Hello again,
This time we are in Astrkhan, a few miles from both the Caspian and from Kazakhstan. Its a good place and we have already stayed here a couple of days as a result. We are having trouble finding a suitable trip to the delta so we are not sure how much longer we may be here, our kazakh visas were valid from the 20th but we have been told that Russia is much more interesting than Kazakhstan. The decision is not made any easier by the fact that the people we're staying with took us out drinking last night in a datcha by the river and today my head feels the consequences.
on the road out of Ukraine we were pelted with rain and camping was pretty bleak, despite having found a beautiful spot 6 miles from the border. Crossing into Russia was straightforward enough at the very small coal strewn border crossing near Krasnodon, we were hampered only by the absence of a map of Russia which we aquired after talking to the ubiquitous group of friendly chatty women in a shop. The road to volgograd was uneventful, a long flat pice of tarmac surrounded by vast fields of grain. We managed it in three days to avoid any visa registry problems. The landscape improved after the first day as the fields gave way to rather barren and expansive meadows
Volgograd is an interesting place, more interesting than Coventry with which it is twinned I suspect. Though totaly destroyed in the war in a battle that rather changed things for Hitler it like many other towns was rebuilt in a classical style. Grand imposing buildings line the Prospect Lenina and numerous squares, the largest of which stretches down to the Volga which is quite an impressive size at this point. The river front reminds me of Southend, a sort of crap funfair, though without music to mask the creaking of the rides. The town is very cosmopolitan and it's difficut to believe you are so far away from home, we are wondering if any of the towns we visit will be significantly different to what we are used to. We stayed in the grand Hotel Volgograd for a couple of nights which was rather grand and whose service was not russian in the slightest.
Whilst in Volgograd we met a chap named Tom from Preston on his way to Astana also by bicycle, we had a drink together on the grass which led to a rather frightening ticking off from the militsia and Tom and I subsequently found ourselves behind bars within a small police box considering the possible outcomes of our actions, Lucy for some reason was neither interrogated nor subjected to an unusually thorough body search. As Tom left that day we met up with him on the bank of the Aktuba, a river which forks from the Volga and runs beside it to the east. The steppe really gets going after volgograd and it was a wonderful sight to see the lush green valley emerge from the dust. We had a swim beneath a cloud of dragon flies with a wingspan of approximately 3 feet and found ourselves some slightly swamp-tasting sea food, a sort of large freshwater muscle, not poisonous it seems.
The days got really hot after that and there is no shade on the steppe for anything bigger than an ant. We found ourselves stopping increasingly frequently to cool off in the river which meets the road reasonably frequently, on one such occasion our diversion for a dip in the river led to us being ofered fish and shelter which we accepted after working out what was on offer. We stayed in rather a fine log cabin, the prevailing form of architecture around here, even in Astrakhan.
We reached Astrakhan on Sunday to find one hotel full, and one undergoing refurbishment, which seems to be happening to much of Russia at the moment. God must have been pleased with our progress as one of the builders we spoke to suggested he call the president of the local cycle club to help us out, the president of the local cycle club arrived in his SUV and led us to his cycle shop, the floor of which we have camped on since. Alex's boundless hospitality is rather holding us up as we are reluctant to leave such good people, and they don't seem to mind us cluttering the place up.
Our plan to see the delta by bicycle they pointed out was flawed and after failing to find a tour we found ourselves invited to eat dried fish and drink beer in a datcha on the outskirts of town by the river and to see the elusive lotus flowers which are flowering at the moment. Lucy at some stage was whisked off for a shower and some tea, and after a Vodka Tom and I were called for a swim in the curiously warm water. She returned to find us a little the worse for wear.
And that my friends brings us more or less up to date.
I hope things are okay at the moment, I've been reading about watery old Britain and think i'm better off in Russia. Perhaps I'll stay.
Do reply.
Dear All,
It has been a while, we have slowly moved 1000 miles across Ukraine since our last message. I will keep this brief as i'm losing patience with this internet cafe.
