I woke up first in our little room in the roadside hostel. We were just before Voronez and it was raining, again. This summer was definitely a pretty wet summer. I took a quick shower and woke Larisa. It was 7am and ready to move, we had still a lot of miles to do.

We got outside and immediately felt the cold outside. It was around 10 degrees, misty and raining. I could wish for better weather. We hit the asphalt and I had to ride with my visor open as it was damping all the time. We fueled up in Voronez and had some breakfast. Coffee and cheborek. My favourite cheborek, I will miss it!

We continued and the road was good but wet. The speed was good, around 140kph to 160kph and we advanced well. My rear TKC tyre was already well worn though. So I could not go too fast here.

We would go through the same city we came about 100 days ago, namely Donetsk in Russia. It is a town with a small but quick border crossing. We were still on the M4 when there was  a huge traffic jam, I think at least 15 km. It was a good thing to be on a bike as I could ride next to the cars. Hey I could do some off road again 🙂

Sometimes it was a single lane road, sometimes a fast road. But when leaving the M4 the road got small. The dark clouds and rain was coming and going, and we were pretty cold on the bike. Until we reached the town of Donetsk in Russia by 2pm we had mostly rain.

The border crossing went smooth. The russians smiled when they looked at my passport. It was the third time I left Russia and I had a lot of other stamps too. Entering Ukraine also went smooth and we were quickly inside Ukraine. Larisa started smiling more and more now!

We had a fast road and I think it went a lot faster than the time we left Ukraine. Or maybe I was just racing a bit today 🙂

We stopped in a small cafe on the road, to have some tea and found some local girls dancing. There was a birthday party, with vodka 🙂 But we had to continue, still 120 km to go and we would see our family again. Now the final stretch started. The sun shined all the way though.

We got in Donetsk, Ukrain now, and the last miles seemed to last longer. We finally got to our destination and everybody was waiting outside to meet us. Nice! Erik was looking at us without saying a word for the first half an hour. He seemed a bit overwhelmed. But after a while he started talking, and not in Flemish but in Russian now! The girls have done a great job here, he has learnt a lot I could see.

We had a meal in the evening with the family, it was very nice but I was shattered. I feel like I could sleep for a week now. I just needed warmth, rest and my family…