“EASTWARDS”
Somewhere in Slovakia – it´s short before midnight:
I am wrapped in my sleeping bag and was awoken by the sound of a distant engine noise. It seemed to get louder. Suddenly I see light beams touching the tent!!! o_O
At latest now I am alerted. The engine noise is coming closer. The light beam is now permanently pointing at the tent. The noise is now so close to the tent that the vibrations of the big diesel engine where clearly noticeable. Probably a big off road vehicle, I am not sure. I thinking to myself: “WTF is happening now here in the middle of Slovakia’s nowhere?” I slowly open the zip of the tent door and look directly into the bright light of a flash light …
Our journey Project Carpathian Balkan continued in Slovakia with day two. We went further on in direction east, scratching Poland in the south, while passing the High Tatras Mountains. For a short part of this day-route we followed the border of Slovakia and Poland. After that we went straight on into the Ukraine. Total distance this day: 533km or 330mi.
After the exciting night the early morning was a beauty. It turned out that the disturber last night was a hunter. He asked me just where I want to go to and after a short palaver that I should sleep well. He rode on that track you can see on the picture above in the meadow further up the hill. The only additional disturbance that night was a distant shot up the hill. Probably the hunter had success?!?
After the morning toilet I quickly packed the whole stuff, settled Чернотa …
and we where ready to go. Through small …
villages we rode on in direction of the border to Poland. The scenery …
here in the north-west of the High Tatras Mountains was great. Both, …
the villages and the …
meadows! After entering to Poland the first…
interesting looking houses, this type is typical for this region, showed up. Directly in Zakopane …
the church was also built in a similar style. Zakopane itself is really …
touristy because Zakopane is Polands winter sport center and also a very popular entrance point to …
the High Tatras Mountains. There, Чернотa and I did some great gravel …
and enjoyed the astounding …
panorama! After the first 100km I did what I ever do after that distance in the morning: …
Having breakfast while soaking up the view!
The motto of this day is to go east, and that was what we where doing. Along sheep meadows, …
and soft hills we …
followed the Slovakian and Polish border.
Each few minutes …
a stop was needed for taking one …
snapshot after …
another. For lunch we stopped at a …
little restaurant aside the street in Slovakia and had the Slovakian national dish “Brimsen Noodels“.
Normally I´m not the fan of sheep cheese but hey, the dish was OK! Further on, near the boarder to the Ukraine this …
tank was seen. I have no idea which model this is? After that …
we reached the boarder to the Ukraine. The border personal indicated to me that I should pass the cars, and come in front to the office. A older grumpy official, asked me for the documents.
“Passport! License! Insurance!” I gave him the papers. He looked at them. The first page of the insurance paper was written in English. He pointed at it. I don´t understood what he meant. He pointed again at it and rose of his chair an yelled: “Nje anglisk, zdes russian jesik!” (“No english, here we speak Russian.”) o_O´
I said “boleye” and indicated him to go a page further to the Cyrillic translation of the insurance paper. He did, breathed heavily and sank back in his chair. No further problems … . phew ^_^´
Short after the border the first orthodox churches showed up. The culture shock …
happened also right behind the border to me. Ukraine is so close to wealthy Europe but still very poor.
In front of this interesting entrance bridge to a private house, the first Russian …
made lorry was parked. I really like the design. Also the first …
eastern style built wood houses showed up. Here is a typical …
roadscene of the Ukraine: A eastern built car is parking aside a pothole street, which is used by a tractor which is overtaken risky and way to fast from a old styled Western Mercedes.
A few kilometers behind the border the terrain became hilly.
In the late afternoon …
Чернотa and I have been searching for a camp spot, because the …
sun was sinking. On top of a hill range, …
this six wood workers stopped me. After a short talk about the motorcycle, my tour, etc. they invited me for dinner. A big pot with stew (ingr.: potatoes, fat pork meat, beef) was served at the table in a hiker shelter with bread aside and not to forget: vodka, a lot of vodka!< ^o^ >
At the moment when they opened the 3rd bottle it was time to leave the party. They don´t want anything from me for the meal, so I gave all of them a cereal bar for dessert. After wishing the best I rode on about 2 km further up the hills … .
The sunset up there was great. While I was …
building up the tent, one of the woodworkers came up the hill with his IZH Planeta. He brought me my titanium spork which I have forgotten at the table. Nice people those Ukrainians!
After a great ride this day along 533km or 330mi of nice scenery (and finally slightly drunken) I crawled into the tent and made my diary. Shortly after I drifted away … .