With the aid of a gentle westerly breeze we covered 449 miles between Lvov and Kiev in just four days. our first night was spent at one of only three campsites in the ukraine , a marvel of confusion and idle staff. Kiev is quite brash, people seem of the opinion that with wealth comes the necessity to drive one's SUV on the pavement, and there seems plenty of wealth. The city has little in common with the rest of Ukraine, and feels more or less like any other capital, but with a very high population of security guards though it was unclear as to their exact purpose. It is a shame as the town itself is beautiful, set on a number of hills overlooking the Dnipro river and its forrested islands and sandy beaches. there is always a gold dome poking its head up from the 10 000 or so churches and cathederals.
We spent a day visiting the area of the Chernobyl disaster, a strangely beautiful place quite at odds with the possible health risks and the loss of life to hundreds of volunteer firefighters who dealt with the explosion. We were driven around the exclusion zone, to within 100m of reactor 4 then to Pripyat, the town which housed the several hundred thousand workers which has been abandoned since evacuation 24 hous after the accident. The placde is now overgrown with trees but most of the buildings are still intact as is the fairground installed for the celebrations of May 1 1986. We were shown the massive catfish in the cooling pond and then enjoyed a meal of beef stoganof and cured meats still within the contamintaed area. at the end a machine with a scary red beacon announced that we were safe and free to leave, or at least that's how we understood it.
The road from Kiev was probably athe most spectacular landscape we've seen since arriving in Ukraine, following the Dnipro River which a number of soviet built dams have turned into a lake 300 miles long. Sadly the road does not follow the coast too closely and we were diverted first up and then down a number of large sometimes painful hills. we arrive in Dnipropetrovsk 3 daysa later for lucy's birthday where we were accomodated by the wonderful Gotel Dnipropetrovsk, a large rectangular building something like 100m x 100m x 100m overlooking the Dnipro. We had a beer.
Now we are in Lugansk on the doorstep of Russia, everything is quite russian here, the service especially. The east is vast, with rolling hills puntuated with heavy industry and soviet built towns, most of which are quite pleasant, generally with large treelined boulevards named after Marx or Lenin and generally and invariably an imposing statue of the latter. The roads in between vary from being six lane motorways, usually with space for cyclists and horses and carts to two lanes of undulating stoney and pitted asphalt with trucks going at pace. most have their share of babusakas selling seeds by the side.
All in all it has been rather good and despite our very limited russian we have made a number of short term friends, unfortunately noe of which proposing to cook us dinner which has been fairly simple on our single burner. I cant help but fear Russia will be rather more awkward in nearly every way. Hey ho.
it really is far too hot here. Last night we slept under the stars and i was rudely awakened by the wildlife, mainly ants but also a troupe of deer.
Thats it, my patience is at an and. do please reply, i'd like to know whats going on over there.
To all you patriotic subscribers to our humble list,
It has been a while since our last message in which time we have covered a further 430 or so miles into the west of Ukraine. Despite having a few days in Lvov which is a singularly beautiful town which was given UNESCO world heritage status in 1998, we have not much time so i will try to keep this brief and general.
Some things about poland. It is categorically impossible to avoid the constant and ceaseless euro-techno-pop which permiates every single cubic centimeter or airspace in the country, all becomes quiet when one crosses the border into Ukraine.
Crossing the Border Into Ukraine:
Was in hindsight pretty simple but at the time it was the most painful, drawn-out, bureucracy ridden experience to plague our time on the road until the Russian consulate in Lviv which was roughly on par. In the soaring heat we queued our way sucessfully out of Poland only to be diverted back into Poland by an man explaining that we were not a motorvehicle, which was fairly clear despite us having only a basic knowledge of Ukranian. A kindly russian pointed us in the direction of a supermarket and a number of ilicit fags stalls and we joined the pedestrian queue into the country, where people on the other side of the cage sellotaped packets of Marlborough to themselves well in sight of the authoritiies. The path through was from then on quite ammusing as we stuck like a limpet to the back of a woman barging her way to the front of the queue. The road thereafter was much like those of Poland, a little more pock-marked perhaps and the cars rather more worn out, the roadkill more dead.
