The stay in Donetsk was great. We happy we could spend time with Erik and with the family.

The bike needed some cleaning and maintenance so we spent some time on that. I have also fixed the TKC80 tyres to the bike. I still had a spare set from a trip to Marokko I did last year. This set will be sent in Volgograd to Barnaul for riding in Mongolia. Erik did a great in cleaning the bike 😉

We also visited the city. The main feature is of course the very nice Shaktar Donetsk football stadion.

But there are many nice parks to see as well.

There is of course the Lenin statue, always be careful when posing here 🙂

The last night before going on to Volgograd, we were invited by Sergei to play some biljarts. It was a very nice evening. Russian biljart is totally different than american pool or snooker. The holes are quite small which makes it not easy. Maybe it was beginners luck but I beat the Russians, I think they will want revenge when we come back! 😉

Did I mention they have a bikers bar? Unfortunately there are not a lot of bikers around anymore…

Here is the map of the first stage which has been completed.

Now the first 3000km have been ridden, there were some lessons we have learnt. The first thing I wanted to do is make the load lighter. The plan was also to loose weight off myself but that didn’t work very well as all people we met were so nice and offered us more than enough food and drinks.

But the luggage diet should work. I just took a big bag and started removing items from our luggage which I think were less critical and necessary. The following items will stay in Donetsk: the 2 sheet bags, maps of germany, poland, ukraine, 3 books, 1 pants, 1 tshirt, 1 first aid kit (we had two of them), 19″ inner tyre,… Maybe it does not look much but I think the volume and weight will count.

The big question now was also should we take our camping gear or not? I think for Central Asia there should be possibilities with the locals. My concern is that after Central Asia, if we get to Mongolia, or even Siberia, that we will need our camping gear. The total weight of it is about 10kg, on our total weight of 450kg, I guess it does not make too much of a difference and we better take it with us.

By the way today was my birthday 🙂 We had a good party in the evening. Sergei and Vitta had bought me a bottle of vodka and a bottle of Riga black balsam…

Larisa took 3 pictures of Sergei, Vitta and me, but I am not sure which one is ok to put here, so I put them all 🙂 Then there were some bike pose photos. Always nice…

I woke up with a bit of a hangover today, it was very early but the birds were whistling and keeping me awake. So I went out and checked the bike. Every biker will recognize this, I mean the checking of the bike 😉

Before leaving Poltava, we made a stop at the Poltava Battle History Museum. Note to make here was that the road to the museum was really bad. There were a lot of potholes and you better not drive into them as they are sometimes very deep. The museum gives you the history about the decisive victory in 1709 of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It was a very important battle which changed the history of Ukraine and Europe.

The museum was not very big, so in one hour or so, we were already through it. Note, no English guides anymore as the footbal Euro 2012 is finished. So practice your Russian if you want to visit 😉
It was now time to say goodbye to Marina and head out for the final ride of the first stage to Donetsk.

The ride was another 450km, we followed the E40 direction to Kharkov but left it after 20km direction Dniepropetrovsk. The bike was performing well, I could easily ride 160kph at some stretches, but I had to set ESA to high hills again. The fuel consumption was also quite good so far. The range indicator showed 690 km after fueling it up, but in reality it was about 500km with a consumption of about 6lit/100km.

The road got very bad at some points. You have to slow down to about 50 – 60 kph if you have to stop to overtake one of the many kamaz trucks. The temperature was also rising again. It went up to about 33 degrees this day. If you want to have some action, you can easily start a race here with some local high end SUV and race along the road overtaking all other cars and trucks. This was good now and then too raise the adrenaline but not for too long if you ask me.

At some point I was feeling like I was riding the old route 66 in the USA, because the roads were so desolate. They were also very long and straight, with several highs and lows. There was also some shining layer on the road because of the sun like the roads gets fluent. It was very nice. After a while I saw why, I looked to our left and saw a whole new highway were the other cars were riding… We decided to stay on this smaller, desolate, nostalgic feeling road. As our camelbags were empty and we got very thirsty we made a stop in a town called Novomoscowsk near Dniepropetrovsk.

The last stretch was also very bumpy at moments. The ESA fairing did its work here. There was a nice new stretch also, I was a bit naughty and speed up to 180kph. Just checking how the bike performs under this high load of about 450kg and high temperatures. It performed well!

