I had to calculate roughly how far I had to travel through each country, so I could gain an insight into how long it would take, to ensure each visa was valid when I crossed the relevant border.What I failed to do was give any thought to how far it was through Europe to actually reach Russia. Well I do now, just short of 2,000 miles. That's almost the distance I will cover crossing the country itself, which I've allowed myself up to three weeks. At the rate I'm going, which isn't excessive, I'll be in Mongolia a lot quicker than planned. It did take me a couple of days longer than thought to reach Russia, but that wasn't based on any form of calculation. I very brief look at Poland and Ukraine provoked a blase guess at spending three to four days crossing Europe. How wrong I was there! They're bloody big countries, but I crossed them with ease and comfort, resting when I felt like and not riding myself into a stupor. I'm on my second rest day, and feel delighted that it's raining outside, so I've missed a day of miserable weather. (Photo: Rural hayricks - Poland)As I've left each country I've shed the redundant maps, as I've no intention of backtracking it seemed a good idea. An attempt to get rid of excess baggage, however small. Of course there is one slight problem with that, I can't remember all the town names or routes I took, but I'll give it a go.
Within fairly easy striking distance of the German border I stopped in a small place called Nowa Sol in Poland then again just short of Belchataw, where I stayed two nights because I was so tired. Crossing into Ukraine east of Chelm gave me a fairly straight forward ride across the northernmost reaches of the country. Both nights spent in Ukraine were camping in tiny little copses just out of sight of the road. I just rode until darkness was closing in, then pitched the tent at any convenient spot. My route took me just south of the Chernobyl disaster zone, through Kiev and then up to the northeast border just past Sumy. A chance meeting at the border with Timon, a Russian speaking German, brought me under his escort to Kursk, where I'm having my second day of rest. Tomorrow I head off east again, making my way through Zaratov then to Samara (which is where the Lada samara got it's name from). With any luck I will keep tracking my actual route on this blog, and if it makes it onto Google maps I will post a link to make it easier for everyone to follow. (Photo: Pony power - Poland)The roads thus far have been boringly straight, but the scenery pleasant, which is just as well or I'd died of boredom by now. Both Poland and Ukraine have proved to be very similar, only the fashion the terrain has been put to use stands them apart. Houses in Poland are much more widely spread and of a larger and more modern nature, in Ukraine the lack of money is apparent in the housing.
It isn't that Poland doesn't have it's peasant population, it's abundant and far reaching, but the number of new, prestigious housing shows a distinct investment of new money. I wouldn't be surprised if much of this has come from foreign employment, As I rode along it's highways the thought crossed my mind what a shame none of this had gone into the maintenance of roads. They aren't exactly falling apart, but they suffer uniformly from sagging of the surface, like two shallow ruts a lorry width apart, leaving a crown in the centre of each lane. It has a tendency to draw the bike tyres into the grooves, making for a perceptible snaking motion as you enter or leave their embrace. The first couple of times it happened it was a little disconcerting, though I got used to it and starting to overtake as if nothing happened at all. That first time it caught me whilst overtaking was a bit of a sphincter clencher, it took awhile to give it another go. Another go it had to be though, if I hadn't gotten used to overtaking it would have taken an eternity to reach Ukraine. (Photo: Horse power - Ukraine)And once reached, I learnt what poor quality roads really were. Ukraine really takes the biscuit, the first section of the highway until Sarny was appalling. Originally of concrete the base had cracked and broken beyond recognition, and been haphazardly patched with mounds of tarmac, which in itself was decaying and braking up. Gouge marks of a road scraper added to the mayhem and huge, bottomless potholes compounded the problem.
What a nightmare, the bike was being bucked and bounced all over the place. Like all handling problems on a bike though, there is always a solution, this one only needed a bit more speed to even out the ride. This was where I really started settling down into riding the BMW, feeling remarkably at ease I kept the throttle open and maintained a decent speed of 60 mph. I'd been warned about the ever present, and very corrupt, police in Ukraine. By all accounts they target foreign license plates, not that there is any mistaking I'm a foreigner, the BMW is worth as much as their GNP. Speed restriction signs can be very thin on the ground, the golden rule is less than 40mph in any built up zone, 55mph on the open road and 80mph on motorways. As motorways are almost non-existant you can forget about that one. One of the things I noticed is when I spotted a police patrol they were invariably at a junction on the approach into town or on the way out. The Roads are so empty they don't bother themselves with patrolling where there is little chance of cashing in. the first town I came to had a supposed police car, hand painted blue with to khaki uniformed guys in it. It was strange because the police there use silver cars with blue stripes and wear blue uniforms. (Photo: Stork nest with chick - Poland)In the same way the condition of the roads grew worse, so did the quality of the driving. i've not used to many cars overtaking me, though I have been taking it fairly easy most the time. In Poland they drive fast, as in speeds of 100 mph or more on single carriageway roads. They don't tend to slow down much approaching slower moving vehicles, nor does oncoming traffic deter them, they expect everyone else to move to the edge of the road to make room for them to pass.