Before that, our stay in Krakow was very pleasant, were given shelter and a tour of the town by the cousin and friends of a friend. Despite the attraction of the city to stag parties the city remains charming especially in some of the quieter squares. We visited a few of the numerous churches with nearly all having some connection to the former pope, a local man I believe and all having ridiculously elaborate baroque interiors. The whole town in fact is adorned with carvings and statues or some ornate decoration, it's easy to get used to the beauty of the architecture, the war was kind to many towns in the south east and many have remained to a large extent intact, over the border in Ukraine this is still the case but the towns we passed were in a worse state of repair, Lviv, although simillar in grandeur to Prague and Krakow is much more weathered than it's western counterparts and possibly more interesting for it.
The route out of Krakow presented the club with its first few hill climbs of about 400m, and good views to boot. Things are the same but different in this area of Poland: there are no longer long stretches of road with no houses, there are more wooden buildings, including churches, and the scenery is beautiful. We also stopped off in the city of Tarnow, which proved to be a little gem with a giant pope. After Tarnow, we had an interesting day, which we haven't the time to explain fully here, but basically what happened was: Lucy got lost, then found, and then we camped on the land of a Polish farmer, where we drank moonshine, ate bread, ham and pickled cucumber while listening to europop until midnight. Dominic lost his hat. Anyone requiring a fuller explanation of our first drunken night will have to wait until our return or email us directly. The following night we spent on a building site on a campsite near Przemlysl, that was'nt the best but it's difficult to complain when the only words you know are "yes" and "thank you". We spent the evening cooking unusual-smelling chicken which we had been carrying for some time. we made a fire on the bank of the River San whose path we had been following for much of the day, that was rather nice.
Our stay in Lviv has been extremely pleasant, and if the people of Ukraine are all as friendly and helpful as those we have met so far we will have few problems here. We've been staying in the apartment of a New Zealander who Lucy met in a youth hostel in Wroclaw, with his Ukrainian flat mate who has been kind enough to help us through our Russian consulate experience, take us to see the sights, and take us for our first night out of the trip. Imagine our surprise when after we'd been here 4 days, a whole French family turned up to stay. Dominic has aquired a new hat, Lucy has aquired a very nice hat, and while we were there, the kind ladies of the hat shop in question, upon hearing that we had cycled from London, immediately provided us with cheese on toast and coffee. Lucy has been feeling a little under the weather this last 24 hours, but thanks to some soup is beginning to feel a little better, so hopefully, assuming the Russian consulate co-operates, we will be on our way to Kiev tomorrow.
We have tried to send a photo of Lucy with a dog she met, If it works in the next installment you could be lucky enough to receive a picture of Dominic in a vest. Hooray. (See right. Ed.)
We hope all is well back home, it seems that we have been gone a whole month now, please email us if anthing of interest has happened in that time, anything.
We have lost track of the exact number of miles
covered and the distanced differ somewhat between cyclists. A
relatively precise figure is 1378 miles from Malden in Essex where we
had lunch on the first day. We have now reached Lviv and are as usual
at the mercy of Russian bureacracy awaiting the completion of our visa
application on the 27th when we will leave for Kyiv. The Last few days
have been quite eventful, We were fed ham and Vodka by a Polish farmer,
Lucy got lost, Dominic lost his hat, that kind of thing.
Though
Western Ukraine is still very European things are beginning to change,
the tourists here are mainly Polish, we have crossed a new time zone
and the roads suck more. Both of us have broken our front racks which
will doubtless cause us a problem or two. The town is a UNESCO world
heritage site and we are fortunate enough to be staying in the main
square. We suggest you come here at some point.
