August-September 2006: BALTIC SEA - BLACK SEA  - CASPIAN SEA
Home Route On Bike (km)     Flat tyre      
Date From To Day Total Observations Lodging Weather Sauna Lenin statues
Totals:       2512     4   2 5
22-aug Gnesta Skavsta 50 50 Took local train from home in Sweden to Gnesta and biked the last 50 km to Skavsta airport south of Stockholm to take the flight to Gdansk in Poland. tent outside Gdansk   some sun    
22 Aug Gdansk   10 60 slept in the forest between airport and Gdansk tent   rain, very little sun    
23-26 Aug Gdansk to German border, southwards along border 340 400 after several days of rain I decided not to go further in Germany now, but possibly later. After biking from Gdansk to ex-DDR I came back in Poland and took the train to southern Poland where weather forecasts are better than both eastern Germany and western Poland... Decent roads and cheap food+drinks. Sometimes a bit much traffic. tent,   1 hotel 1 rain, clouds    
27 Aug Katowice Bochnia 102 502 Arrived early to Katowice after talking and drinking homemade schnapps with old Polish man who had been on a trip to pick mushrooms in western Poland. He told me of his time in German labour camp and the time before he was deported back to Poland after the war.
Biked in the morning to Oswiecim (43km), saw chimneys and sat at Birkenau for a while. Was at Auschwitz-Birkenau 12 years ago and I do not want to see it again. Continued towards Krakow, took local train just before the city, as there are only big highways around it, slept in Bochnia, old town with old salt mine. Nice sauna on my own after long day.		 train, tent   sun 1  
28 Aug Bochnia
Rzeszow
 122 624 Did not see Bochnia's famous salt mine, but continued east… hotel   sun, some clouds    
29 Aug Rzeszow
Jaroslav
 57 681 Stopped in the last major city before Ukraine, took train back to Katowice and my flight back to Sweden. Nicer scenery than during the first few days, more hills, but also better weather of course.. tent   sun, rain about to start at end-day    
8 Sep Przemysl Lviv 101 782 Just an hour to the border, most chaotic European border I have seen, plenty drunkards, obvious small scale smuggling going on and quite a challenge to squeeze in to the Ukrainian passport control with bicycle and having to fend off smelling Ukrainians very much in a hurry. Good to be on the road again. Stopped 4 hours because of rain, but when realising it would not stop I continued to Lviv, full of cobblestones - not a bicyclist's dream in any case, even less so when wet and slippery. Lviv is a very pleasant city, mainly because of renaissance architecture more central European than Soviet, and now wonder with that history. Went to see Jewish parts of town and found very little left. hotel   cloudy, some sun    
9 Sep Lviv east of Lviv 24 806 tent   sunny    
10 Sep east of Lviv east of Ternopil 146 952 Sunny nice day and not much to say about today except that it is getting hillier and Ternopil did not seem interesting enough to stay overnight.  tent   sun    
11 Sep east of Ternopil east of Khmelnitsky 113 1065 Passed the 1000 km mark today! No celebration as in the 2002 tour, when Affi had Norwegian Line aquavit to empty. Again, checked out Khmelnitsky, but continued after a few hours. Some Jewish remnants (graveyard and mass grave monuments made it clear that it all belongs to history).
