Gwilym's Adventure Blog

I left Kiev at 6am and yes the roads are as bad as I was told. Huge holes that a bike could disappear into, random grooves that track you off into the verge and truck/car drivers that still want to be doing 90kph. It was stick with them and hold on tight. Glad I have off road setting and comfort suspension. Even so, I spent a fair part of the day standing up.  I got to the Moldovian border at 10:42. This was a much smaller and more relaxed affair than where I entered. Behind my in the queue was a horse and cart! It was also my quickest border with me out the other side by 12.10. However, that my be because they don't do things inside the border!  Once out I had to go  and get some local currency and sort insurance (5 euro) and a road vignette (86 lei about 4.5 euro). Once out the other side,Ii was off to find some food and coffee before heading to my campsite here for the night. Duruita Camping That is where things got better. Not onl...

After a pretty good (if a little weird) breakfast. Cucumber is not a breakfast item! I was on the road at 07:30 heading for the border. After negotiating a main road closure and thick fog, I arrived at the border post at 9:42am and a que was starting to form The Belarussian border is very smart with everyone in uniform and the very large Russian style military hat. However, they were very pleasant and the guy dealing with me said. "Do you have a gun"? I replied "No" Cocaine"? "No" He seemed happy enough with that though took a casual look in my panniers to be sure. I then moved onto the Ukrainian side. What a difference. Still in uniform but mainly camouflage t-shirts and baseball caps. Again very pleasant chap dealt with me, wishing me well on my journey but the system was shambolic. He went down a line of 10 vehicles collecting all the passports and documents. We then waited like lemons and a different guy came and gave them...