After a week of fairly light paced cycling in mainly rural Poland we have reached the big city, it is good here and we finally have the rusian visa invite so they will hopefully let us in to their country. The pains seem to have abated though Lucy las lost the feeling in her finger tips, if a doctor of medicine has any advice on this complaint please contact the club. We have finally managed to do some laundry and now we can perhaps make some friends. Our next stop will be Lvov in three cycle days.
So as it turns out, good weather is in many ways as bad as bad weather. At least in the rain you can attempt to shelter from the rain, and wear waterproofs or something. In the heat, there's no escape - especially in Eastern Europe in campsites and youth hostels where there's no air conditioning. And especially on a bike on a road with no shade. Lucy is now also covered in mosquito bites. Itchy little bastards.
We've cycled through a lot of little villages, and they have two things in common:
1)a few Catholic shrines about the place: usually statues of the virgin Mary, Jesus, or Jesus on the cross. They seem to be very into catholicism here.
2) there's often a stork's nest on top of one of the telegraph poles. Storks are really big: particularly when you see them flying.
So we've now reached Wroclaw in Poland, where we have stopped for one day to take in the sites and have a bit of a rest before we power on to Krakow over the next 3 days. This is more or less how it went:
Friday 8th June
Left Berlin, and cycled due east to Mullrose, near Frankfurt am Oder, where we stayed in another shanty town campsite by a lake. Stupidly hot day, and Lucy was feeling the heat rather more than Dominic who seems able to power on through whatever the weather. We were therefore grateful for a fabulous swim in yet another beautiful lake upon our arrival.
Saturday 9th June
Cycled up to Frankfurt (Oder) to meet affiliate member of the club, Oliver Palos at the train station, where he would join the club for a few days cycling through Poland. Powered up with some Quark Balls from the station cafe and then set off for the Polish border (a bridge over the Oder/Odra). We managed to slip past the border guards without any trouble and begin stage 2 in earnest. Although there aren't really cycle paths on the roads in the same way here, the motorists still seem to be very good at passing with plenty of room, and waiting until its safe (which is good of them) and there are still a fair few cyclists. I feel we have been rather spoilt by Holland and Germany though. At about midday, just as we were going to stop for lunch due to the heat, the sky clouded over and the heavens opened. So we carried on for another hour or two before lunch, giving us time to get wet in the rain, and dry off again in the heat. When we arrived in Zielona Gora, we attempted to find the campsite marked on our map. Unfortunately, there were NO SIGNS for the campsite, although there was a sign for a hotel, which - having cycled around and asked a couple of locals about the elusive campsite - we were glad to take.
Sunday 10th June
Did manage to find the campsite today - it was by a lake near Leszno, and we found it pretty much by cycling around the lake until we eventually found a sign to the 'beach' as far as Lucy can tell (Dominic may have a different story though). Again, a relief to arrive and have a good swim, a cold beer and some dinner. Unfortunately dinner was accompanied by loud europop and karaoke, as the place we were in was a bit like a Polish Butlins.
Monday 11th June
We decided to have a short day, partly due to our legs being a little tired, and partly because we found the rather nice little town of Rawicz after about 45 miles, and Dominic's Polish skills found us the most communist looking hotel we've seen and somehow negotiated us a room. Unfortunately, we appeared to have missed the Strong Man competition by only one day, but you can't win them all: we did quite well at dinner by picking meals more or less at random from the polish menu, without the magic phrasebook and without an english (or even german) speaking waitress. We decided to have a few beers (the town square bar was very obliging) and another short day to Wroclaw from where Olly could catch the train back to Prague.
Tuesday 12th June
Cycled to Wroclaw, had a beer, found the tourist information, found a hostel, food, and beer.
Although we hadn't planned to stay in Wroclaw, it turned out to be a really pleasant place to be, so we decided to take a day's rest here and go up a few church towers before going on to Krakow. We've also been to see the People's Hall, which has a 96 metre spike in front of it. 96 metres: that's a very tall spike.
Wednesday 13th June: onwards to Krakow.