Invariably people do, not that they have a lot of choice; do you get involved in a high speed multi-car pile up or do you get out the bloody way. I plump for getting out the way every time, So you really have to have eyes peeled at all times in every direction. It freaked me out when first confronted with it, with a bit of time I realised it made for very easy overtaking for me, solid white lines or not, as soon as a driver saw me in their rear view mirror they'd move out my way. But the Ukrainians, they are considerably worse, luckily there are far fewer in possession of cars and more of them are incapable of going over 60 mph. Which is just as well, they are rather stupid with the way in which they overtake. Doesn't matter whether they can see it's clear they go for it anyway, and as I was getting the hang of that I entered Russia; oh dear, oh deary, deary me! (Photo: Potential campsite - Ukraine)Though straight and boring the roads do cut through delightful countryside, none of it has disappointed me yet. I thought the countries were heavily industrialised but have only once seen distant towers belching plumes of dense smoke. I've been passing through forestry and agricultural land, the land used for agriculture far outweighs that maintained as woodland. One expect the wheels of communism to have left a legacy of heavily mechanised farming but not at all, in either Poland or Ukraine.
Much of the farming in Poland seemed to be small scale, with hay being cut and stacked by hand. Patches of individual land are common and this is generally for personal use, not much is left unworked in this way. it doesn't change much as you cross the border, every rural house has half an acre or so that is well ordered and productive. Whilst I saw horse drawn hay carts in Poland they weren't as numerous as in Ukraine, where they are much more common. The presence of cows are found in both places, though in the former there only ever seemed to be one or two tethered. Ukraine has larger numbers, small dairy herds, overlooked by a cowherd. One gets the impression from Poland that milk production is not on the commercial scale at all. Now if the extent of manual work is common with the Poles it's even more so for Ukrainians, larger areas are worked by hand, more of them and by many more people. Women are seen hoeing (yes it is spelt right) in the fields in their underwear. Not the elder ones and none of the more rotund, thankfully, some rather pleasant looking scenes were to be observed as I passed very skimpy sets of bra and knickers. I assumed the changes of clothing were limited, so it was a way of keeping their nice clothes clean. The guys don't bother, and it shows, most would make good examples of 'before' in a washing powder advert. They are grubby, being generous with the description. (Photo: Dodgy ice cream? - Ukraine)Over 500 miles from one fuel stop, how good is that? I don't have to refuel every day and It amazes me the wonder on peoples faces when they fill up for me. There is no self-service over here, I left that behind in Wolfsburg, my last refuel before entering Eastern Europe. Oh yeah, with my driving license; luckily I had the foresight to obtain a spare license before leaving home. Unfortunately the hotel neglected to give it back to me after copying it for registration purposes.
My foresight paid off, I still have a license with me, otherwise I'd have had a return trip of 500 miles to retrieve it. There is one disadvantage of such a large fuel carrying capacity, when you see it draining out onto the floor it's a bigger potential problem. When entering Ukraine I stopped to refuel on my debit card, having been warned that often gas stations would not take debit or credit cards. the one at the border did so I tried to make the most of it. What a palaver! They made a random transaction of my card and tried to get me to sign for it before putting in any fuel, but I was having none of it. Tempers didn't quite flare, but the cashier wasn't happy with me. We sorted it in the end, with the help of another customer who spoke some English. They were supposed to be checking that the machine worked, in the end the bike was over filled and petrol started pissing out the overflow. So I was looked at as if I were the wally, while they all shouted at me to move the bike away from the pumps. What an terrible introduction to the Ukraine. (Photo: Novel water collector - Ukraine)As would be expected after 2,000 miles I've settled into the journey quite well by now. The atrocious road conditions helped, they didn't faze me at all. One section through the Ukraine was under construction, it was churned up, uneven and loose horrible gravel and sand. I'm glad to say I took it in my stride, it gave me the confidence I needed to tackle Mongolia, which had remained a focus of apprehension for months.
That section put a smile on my face as I opened up the bike and felt it soak up the lumps and bumps, there was not even the slightest twitch over the loose stuff, it was all under control. And then I nearly lost it in three inches of sand as I pulled in at the side of a city street in Kiev, which undid all the good work of that morning. I've since redistributed the weight on the bike, moving my heavy tool bags to the rear and leaving the front end much lighter. It feels lighter too, which it needed to, despite my reports of how little effect the luggage had on the handling, it has felt very wobbly at slow speed manoeuvring. I think this was partly due to my own unease over the weight, but also over loading the front end. Roll on the next test; actually I can wait, I'm not in a hurry. I do feel comfortable with the next section of the trip, it's a long way across Russia but i think it will take a lot less than the three weeks I allowed for it. (Photo: Heidi's grandmother - Ukraine)On a last, quick note! I just had to try an ice cream when seeing the label advertising it as cannabis and opium poppies, there was even a symbol on the wrapper warning not to inject it. And no, it had no active ingredients, it was made with seeds of the plants.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Any personal information sent via my comments facility will not be published unless deemed devoid of personal content. You can, therefore, send me contact information. Thank you!