Sun goes down before 20.00 so usually I start to look for tent place after 1900, read a few hours and sleep 8-10 hours.		 tent   sun, clouds, (20)    
11 Sep east of Khmelnitsky Vinnitsya 106 1171 Saw Medzhibizh in the morning, its old castle and a very well old preserved Jewish cemetery and a rather new synagogue (or at least renovated). Obviously some fresh money from abroad has been going in to this recently. It is a 'pilgrim' site, as the founder of Hasidic Judaism lived here. He chose a very pretty area, pretty village to settle in (and indeed, if I understand correctly Hasdic Jews emphasise enjoying life..). First half of day hilly and tiring, just like yesterday, but fine after halfway. Had time for another 50 km, but decided to stop in Vinnitsya for hotel (and shower!). I saw the first Lenin statue of the trip, small town Litin - I had actually considered removing the column in this table, as he has in most cases been replaced but he much more pleasant Taras Shevshenko, 19th century scholar and independence advocate. hotel   sun, clouds, (21)   1
12 Sep Vinnitsya Uman' 161 1332 Good day hotel   sun, clouds    
13 Sep Uman' near Revova 191 1523 Excellent raod (Kiev-Odessa highway). Slightly boring, but the great quality improvement (road surface) it is very enjoyable and comparatively fast. tent   sun    
14 Sep near Revova Odessa 91 1614 Met Belorussian Sergey from Vitebsk at morning coffee and we biked the last 85 km to Odessa where we shared a small flat. Quite different from when I was here Dec-94. Nice summer city, though too many cobblestones to be comfortable for bicyclists. A spoke broke, I have spares, but was not able to get it replaced as I did not have the special Shimano key for the back wheel. flat   sun    
15 Sep Odessa Feodosiya (Crimea) 0 1614 Found a shop which had the key, but at the end I could not get the spoke replaced. Took the train to Krim. train   sun    
16 Sep Feodosiya (Crimea) Kerch (Crimea) 0 1614 Spent some time in sleepy Feodosiya on the south eastern coast of Crimea, checked out the remnants of Greeks and Genovans who where around long time ago, before going by car towards the eastern tip and Kerch, where the 30 min boat to Russia (Port Kavkaz) goes. Met Dutch bicyclist Jean Piret, who is following in the footsteps of an ancestor who lived for some time in Ukriane. tent   sun, wind    
17 Sep Kerch (Crimea) Zaparozhskaya (Russia) 44 1658   tent   sun, strong wind    
18 Sep Zaparozhskaya (Russia) Slavjansk na Kubanu 107 1765 Seems Jean stayed at this crap hotel, the stqff told me - I htought they were nice until they made me pay extra for a hot shower without hot water :((   too little money to argue about though. Left foot hurting. hotel   sun, strong wind    
19 Sep Slavjansk na Kubanu Krasnodar / train to Adler 83 1848 wow…maybe I should have done some more careful planning and checked out conditions before going: east wind over the North Cauasus steppe seems to be standard here, quite tiring. Since I had less rest on Crimea than I had planned, I now leave the bicycle at the train station in Krasnodar and go by train to Adler, to see if it is really that difficult to get to Abkhazia as I was told when living in Moscow two years ago. train   sun, strong wind    
20 Sep Adler (Russia) Sukhum (Abkhazia) 0 1848 Arrived early morning in Adler, still dark and realise I have to find a bankomat to fill up with cash before going to the actual border. As opposed to the average Russian small town, here you can see there is plenty of money. Next town west is Sochi and they say Putin has a few days off there for the moment. I guess it must be the richest part of Russia, possibly after Moscow, all from tourism. I get an expensicve taxi to the ATM and then back to the bus which takes me the short ride to the Abkhaz border (or Georgian border, depending on your political perspective). After the Russians check that I have a multiple entry visa to their country they let me out (supposedly this is the only border crossing for foreigners). No problem getting a bus on the other side either, for the two hour ride to the capital Sukhum. I send and SMS to my Abkhaz friend in Mosow to ask for some tourist information and 5 minutes later I have an invitation to her family and and absolutely fantastic program arranged for me.  private       1
          Such hospitality and warm reception that I was really touched. Great house they lived in, unfortunately just like so many other houses the Georgians took and vandalised what they could before leaving Sukhum during the was 13 years ago. I think I have note eaten so much since starting biking - certainly not so well!!!          
