It´s been a while since I posted something here and I guess it´s time to show my readers that I haven´t got lost in the ukrainan forests. From now on I will go international and write in english to make it easier for the non swedish readers. Right now I am in Yalta on the south coast of Crimea. Since I really have been procrastinating posting here for such a long time there is a lot to write about. So I will divide the story into several blog posts. The first one will be about the ukrainian Carpathians. Here it goes.
After having spent a day in the beautiful old city Lviv in western Ukraine I continued towards the mountains which are located in the southwestern part of the country. After a couple of days I reached Ivano-Frankivsk where I got some rest at a hostel red the ukrainian criminal magazine "Kriminalnoe Obozrenie" and had some tasty pizza with beer for labout 40 gryvnija which is cheap.
Then I headed towards the mountains. On the road I saw some interesting signs, promoting Ukrainian membership in the European Union. Ukraine is in some ways a divided country. People in western Ukraine are generally speaking much more attracted to western europe and speak pure ukrainian while people in the southerna and eastern parts feel a deeper connection with Russia and speak russian or ukrainian mixed with russian language. A guy i talked with in Lutsk explained it this way: "Here in western Ukraine we have seen europe and we want to be part of it, in the east and south they love Russia and want to stay close to the russians." Western Ukraine is as I see it almost like another country. They have a national identity that is clearly distinguished from Russia. In fact Ukrainian partisans during world war II fought first against the germans and then against the soviets and polish communists. Read about it
here. Western ukrainians still tend to be quite nationalistic. People often did not speak russian so I tried to learn some ukrainian phrases to please them.
After one days cycling I was in the Carpathians. The mountains are covered with pine forest except for the higher peaks which are above the tree-limit.
The next day I went to Hoverla, Ukraines highest mountain. Around noon I arrived at a check point for the national park in which the mountain is located. The personell ther didn´t let me through because it was too late to make it to the top and back before dark. I camped in the forest near a beautiful river and the next day I cycled the next ten kilometers on the gravel road leading to the mountain. I met some ukrainian guys who where on their way up the mountain with their bikes. They had taken the train from Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk and then biked to Hoverla. They wanted to take their bikes all the way up the mountain. I considered my bike too heavy for that so I went to a nearby tourist hotel to leave the bike and the guys went another way. Later we met on the way up to the top and I could see the boys really struggled with carrying the bikes up to the highest point of Ukriane. On the way up we met lots of people because it was the 24th of august, the national day of Ukraine and there is a tradition to climb Hoverla on this day. All kinds of people were climbing; old people and children, men and women. Many of them were not equipped at all for hiking nor did they seem to be very physically fit but they went all the way to the top anyway.
Some happy gentlemen on the top of Hoverla, 2061 meters above sea level. Unfortunately the fog was thick so there were no epic views.
A massive gathering of people on the peak. Imagine the same tradition in Sweden, lots of people climbing Kebnekaise on the 6th of june, that would be an awesome way to celebrate our national day.
Then I went down an other way over a barren mountain ridge. I went for a while with a group from Dnepropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine who were celebrating their vacation from their work at the local mining industry. Then I descended along a narrow path. The path was really small and it was unclear wether there was a path or not. As a result I lost the path in the fog so I just went straight down. It was really steep and I the way was blocked by some kind of low scots pine bushes, not a very nice experience. With the help of the map and some patience I finally got out of the pine jungle and found a track leading down back into the valley.
I had a nice break when I got down to the tree line were the temperature was higher. A good place for contemplating many things.
On the way down I met some ukrainian birds, they were very sociable.
After hoverla the journey continued. I asked people for a place to fish and they sent me to a local bed and breakfast where they had a small pond with rainbow trout. I caught some fish there along with a group of local gentlemen. We had some beer together and it was pretty nice but the fishing was not exactly natural. One of the lads told me that I shouldn´t bother about fishing here in Ukraine. "Our people catch everything, you should go to Romania instead and get a fishing guide." I decided not to follow his advice and headed for a nearby river.
The roads were as usual full of potholes. The rain was a a constant pain in the ass. I took refuge from the downpour in a café were a russian tourist helped me with drying some socks. Very nice!
I entered a small valley and spent a day fishing in the river. Not a single bite, maybe I just suck at fly fishing or maybe the locals had allready caught all the fish. It could also be the weather or that the fish are really shy.
Some local people showed me a good spot for the tent. I wasn´t allowed in any of their houses here because they apparently were a littel bit suspicious towards foreigners. The views were fine.
There were lots of springs were one could take fresh water. I like that.
Maybe there were some wild trout hiding down there?
Some abandonded houses, the path ended shortly after this.
even if i didn´t catch any fish here the streams were all natural and unregulated and the scenery was great.
On the way back i met some cyclists from Lutsk. They were biking on mountain trails and their bikes were much lighter than mine.
They had a really ingeniously made stove which used wood as fuel. They also carried a pretty massive machete for cutting wood.
I went back along the valley where I met Ira and her son Vladik who were having vacation here. I was offered to stay over the night in a local bed and breakfast for 15 euro. A great opportunity to dry some equipment. In the end i didn´t even have to pay anything, pure hospitality!
The weather wasn´t so great. The raindrips were kind of hainging in mid air when the rain wasn´t falling. I decided to leave the mountains. I also decided to not go through Romania because I wanted to practice my russian. So I set sail towards the east with the intention to cycle along the Moldovan border down to Odessa.
Some signs reminding people to take care of the forest.
That was the story about my visit to the ukrainian misty mountains. They offered really bad weather and not very impressive fishing.but the nature was beautiful and people were generally nice.
Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for the stories of the Ukrainian river valleys, the Ukrainian coast, Crimea and what lies beyond.