In the evening we finally arrived in Donetsk. Our family was waiting for us, and we had a nice welcoming evening. It was great to see Erik our son back as well! He was speaking some russian to me already 🙂

Unfortunately the time has come to say farewell to this nice and interesting city we have stayed at. Today we will ride to … Well if you know galuschki, you will know where we will sleep for the next night 🙂 First we said goodbye to Inna’s family.            

We decided not to take the ringway around Kiev but follow the GPS and ride through the city as the E40 highway does. It was quite OK, we managed well in the busy Kiev traffic. If you ride through the city, you realise how big it really is. It was getting hot as well. We still had our windstopper layer on in the jackets.

After we crossed the bridge over the Dniepro river we made a quick stop to take this layer off and open the breather zips. The temperature was about 27 degrees Celsius now.

The ride of today was not too long, about 400km, and the road was good. We stopped about 100km before our destination at some road cafe. To our surprise they already had the famous galushki’s here. They tasted well!

In the meantime the temperature had risen to about 30 degrees, and around 5 pm we arrived at Poltava. The city is a bit comparable to the city where I am from I guess regards to size and population. About 300.000 people live here. I wanted to stop over here to visit the Poltava Battle History Museum.The only Ukrainian museum which is one of UNESCO historical museums listed to the world tourist itinerary, and gives you a lot of information about the Great Battle of Poltava.
Today it was too late to visit the museum, but we had contacted Marina, a friend of Larisa before, where we could stay for the night. So we rode to Marina and parked the bike.

It was very nice to get out of the warm bike suite, take a shower and head off for a cold beer! First the girls wanted to see some of the local sites, so I had to wait for the beer 🙂

Finally we found a good place near the local “White House” to get a local beer. I liked the beer, it was a bit like Hoegaarden but sweeter.

After some more walking, passing the local Lenin statue, we ended up add a very nice local restaurant called Козачка.

It was getting a bit late now, so we went back to Marina’s flat and called it a night… Tomorrow we will ride to Donetsk and see Erik and Larisa’s family!

So far we have ridden about 2400km. The GPS says 2279km but with the cable problem we suffered in Germany we lost some miles. Also when its raining I remove the cable from the GPS to prevent water from entering the USB port. There is some rost to see already on the USB power cable. But riding a whole day on batteries is almost not possible.

The temperature has also risen, and my skin has been the victim. Of course not very smart of me to forget there is sunscreen. Since Lvov we have felt the higher temperatures and today was about 25 degrees in Kiev.

Today we haven the marschrutka from Hostomel to Kiev and from there the red line metro to the station of Dnipro. It is very nice to exit the full wagon and feel the wind and fresh air on the banks of the Dniepr river! We have walked along the river towards the Lavra to drink some holy water and from there to the national war museum. We heard the music playing and the museum was open today! First we made a small stop so see some tanks and planes which were parked outside of the museum.

There are many interesting museums in Kiev. If you are interested in the second World War, a must see is the Національний музей історії Великої Вітчизняної війни 1941–1945 років or the national museum of history of the great patriotic war of 1941-1945.

Inside the museum there are 3 floors and the whole history of Ukraine during the second World War is documented here. Almost everything is in Russian, so be prepared.
First the German occupation is shown and the battle of Kiev. Later we saw the battle of Stalingrad which was a turning point. I can really recommend this museum.

In the afternoon we have a stop at the Chernobyl museum. This is a much smaller museum. It gives a good idea what happened exactly on 26 April 1986 in the nuclear power plant. It struck me that the Soviet Government has kept this event quite secret for the people which had big consequences for a lot of people their health.

Well it is almost time to say goodbye to Wowa, Tamara, Maxim, Inna. Tomorrow we will ride to Poltava…

Yesterday evening we have arrived in Kiev. We are staying with friends of Lárisa: Inna, Maxim, their son Wowa and Inna’s mother. It is a very nice place to stay, they are very hospitable. We have eaten well, yesterday evening and drank some vodkas.

Today we have visited Kiev, there are many things to see here. The Lavra, the great patriotic war museum, rodina mat, tchernobyl museum, the funicular, …

First thing we did is go see the Pechera Lavra. This is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which has been founded in 1051. Together with the Saint Sophia cathedral it is inscribed as a UNESCO world heritage site. You can follow a tour with a guide or go by yourself. We have done the latter. Inside one of the churches there was a service ongoing.
Underground there are two caves which can be visited. Beware to wear the proper clothes or you will not be able to enter.

After the caves you end up in the botanical gardens, which are always nice in the late spring. Time to eat some icecream!
Next to the park there is the Afghanistan museum and the National museum of the second world war or Національний музей історії Великої Вітчизняної війни 1941–1945 років. Unfortunately both museums are closed on Mondays! But we saw the many sculptures and the rodina mat. The language is hard in Ukraine as most is in Ukrainian and this is different than russian.