21 Sep Sukhum (Abkhazia) Adler (Russia) 0 1848 The difference from posh Russian part of the coast is striking, but looking at the combination of mountains and coast this has by far more potential and no wonder that it was a favourite spot during Soviet times. Just very very shitty that a war came in between and that the political situation just improved a little. However, there are signs that also economical situation is slowly improving, some investments mainly in tourism/construction, where the most obvious potential is. Really a pity I could not stay longer, I was thinking on leaving that I should have biked here instead, in these fantastic mountains along the fabolous coast, but well, next time..  On the way back I stopped in Novy Afon and saw the caves (huge - among the biggest in the world!) and the 1875 cathedral on a hill overlooking the Black Sea. train        
22 Sep Adler (Russia) Krasnodar / Ust-Labinsk 119 1967 Arrived to Krasnodar with the morning train, a second back wheel spoke broke on the way out of town, making it rediculous to continue. I found a bike shop where they fixed it all for 120 roubles ($4) and continued to little beyond Ust-Labinsk. Landscape not all that exiting (especially not after Abkhazia), rather flat, but less wind today. After 85 km got a 2 mm metal thing through my back tyre and thought that now the trip is over, but I managed to repair the tyre with some rubber pieces and super glue I bought in Poland, replaced the tube and continued. tent 1 cloudy, little wind    
23 Sep Ust-Labinsk Kurganinsk / MinVody 76 2043 Wind exhausting. Train to MinVody after 76 slow kilometres. A slightly crazy Chechen on the train tried to convince me that Putin is KGB, well, that's not much of a secret. hotel   strong east wind    
24 Sep MinVody Mozdok   2043 Train to Mozdok. Nice little town, but full of soldiers. Like many train stations in the area, checking all passengers documents at train station.  hotel        
25 Sep Gudermes Kizilyurt 80 2123 Train to Gudermes, then bicycle to Kizilyurt. Before leaving Gudermes I had Galushki = Chechen thick pasta lunch should be good bike food. hotel     1  
26 Sep Kizilyurt Makhachkala 68 2191 Finally at the Caspian Sea. Not exactly the whole route by bike, but anyway. hotel       1
27 Sep Khasavyurt Dagestan-Chechen border 22 2213 Little trip to the beach in Makhachkala before taking a car to Khasavyurt - same road as biked in opposite direction yesterday. Just little biking to the Chechen border where the hotel was closed so had to bike back quite some distance to find a good place for the tent. tent 1      
28 Sep Dagestan-Chechen border Nazran 170 2383 Great biking day. Several photo sessions with 'Kadyrovtsy' who asked for my papers etc. Not that I particularly want to be on same photo as them, but they are not the kind of people you would want an argument with either. Grozny the only place it was obvious war related destruction (and really a lot of it) but looks like at least some money is coming in to the cities, thought there is a lot still to do. I strongly suspect it is very much on the surface. People I talked to in different parts of the republic were surprisingly positive about soon-to-be-but-since-long-de-facto President Ramzan Kadyrov. Of course if you are critical, you'll be very careful to whom you say what (certainly they would not tell a bicyclist like me..). Even if it is now peaceful on the surface, it is well known that Ramzan has no scruples and people still do disappear, see for example this link to HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (click on the text). hotel        
      For continiously updated information on Chechnya, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/ (focusing mainly on the Russian-supported repression)
29 Sep Nazran Beslan 34 2417 Short trip from Nazran to Beslan. Foot hurting since days, so need a break. Two 14 yo boys talked to me in a park and after a while took me to the school where two of their brothers and 331 others died 1 September 2004. Absolutely heartbreaking, photos of all those hundreds of children, parents, teachers, small brothers and sisters that came along to the school year opening. Water arrangements reminding of it being denied the hostages during the three days. School is left more or less as after the terror-akt, with just some flower, water and other arrangements. train       1
30 Sep train to MinVody and then to Ukraine     2417   train        
  Kharkov     2417   flat        
04-okt Volchansk Mala Vovka 35 2452 After some research in Kharkov (mainly buyin all possible maps that I could get my hands on), I finally managed to locate Dereve'nskoye northeast of Kharkov, in Volchansk region. This is the place where my [German] grandfather was buried, in 1942. I took a taxi to Volchansk city and biked along the Russian border to the nearest village, Mala Vovka (or Malaya Volchya in Russian) tent   cloudy, 17   1
05-okt Mala Vovka Volchansk 60 2512 All morning I tried to get to Derve'nskoye, took several hours of biking on bush roads between small forests and sunflower fields, back and forth, as maps were unclear and the place is actually not visable from the road - it turned out to be just a few overgrown remains of building structures left of the village. I did not have enough information to find the actual graves, but I am thinking of going back, as it should be possible to find (indication by villagers), but this time I do not have time... tent 1 cloudy    
  Volchansk     2512            
        2512