the ring road.  If there is a worse capital city ring road anywhere in the wolrd, I have yet to see it.  It took me 30 km of reckless gung-ho riding through the worst traffic and most  rutted bitumen roads I have ever seen to get to the other side of the city.  What should have taken 20 minutes according to Garmin, took over an hour.  If I had ridden responsibly, I may still be there.

When I finally exited the ring road from hell, it was straight back to 120 km/h head down riding, with the little X-Challenge screaming away beneath me.  I had been scanning the trucks I passed and those which came the other way for Ukranian number plates to confirm the border was open, despite the on-going revolution, but I had seen nothing in the hundreds of kilometres I had been on the lookout.  Then, 70km from the border, a stroke of luck.  I saw two Ukranian trucks parked by the side of the road pointing in the direction of Ukraine, drivers engaged in social chat.  I slammed on the brakes, did a u-turn and chatted to the drivers in Russian.  The border was indeed open.  They assured me that all this revolution business is only in Kishinev, the capital city, and way down on the southernmost border there would be no problems.

By 7pm I made it to the Romanian border.  The 10 km from Galati to the border was deserted and felt like a no-mans land.  By 7:45 I was into Moldova, having been made to buy a 20 EUR insurance policy (from 4 lovely women who I photographed below) for the 1.2 km ride to the Ukraine border and then the Ukranians held me  up for over an hour while they went through bizarre paperwork rituals.  My passport was checked half a dozen times under ultraviolet light.  So too were my registration papers. By the time I was set free into Ukraine it was around 9:30 and well and truly dark.  The border guys recommended a cheap hotel in the town 6km down the road.  After a quick search I found it.  It was extremely soviet,  Very bare. But at this hour I didnt have a lot of choice.  And at 100 UAH for a room for the night (about 10 EUR) I didnt complain.  They even had secure parking for the bike and opened up the kitchen for me.

Texts came in from Jon and Marcin.  Marcin had made it to Hungary, and Jon who we had left just after midday yesterday (Thursday), had ridden non-stop though the night and made it to his girlfriends parents in Linz (Austria) at 7am this morning while Marcin and I were still thinking about waking up.  A remarkable piece of iron-man riding.

A couple of minor milestones came up today, day number 12.  Kilometre number 5000 of the trip came and went, as did the 200th litre of fuel, as well as the 22nd country and the 30th degree of longitude from the start of the trip in Wales (3 degrees 46 mins west to over 28 degrees east.)   This is where the rate of border crossings slows dramatically.  In the next 5 weeks there will only be 5 more countries to add to the list: Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.  After that, no new countries for about 3 months.