Sunday 20 April - Odessa
Excellent breakfast, including kefir to drink and sweet cheese pancakes. Did a bit of work on my bike then went on a guided walking tour of Odessa - guide was a nice girl called Natalia. Saw some buildings and the very fine opera house. She said the town was onoy built 215 years ago. It has lots of very fine tree-llned boulevards and green parks. We went down to the port and saw the famous steps seen in the film Battleship Potemkin. Paul and I went to a shop to change some money and get his photos backed up on CD and lost the group. We walked around for a while and found a festival in proress with people in folk costumes singing and dancing. It took us a long time to find the way back to the hotel.
Good lunch at the hotel then went to a supermarket to stock up on eats for the week to come. Could not find any cereal bars, which is a bit of a blow, but got lots of other stuff. Spent the afternoon on the computer. Rather poor dinner.
It was a lovely sunny day and lots of
washing got dry, which is useful as we have 3 bivouac nights next week so there will not be much chance to wash clothes.
Monday 21 April - Odessa to Mikolaiv - 144 km
We stopped for lunch at a town on an estuary of the Black Sea and went into a very nice café. There was a small market opposite and I stocked up on fruit.
During the afternoon we were told we were an hour early so we went to a bar and had a hilarious time with some rather tipsy locals, one of whom spoke passable English. The usual police escort into town. We are sleeping in a gym again. Set up the folding tables and ate outdoors. The meal was foil-packed stuff again, with rice, so I had rice with a tin of Greek gigantes beans I had bought in Odessa. Very nice.
Tuesday 22 April - Mikolaiv to Kherson, 78 km.
After breakfast at the gym there was a reception with some local officials. I was roped in to interpret: the officials spoke Ukrainian, a very nice girl translated into English, and I translated into French! They said I did OK, but I was
a bit nervous using the microphone. The town is very proud to be sending 19 people to the Olympics in Beijing, and asked us to support them and gave us a Ukrainian flag.
Kherson is a big port on a river. The hotel was OK but there was no water until late in the evening. This was general in the whole town, I don’t know the reason.
Went out for a walk, didn’t find much of interest except the usual heroic statues. Found some postcards at a kiosk and wrote them.
Wednesday 23 April - Kherson to Nova Khachovka, 83 km
Late start because it was a short distance today. After a rather odd breakfast - cabbage salad, radishes, egg cooked into leathery omelette slices, greasy pancakes, Kefir (a yoghurt drink), and coffee - went out to find a post office. Got stamps and posted cards. Also found a big supermarket and got some goodies, including cereal bars which have been hard to find lately.
A very windy day, but all morning it was behind us and we bowled along at huge speeds without even pedalling. In the afternoon it was a crosswind and very hard to handle. I had
to get a big man to cycle beside me or I would have been blown away! Slept in a very nice gym.
Thursday 24 April - Nova Khachovka to Melitopol, 171 km
An early start for a long day. Fortunately the wind had dropped and the terrain was flat. Melitopol takes the prize for the worst roads anywhere! Enormous potholes everywhere.
We slept in a gym belonging to the university. There were showers, but cold. We had a meal at the university canteen which was quite inadequate, but on the way back was a huge supermarket so we went shopping. I got lots of goodies, including a huge piece of cake which I shared with Paul (the American) for pudding.
Friday 25 April - Melitopol to Berdansk, 122 km
Breakfast at the canteen was equally inadequate, but the organizers gave out bread and jam at the gym as a supplement!
It was sunny, but windy and cycling was a bit difficult. All afternoon we rode along with the sea visible on our right - not the Black Sea now, the Azof Sea.
Very nice hotel in Berdansk, smart restaurant where there was even a choice of main course. Got a
bottle of rather sweet wine for 60 Hryvnia (the local currency). There were PCs in the lobby and I got some files loaded from my USB stick and added them to the blog. Cost 5 Hryvnia for about half an hour - a bargain!
Saturday 26 April - Berdansk to Mariupol, 92 km
Late stqrt, so I went out after breakfast. Post Office wasn’t open,but there was a market behind the hotel and I got some fruit and an Easter cake. The Orthodox Easter is tomorrow. There was also a large covered market, mostly meat. Walked down to the sea and put my feet in.
Another sunny and windy day. We stayed in a college where they teach French. The principal made a nice welcome speech. Accommodation was a bit limited - a small gym for the men, two classrooms for the women and couples and the staff. We had to clear all the desks and chairs out of the classroom and put them back in the morning. No-one uses the camp beds, we all just sleep on the camp mattresses which are very good. No showers, and very few toilets. Dinner was pre-packs, so I had my second tin
of Greek beans.
Sunday 27 April - Mariupol to Taganrog (Russia), 136 km
Cold and windy, and rained almost all day. Reached the border after about 50 km and found that the Ukrainians were holding everyone up leaving the country: they were processing 7 people at a time. Waited ages in the rain, got passed out of Ukraine and then had to deal with entry into Russia. Not so bad - had to collect a form, complete it in duplicate (in the rain), hand the form and passport in to the border office, take it to the immigration office to be stamped, take it back to the border office, then finally show it again to the guard at the gate.
We all waited after the border till everyone was through, then continued with police escort for a very long ride. We changed clocks at the border by another hour, and it was 5.30 pm by the time we left. The police took us round in a big circle round the town, it was dark and we didn’t know where we were going or how far it would be, it was a very unpleasant evening.
Dinner was very poor - I ate a small salad and a cake. The hotel was in process of being refurbished. Most of us were on the 6th floor - which had not been upgraded and was very tatty. Fell into bed.
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