Perpetual Change

The Ukrainian Carpathians 2009

Five days, August 22-27, embarking from Snina, Slovakia by bike to cross the border into Ukraine and explore the mountains in the regions of Zakarpatia, Ivano-Frankivska, and Lvivska. No support! Can you imagine a much bigger adventure?

The whole idea came about when a Slovak coworker of mine mentioned interest in an idea I had had with two other friends from Backraods to bike through Ukraine for a week or so. The others couldn't get their schedules cleared, by my new Slovak friend, Zuzana, made it happen. She also got me a mountain bike for the week, which was our agreement in exchange for my guiding services. So after enjoying a day in Brno, Czech last week (the home of Gregor Mandel of pea breeding fame, and Austerlitz, one of Napoleans greatest battles), I took a night train to Snina, Slovakia. I should mention that during my day of site-seeing, while at the castle in town, I noticed a sign that seemed to say, "no segway riding, and no Babas (grand-mas) on bicycles." I was impressed by the detail of the silouhette pictures.

Zuzana also arranged for her boyfriend and another friend of his to come and for us all to meet in the morning, where we would buy groceries, load up our bikes along with the tent and stove that she had and head towards the border. It worked splendidly, and after a lovely 30 kilometers (mostly downhill) we arrived at the border. A few Poles, on bikes ahead of us (with a lot of gadgetry) had some hassling, but the guards were thrilled and surprised to hear my Ukrainian, so we coasted through no problem.

We had lunch at a typical place once over the border (huge menu, only 3 things available), got a man in gym shorts drinking at the bar to change us money (the banks are closed Saturday afternoon, and the border didn't have as much commerce as I had expected), and off we went into the Zakarpatska National Park. It was lovely also, and the roads were good, but the dialect there is impossible. The small region over the Carpathians was historically Ruthenian (which no one can quite define) and part of Hungary/Slovakia. We all could tell the similarity.

We biked along with a couple of guys from Kyiv in the afternoon, and camped with them that night. One of them got strangely sick, which we thought was curious because they hadn't drank at dinner (as we did. Come on, I was with a bunch of Slovaks in Ukraine). This was perhaps a telling event that we didn't recognize at the time. We biked about 6 hours and 85 kilometers this day.

Day 2 - Vodka tasting time
9 hours; 80 k. We started up a pass on a dirt/rock road on an overcast day. It was beautiful, but surprisingly cool for the time of year. I was afraid that I had led my companions into more of a challenge than they expected, but they loved it. Over the course of the week, I think we biked on every road/path surface known to man. We had a little lunch at a seedy pub and tried our first of many degustations of Ukrainian beers and vodkas (or in Ukrainian: horilka). We biked some more, than stopped late afternoon for some Ukrainian B-B-Cue, but really because the horilka was calling us back and we thought the rain might blow over. Alas, later on, it did start raining, and we had our first (of many) flats, so we stopped for the night in a stable of sorts. We got beer from the village shop, but I couldn't find anyone to take us in for the night. It was interesting trying.

Day 3 - "Over the mountain and through the woods..."
9 hours; 65 k. The weather was overcast but dry in the morning. It was Ukrainian Independence Day (Slava Ukraina!), and we were headed into one of the most famous National Parks named after a high mountain lake. To our surprise though, all we saw all day were Czechs. We passed a big group biking in the morning, looked like one of our tours, and we stopped at traditional mountain hut for lunch. The menu was in Czech and the beer was German (and bad). They were everywhere - hiking, biking, siteseeing. When we got to the lake, it was a huge dissappointment (very little and you weren't allowed to swim in it). So we went off road. We biked through (a somewhat steep) hiking trail over a pass behind the lake, out of the park, and down a beautiful valley, to small village that had a pre-set campsite across the river. It was very nice. The mountain biking had been quite exciting too, but part of the road into the village was huge unpacted rock. The road seemed designed and finished that way. We thought this was bad...

Day 4 - Oh, the mud!!
9 hours; 80 k. We headed off this day, and because of being separated, we missed a turn onto another dirt road over the biggest pass of the week. This was actually a good turn of events because the pass was much higher than I realized and the dirt road had gone over a spot still higher up. After going uphill most of the morning, we had a quick down on a great road, and then off we went into the mountain villages. We had decided to take another hiking trail over a small pass between ridges. People kept telling me to go further and further remotely into the mountains, until the houses started, and then head up. I thought I misunderstood, but sure enough, way out in nowhere, the mountain meadows and some beautiful houses began. It was lovely, but steep. Once we had been on the ridge for awhile, we came to a logging road about the right place to go down. The other way went further up, so I said we should try it.