You'll regret going fucking camping the moment you arrive.
Yes, That's right, it's been bloody dreadful. We got absolutely sodding sodden last Sunday, and then again on Tuesday and the whole rain thing pissed us off for every day bar one, which happened to be a rather pleasant day from Holland into Germany when the sunburn came as a pleasant relief from the biting cold and wet.
So the best things so far. Alex on top form came to wave goodbye to some old friends at the docks, somebody by the man a pint of beer. Then, The Crossing was excellent, with a bed, a shower and everything, including a well stocked breakfast bar. From Breakfast things got rapidly worse, We circled Western Holland for about 30 hours trying to find a bloody cycle path. Eventually we got the hell out finding a pleasant campsite in a National park outside Utrecht, one of the few campsites we stayed in which did not resemble a shanty town. In the morning we ambled in the rain to Apeldoorn where we enjoed a supper of meat balls, beans and a beer. Lucy had a shower. In the morning we rose early to roll our way to Deutschland, which we did at tremendous pace under the first day of blazing sun. The hope of finding a bed and a dry, warm, comforatble night's sleep was short lived as a sign alerted us to the youth hostel's closure, apparently for that day only. We camped in a respectable campsite nearby. We were awoken in the morning by the sound of misery being heaped upon us, to escape the rain we headed to the local hotel where our extended breakfast provided distraction for some time. The dog also provided entertainment, for Lucy by being a stupid hairy git, and for Dominic for having layed egg on the carpet.
The day was bleak. We arrived in Diepholz to find our map was mistaken about the youth hostel and continued for a number of miles to a curious campsite ran and populated by the standard local curiosities. Our dinner of soup was followed by a number of fortifying glasses of the beer and an herring foisted upon us by one of the campers. we were entertained by stories of horses and a blind dog that refused to do tricks for us.The good woman supplied us with a fine breakfast unusually not in the rain and with AC/DC broadcast over the tannoy from the neighbouring stables . At this stage I thing pain was starting to set into our legs, probably for ever.
The next day ended at a Camsite in Winsen near Celle, a superb affair by the river, with a sauna for those who haven't suffered enough. Here we dined like kings. A six course buffet at the local hotel provided us with the sustinence for another 59 miles to Wolfsburg, an unremarkable town whose only notable feature is the not unimpressive VW factory. We left in low spirits due to the bastard rain which seemed determined to ruin our days. A short ride from Wolfsburg and we found ourselves in DDR territory; a much Browner part of the country altogether. We followed the Mitteland Canal for about 35 miles to Haldensleben.An eerie town almost entirely devoid of people. The route in the afternoon took us through a number of quaint villages not entirely in keeping with the 21st Century. At one point Dominic Was stopped by a herd of cattle being led across the road by a man in felt dungarees. Our path led us to the Elbe, but alas although there eas a road on both sides there was a critical absence of a bridge, we were thus diverted 20 miles to a little ferry which carried us east to a land whose roads are still mainly constructed from little rocks arranged side by side. Late in the day we were still struggling to find a campsite or any accomodation. A gentleman in Burg directed us to a guesthouse and after repeating the phrase "God save the Queen" several times let us go on our way. There was no guesthouse. After a process of elimination and a route which led us across some fields we finally arrived at the campsite which most resembled a shanty town of all the campsites so far. Excellent. Next to a lake next to the elbe, Dominic manged to sneek in a swim while waithing for the arrival of his main course of beef and chips and Both Dominic and Lucy rose at dawn under heavy drizzle for a final swim.
Day Nine. We got to Berlin. KWCC
Thats right! the club has made it 647 miles, many of
them through bitter conditions unique to northern Europe over the last
10 days, suffering at times from a variety of pains, mainly physical.
