Back to blighty

And in to the present....  Right now Mr Barnett and I are both sat on the ferry heading from Dunkerque to Dover. Whirlwind is the only word that I can think of that adequately describes this trip!!

Some facts and figures for the reader,
In just one calendar month we have:
Travelled through 11 different countries.
Travelled through 5 time zones.
Travelled 5,234 miles on the Yamaha.
Moved at an average speed of 42mph.
Used 8 foreign currencies.
Attempted 10 foreign languages.
Been through 5 border crossings.
Endured freezing temperatures at 3,650 metres.
Sweated in desert heats of around 40 degrees in Uzbekistan.
Paid $80 of police bribes.
Used an estimated 594 litres of fuel.
Used fuel quality as low as 80 octane.
Used 6 antibiotic tablets.
Used 6 Immodium tablets.

The final leg of our journey: Europe

We can both confirm that European travel is very easy compared to the excitement and adventure of the Stans. Crunching motorway miles on smooth flat tarmac.

We decided to visit the church of bones in the Czech Republic, which was really bizarre. The interior of the church is decorated with thousands of human remains, skulls and bones. There was even a chandelier made out of various bones.

We spent one night in Germany, but there is something wrong with any country that tries to charge you €17 for two sandwiches and two small vending machine hot chocolates,  then 70 cents just to go to the loo, so we dropped trowser in the bushes instead, then decided to do a 400 mile day to blast on through Germany and Netherlands in to Belgium so that we could have a day off in Ghent.
Ghent turned out to be the perfect location for a leisurely day off. We were able to spend the whole day's drinking a wide variety of Belgium beers amongst some stunning medieval architecture. Result!

Polish plumbing in the hotel restaurant

How could anyone let this happen?!

Ukraine to Poland border crossing.

17 th of August -Poland, Oswiecim AKA Aushwitz

There is not a great deal to report other than our visit to the Aushwitz 1 and Aushwitz-Birkenau death camps. Although we had visited before we both felt that we needed to revisit the site to spend more time there and to pay our respects again.

Nothing can justify the unnecessary and horrific murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The inhumane conditions that some were forced to survive in and the cruel way in which the vast majority were deceived and murdered. It makes no sense. People can do so much harm to one another. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Aushwitz you must go so that you are able to really appreciate the freedom that we have.

Police in countries beginning with 'U'

On the motorway between Kiev and L'viv we got fined for speeding again. It seems that the Ukrainian police are exactly the same as the Uzbek police. So it goes like this; we are heading along the motorway at 68 mph at the most, usually going at about 65 (the limit is 68 /110 kph), we then get waved on to the hard shoulder by a policeman with a big wavy stick and a whistle who tells us that the limit 38mph, and that we had just driven through a village! There really was no evidence of a village and certainly no speed limit signs. So we did the usual, smiled a lot looked shocked and sorry, spoke a lot in English (which the officer did not understand). Luckily it was very easily resolved by paying the fine. We were told that the fine was a minimum of 350 and a maximum of 550 local currency ($26-37). Andy opened his almost empty wallet and showed the officer the money that was left (not much, as our main stash was hidden in the tent bag). The officer then pointed to the $20 note, and in one slick transaction the officer opened his notebook and Andy slipped in the $20 note, and the notebook was flipped closed. All in a blink of an eye!

We did our routine ride straight to McDonalds to sit outside and use the free wifi so that we could decide where to stay in L'viv. We found a great spa hotel with spaces on trip advisor where we decided to stay for the night. Upon arrival we were told that the price was far higher than quoted on trip advisor and that they only had suites left! Needless to say that the receptionist backtracked very quickly when I showed her my phone with trip advisor on the screen and offered us a big discount and a double room.

Whilst in the hotel it was rather alarming to watch the news and see how the problems between Ukraine and Russian governments were worsening. There was a lot of footage of tanks at the boarder between Russia and Ukraine!

The following morning we left L'viv and headed for Oswiecim Poland. When we reached the border we found a 1 1/2 mile queue of solid stationary cars which trailed all of the way to the boarder crossing! Thankfully being on a motorbike meant that we were allowed to queue jump directly to the front of the line. Once there we proceeded through customs in about 20 minutes. I would imagine that the poor souls trapped in their cars at the back of the que had a very long day /night of waiting in stationary traffic before they were allowed to enter the border zone.