Now, I had discouraged a logging road the day before, because I know what they are like in Ukraine - the steepest and dirtiest way up, to strip the mountains of their trees - but this one looked good. After we had been going down 5 minutes (steeply) and had only about 3-5 k left to the village at the valley bottom, the tractor road became... a river of mud. It was so rich and so deep that we were up to our axels at points. We slogged through this for about an hour. The first 10 minutes were exciting and then it seemed like it would never end, and there was just no other way to go. My company enjoyed the first bit, but it took the fire out of you, after awhile. This was kind of the beginning of the end.

We got down to the village, bought some beer and lunch and picniced by the river, where we scrubbed our bikes and ourselves. Then we biked down the long valley on a dirt road, with much bigger traffic than I ever would have imagined. I had only been there on the snow covered roads of winter. It could have been pretty. It was very hot and dusty. We recovered in a small regional town with another fine beer degustation, and some of the locals helped out. It began to draw on though, and we needed to make camp (and they needed a break), so we hastily biked out of town as the light faded, to a spot I had been 4 years before. It was a bit further up and away than I recalled, but beautiful. A small mountain river in another small National park. We had the place to ourselves, with a fire still warm from someone's daytime barbecue. The river was formed into a little waterfall and pool, and I bathed in the starlight before falling to sleep.

Day 5 - the water?!
7 hours; 60 k. All week we had been careful where we got water, as the locals do, and is prudent; but I still put in iodine tablets if it wasn't bottled water we were drinking. Well that morning, the spring we had used in the fading light of the night before, didn't look so good; and one of our company was sick. I am not sure if it was from this, or something we caught from the Kyivans the first day (or maybe the fact that they rarely washed their hands), but it slowed us down a bit. Then Tomash fell on the gravel road, nothing serious (he had been taking a picture while biking), but it hurt his wrist which swelled a bit. It also got incredibly hot as we biked up a valley.

We stopped at one of the prettiest little shops that I ever have seen, and then further on at a little pond dug for a dam that was never completed by the Soviets. We went for a swim and had a long lunch, but the heat didn't abate. We started to have doubts with how far we could get today and tomorrow, in order to get on a train out of Ukraine. My companions wanted to go on, up the valley towards the pass, and take a train down in the morning, but I didn't think they could make it, and didn't know the train times. I had decided earlier that day to bike down to my town, Drohobych, and visit some friends (not to mention have a shower before spending a day and a half on a train, and check the train times). Well, late afternoon, I convinced everyone to come along, and that is when disaster really hit. The heat had taken it out of one, the fall and sickness the other, and then Koza got violently ill. We were still going, though slowly, when we had 3 flats in short succession (all on the same bike). This was the last of our tubes, and so I called a taxi to take us the last 12 k or so. It took him an hour to get to us, and when we finally were all in and done it was 10:30. I went out to buy some food for dinner, and the others went rather promptly to sleep. I had coordinated with a few folks to meet us for dinner, but my cell battery had died (as had my credit), so I hadn't even been able to call them to cancel. It was a pretty big wash for me, but probably much better for those not feeling well.

Day 6
Since I hadn't been able to check the train times, we decided that the best bet would be to leave first thing in the morning, which meant that I didn't even get to thank my hosts in person (we were staying at a community organization that I had worked with as a volunteer.) I didn't know what else to do though. I didn't feel comfortable leaving them to go alone, and I couldn't have them risk leaving later because they needed to be home. So we left at the crack of dawn. It was long (about 6 hours) up and over the mountains, but smooth. When we got to the border town, it turned out that we had to wait. The border we needed to cross at the corner of Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine was only open to train crossings, and ours wasn't for 3 hours. This was to go just 5 km; we easily could have biked, but to cross into Hungary first and then to Slovakia meant 30 km around; and we had no more spare tubes. We decided to wait. So we had a nice leisurely lunch, spent the rest of our money, and boarded the train. We had taken 3 trains to this point. Once we crossed the short distance to the Slovakian town, we learned that there wasn't any connection (as we had been informed from sources both in Ukraine and Slovakia), so we waited again, and again, and again. We took 4 more trains that day, and got in at 4 am.

We slept in the next day.

All together, it really was a great trip. I felt a bit bad for my company, but they said they too enjoyed it. I could have biked more, and it definitely won me over to bike travel. It is a great way to see and experience a land. And now I have my own panniers! So where are we going next?

Labels: Fine Sheetz Adventures

posted by jjs @ 10:32 AM