Day 13-15 – Ukraine, Russia

Day 13 – 8 September 2017 – Berdyans’k to Pokrovsk (Ukraine)

  • Hotel Sun Resort, very nice!
The Ukraine-Russia conflict zone. We started right down the bottom at Mariupol by the Sea of Azoz and had to skirt back west, and then north and then north-east to get around the zone.
We hit the military road block just east of Mariupol – we were being sent back by the Ukrainian soldiers.
We stopped in Mariupol to re-group and make a plan for the next phase – Conflict Zone Avoidance.
There were always stark reminders of where we were – run down buildings everywhere. You can see why those living in Eastern Ukraine wanted to be part of Russia.
The second set-back of the day – a flat on Amand’s bike. And it absolutely bucketed down on us while we were doing the tube change as well!!
  • Sam had a small compressor to run off his bike battery, a saviour at times like this…
  • …took less than an hour to be back on the road.

Day 14 – 9 September 2017 – Pokrovsk to Bilovods’k (Ukraine)

Just your standard hotel courtyard with barbed wire and broken glass stopping us from escaping!
A bit of work on Steve’s bike to look at his fan…
…some buggered bearings, we’d need to find a fix for this at some stage soon.
This was a clear reminder we were not far from the conflict zone. We pushed on with care and wariness
There were obvious things the locals used to forget about what was going on around them
Bilovods’k did not have any hotels at all – but we managed to interrupt a wedding and they were more than happy to help us find this private sleepout for rent – perfect!

Day 15 – 10 September 2017 – Bilovods’k to Kantemirovka (Russia)

We had a wander around before getting underway in the morning…
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