The next was the Tchernobyl museum. Due to the bad weather I was not able to ride north to the village of Tchernobyl. The other options are then to visit the museum in Kiev or book a touristic tour. The latter has also become quite difficult as you have to book it 15 days in advance. Some of the buildings are also collapsing nowadays which make the risks bigger when visiting the place. We have not booked it; so the museum visit was the last option. Unfortunately is was the monthly closing day today (last Monday of the month). We were not very lucky with the museum visits today.

We continued the walk through Kiev, wandering towards the Funicular which is a cable car up the hill which gives very nice views on the Dnieper river.

After this nice view you end up almost automatically at the Saint Sophia Cathedral which is also a must visit. There is a bell tower which gives you one of the best views in the city. The weather was very good, FEW I would say in pilot lingo, so you could see really far. Not sure if this means there is no smog in Kiev. There are a lot of big SUVs riding here. This is logical due to bad roads.

OK time to go for a beer at Maidan on Chresatik!

Today I have ridden the worst road so far. The E40 goes through Lviv and it is really terrible. It is a cobble paved road which is really uneven. In the middle of it there are two tram tracks. Add to that many cars and a lot of rain. You will understand I had to struggle a bit to get through the traffic.

Once out of Lviv the E40 is a one carriage road until Dubno. It was raining cats and dogs, so a very good test for our BMW rally 3 suits. I can already say the waterproof pockets are not 100% waterproof! But the wind and waterproof layer underneath the cordura hold very well. Also my meindl walking boots were soaked, but only on the outside 😉

We have stopped in Dubno in a small road cafe to warm up, eat some borsch and some local food which was very nice. Then back in the rain direction Rivne. From there the road is a nice dual carriage way. I started to speed up and cruise 160 kph. No problem for the bike. To my surprise the fuel consumption is also very good. She is drinking about 6-6.5 liters / 100km.

We stopped again when the sun started shining to change the soaked gloves and stretch the legs. All of sudden a very fast biker passed us. He stopped when he saw us, and made a 180. He came to visit us. This was a really nice guy, Sasha from Khmelnytskyi. He gave us some tips about the militsia 😉

The ride from Krakow to Lvov was quite straightforward. The first 80km or so after Krakow were on a good road. But then all of a sudden we were redirected to a smaller town where the one lane E40 started. The overtaking work started. The power of the GSA was very useable here. All went well, and we only saw a few other bikes on the way.

For the border crossing we choose for Krakovets. This place is not along E40 but is it the shortest way direction Lvov. It took us about 15 minutes I would say to cross the border here. First we saw a very long line of trucks, I would say about 5km before the border. You don’t need to get in line here. We drove to the beginning of that line where we saw a Polish soldier who gave us a piece of paper and pointed direction for us and . Then we saw a line of about 100m of cars, which we could pass also. So we ended up right away at a border check. First our passports were checked and then the bike’s papers. I must say everything went very smooth!

Once we have crossed the border we stopped at a gas station to buy some sok and check the gas prices. These were a lot lower than in Europe, about 11 griven for 1 liter of 95 octane of gasoline. In Belgium the same costs about 1.65 EUR. Yihaa 🙂

Now there was only about 90km to cover towards Lvov. We have booked a hostel over there near the center, the old ukrainian home. When we got into town I had to stop and change the ESA setting to high mountains. The reason was there are so many potholes in the road here. I felt the weight on the back better now, because the front fork gets a lot higher in this setting. Yes we are too heavy, I know, the bike will need a diet in Donetsk.

We only had a short stay in Lvov, but we have managed to visit a few places. The first stop was the Ivan Franko park and the university named after him; Ivan Franko was a famous western Ukrainian poet, writer and much more. Funny enough the university which he was expelled from was renamed after him, after his dead.

As we got hungry and thirsty it was time to try the local food and beer. A good place to do this is in the Puzata Chata. There is a very large choice of the local cuisine at a very decent price. The beer was good.

After this stop we went into the old town to visit some more places like the Armenian church and the rynek. We have heard there is some kind of secret cafe which you cannot see from the street. A soldier is waiting behind the door and you need to tell him the parol to get it. Slava Ukraina, I don’t say more here! You have to wait a bit to get in, but once in, it was very rewarding. The food was very nice, and there were local musicians singings ukrainian songs which you had to sing along 😉