Feeling safe in Ukraine.

Don't worry mothership. Feel like I am on a hen night! 

Sadness

Abandoned gym

Abandoned swimming pool

Children's gas masks, that were never used

The cold war gas masks

Chernobyl reactor number 4 at 280 meters

Andy in Independance square...

New lantern for the 'Alice challenge' no.4

Wild camping in the Ukraine

Kiev in kiev & Chernobyl

We arrived in the beautiful peaceful city of Kiev and immediately felt at home. I admit that cheap and plentiful local beer did help!
On our first afternoon in Kiev we accidentally stumbled upon a massive police parade/ rally/ display of force. This included what looked like every officer in Kiev, mounted police, military police , fire brigade, tank, even bicycle police! Felt really rather safe!

In 'independance' square there was plenty of evidence of riot damage from last weeks riots about the Russia situation. Including lots of fire damage and a giant tower of banners advertising the conflict.

On our second day in Kiev we decided to use the subway to cross the busy road. It was by pure accident that we stumbled upon a matix of complex under ground shopping centres. This was very inticeing but worryinglying  disorientating and confusing once within the warren of chambers.

For lunch we ate kiev In Kiev, in the afternoon we continued shopping and found fake driving licences for sale in the street! Andy also found two opportunities to play someone else's pianos in the street!

No trip to the Ukraine would be complete without a tour of Chernobyl and Pripyat, so it had to be done. the trip was outstanding in every way. We were astonished to learn about how close whole of Europe came to being inhabitable due to radiation. It really was due to thousands of unrecognised heroes, that that did their duty to work to cover the reactor and prevent further explosions, that the rest of the world is able to live the non radioactive lives that we do. We were both utterly amazed and moved by the experience.
During our visit we were very lucky to see reactor number 4 in its original concrete sarcophagus undergoing works to re-cover it in a new sarcophagus. This is being built next to the reactor, and will be slid over the existing failing structure. We were told that this is the largest movable structure ever made. We also visited Pripyat city (just 3km from the original blast at reactor number 4) and now an overgrown ghost town. We explored a kindergarten, hotel, school, fairground and leasure centre, which could only be described as creepy.

Russia....

Russia was really rather boring compared to the excitement of the Stans, so we decided to change our plan and go through Ukraine to spice things up and to trim down the days spent in Russia. That meant doing a number of exceptionally long days on the motorways, to push on through. We were also keen to get out of Russia as we found out (half way through the country) that we were breaking the law by not having any vehicle insurance. The problem was that there did not seem to be any way of getting insurance! We asked at the hotel's, looked online and even phoned the bike's insurance company, but no joy. So we decided to cross our fingers and proceed with caution and just hope for the best. We also found out that there is a law in Russia that states that you must not have a dirty vehicle!

The final sign that suggested we should leave Russia was our string of 3 bad luck events; I got stung in the chest by some sort of mega nasty insect (it really hurt and itched like mad), the bike fell apart (the pannier rack sheared off at one of the mounting points) and it thunder stormed and rained heavily all over our non water resistant luggage before we had the chance to cover it.

The boarder crossing out of Russia and in to the Ukraine turned out to be a potential nightmare. The Russian boarder official told us that we needed to have customs papers for the bike showing entry to Russia! We clearly did not get given any at the entry boarder. The official told us 'very very big problem' (that was the only English that he spoke).
At this point the prognosis seemed grim. So we did our usual; Andy stood back, I smiled a lot and showed the official our map of where we were going from and to, and also gave him all of the evidence/ paper work from the other countries. It was really rather obvious that we brought the bike with us, even the official could see that we had not levitated through the Stans. A long and worrying wait later, and a brief baggage search and we were allowed on our way.

Our first impressions of the Ukraine were that it was beautiful. We decided to wild camp and rode in to a quiet village and then continued until we found a freshly ploughed farm field. We decided to camp on the edge of the field. Dinner consisted of chicken curry in a bag and warm plastic bottles of beer. Luxury :-)

Downtown Volgograd