Sunday in Verkhovyna

The ride out of Chernivtsi, was a different route. Closer to the Karpaty, and leaving the rolling steppes of the road in.

All went well for the first 10km, then TomTom told me to turn right, but all the traffic was going straight on……..
Soon found out why.
The road surface had deteriorated. A lot. Effectively a gravel road, with, yup, pot-holes. Some deep and nasty.
12km of this, and then a turn onto tarmac. Hurrah!
Ah. Was a trap. The tarmac would come and go. Sometimes with very little warning.

When you see the on-coming traffic swerve, they are not trying to hit you, just avoiding pot-holes.
Shades of Trinidad!

After nearly 2hrs of this, stopped off here for an espresso and water. Note the nice wide flat car-parking area 🙂

I bashed on, knowing there were less than 100km and the town Kosiv was not far ahead.

Another hour or so, and I was on the other side of Kosiv.
Filled the bike and bought more water for myself, then headed on to Verkhovyna.
The road improved, except in spots, and where there were major road-works.
I had spent most of the day in 2nd gear. Hardly able to get up to the speeds posted at the various road-works, never mind the actual road speed.

Seven hours after heading out, I found myself in Verkhovyna, and then the hotel.
Another challenge getting up the drive-way, with, yes you guessed it, pot-holes and gravel.

Nice place, as this photo shows…..

Verkhovyna had featured in my Ukrainian life.
As the name of the scout camp in Wales, where I spent many a happy summer.
Tales of how beautiful the area was.
And as this song.

But as I parked at the hotel, I was greeted with this terrible sight……..

Yup. Arsenal supporters even here!!!
And this is after watching Leicester’s loss to Liverpool (1-4) on Saturday. With a replay on Sunday morning! Aaaaagh.
Paul was happy to receive this photo!

Unpacked and gave the bike some TLC.
And let a father place his kid on the bike for photos 🙂

Then cleaned myself up and went for supper……

Sauerkraut in the vareniki, with shkvarki and smetana 🙂
The beer was for purely medicinal purposes. To get rid of the dust I had accumulated 😉

And that closed out my Sunday.
Cannot wait for the rest of the ride. One stretch of that is supposed to make today seem easy 🙂

Must commend the bike. My BMW F700GS handled everything with impeccable manners.
Nice to know when you are in the middle of a challenging road, with no houses and no traffic, but lots of pot-holes, some deep and all surrounded by gravel, up to the size of a large potato.