On the bright side the whole thing was pretty easy, after the
spectacular send off from the Plummers Green Amateur Choral Ensemble's
rendition of Jerusalem, KWCC have flown the Union Jack all the way to
Potsdam. Averaging 3.7 eggs, 2.5 kg of bratwurst and an unmeasurable
quantity of cheese per day the cyclists powered their way across the
plains of Essex, Holland and Nether Saxony to reach comforts of Berlin
in just 9 days.
Now the club will have to wait here until the visa
invites arrive froum a good man in Moscow before the next leg through
Poland and into Ukraine.
Today we leave to Mongolia, our chances of making it are slim and we are sure to suffer. Our bikes weigh about 1000 lbs each and the forcast for today is rain. Woe. Who's dumb idea was this? I will speak to you again in a week or so when the remainder of the joy has been flushed from me. Good bye.
Dear Friends!
As most of you will know I am leaving dear England to cycle to Mongolia in May with Lucy who doesn't have a bicycle. I don't know how she'll manage.
Whether or not this is a good idea, we will be going. I hope it isn't too much trouble, for as you know I dislike trouble. It is about 6000 miles which isn't too far, if cycling is all you've got to do with your time. I hope to be back in September but I may get distracted, or kidnapped by Mongolian horsemen, or the Russian mafia, or some feral Kazakh children. You know how it is. If I am back in September a reception will be held in the bar of The India Club, down the Strand. Hopefully there will be at some point a slide show 50 hours long. We will be leaving on Monday the 14th of May. If any of you are interested in accompanying us for a few miles or a few thousand miles please do, especially if you ride behind us blowing rhythmically into a tin whistle. There will also be a leaving party at some stage.
In order to convince ourselves that this is a good idea, we have decided to raise money for charity, this will mean that if in retrospect it was not such a good idea it will at least have raised a few pounds. I am hoping to make a valuable contribution to people around the world with no water by supporting Wateraid. They, in my opinion, are one of the best charities, as for 20p you can provide clean water for people for ages. At a scientific level it means they are able to drink and grow food thus making people less prone to illness and death. No other charity I can think of represents that good value. Lucy is raising money for Mind which is not a bad charity either. I'm not sure what they do but you've got to spread it about.
I'd like to point out that this is not at all a holiday. It will be ghastly from the moment we set off, in fact the journey to Harwich will doubtless stand out as being particularly ghastly, second only to Siberia.
I would be so glad if you could put a few pounds the way of wateraid. It's not an organised project so all the money you donate will go to charity and Gordon Brown gives an extra 25p for every pound, bless. The first person to donate gets a free can of larger, there will be a lottery for all donors from which you have the chance of wining a variety of prizes from as far afield as Russia and the Dalston Pound Shop. The most generous donor also gets a prize which I think involves a scotch egg, details are on the justgiving site anyway. Rest assured that once a donation has been placed there will be no turning back. The first donor will in effect be condemning us to Siberia. We will be sure to think of you when we arrive in what I understand to be a vast godless wasteland with not one redeeming feature, unless you're a fan of horeseflies the size of bastards in which case there are millions . So weather it's out of generosity, guilt, sympathy, desire to get us out of the country and 6000 miles away, we're happy to take your cash. If you want to sponsor us for particular challenge or vaguely comical event we are open to suggestions, for example Lucy has been offered 75 pounds if she has a yobble in the Ukraine . Feel free to pledge money instead but it's more encouraging for us and simpler to use our donations page.
Please visit http://www.justgiving.com/Kazakhwheelerswateraid to donate to wateraid. Go to http://www.kazakhwheelers.co.uk for details of our route and so on. If you want to join in the fun you may join the club for which you will receive a club tie and Ginsters pasty, see the membership section for more details.
We also need some camping equipment and a bike for Lucy if anyone has either, they'll be returned to you with a slight smell of Mongolia but probably intact.
I am sorry If I haven't seen, spoken or emailed you for ages/ don't know you, it is often the way. Please reply, especially if you don't know who I am.
Please share this email, either to people who are wealthy or interested in the trip, or both; or just spread the word.
Fortune and glory.
Dominic
http://www.kazakhwheelers.co.uk