July 14^th 2021

Michalovce, Slovakia – Ushgorod, Ukraine

Miles: 40

Miles total: 1’980

Early in the morning I already got really frustrated. The reason: installing the new steps to get in the camper. Usually taking 15 minutes, ended up in frustrating hours.

Shortly after lunch we got close to the border and a slight nervous feeling was catching us. At the Slovakian side of the border we were the only car and within 5 minutes we were in no-man’s-land. The entry into Ukraine didn’t go that well. Even though we read, that the Ukrainians require a proof of health insurance that covers Covid treatment, we didn’t have it. Pretty naïve we thought, that as Swiss citizens we can enter anyways ;-). We thought wrong. The first guy at the border sent us back. Directly in a line of cars where nothing was moving at the burning sun! After 10 Minutes without making one feet progress, we discovered free Wi-Fi and we started the attempt to call our health insurances via Skype. Believe it or not, but 30 minutes later we both had our proof of insurance by E-Mail. With the mobile phone back to the Ukrainian border guy. We really could go on after several phone calls and translating of the E-Mails! They stamped the passport, checked the car papers and searched for 5 minutes the car. It was rather a curious check what things we have than a real border control. He did ask some questions when he saw our medicines and some tea that was packed transparent :-). It took nearly 2 hours for the entire crossing and we stepped into new areas outside the EU. 

July 15^th 2021

Uzhhorod, Ukraine

Breakfast for once a bit different, relaxed in the hotel, without preparing and without cleaning the dishes! Also really nice in a hotel is the toilet, where we spend no thought on how and where we gonna empty the tank :-).

Relaxed we strolled through the old town of Uzhhorord. The centre is the lively and cozy theater square with Restaurants, some street musicians, shops etc..

We continued to the Komitats castle from the 13^th century. Inside the castle was a historic museum where frogs in fluid and music instruments will remain in our memories :-).

Close to the castle we treated ourselves to a small lunch menu for 5$ for the both of us. 2 minutes besides the castle we looked at an outdoor museum with different houses, barns, schools, wells etc.. from different regions from the Ukraine. Most certainly are still people in the country side that live the same way today as many years ago. 
For dinner, we got very surprised by the Restaurant Shanti, where the owner magically made us very yummy vegetarian dishes. We enjoyed the evening in a very relaxed, Indian atmosphere.

July 16^th 2021

Uzhhorod – Uzhok, Ukraine

Miles: 60

Miles total: 2’040

First we got a new mobile phone to be able to use our new SIM card. Mainly that we have everywhere internet so we can download maps for navigation and for hiking. We found one at the nearby pawn shop, An IPhone 5s for just 50$!! We were astonished when we saw messages, pictures, E-Mails and Facebook and co on the phone from the previous owner. Was it stolen? Did someone needed cash very urgently? Questions that will never be answered. After a total reset it was ready to use for us. Before we left, we visited a market in the typical old market hall, like we already knew it from Central Asia. Meat, cheese, fruits, veggies and much more was there. 

But now, finally leaving in direction Uzh valley, where the river Uzh is sneaking through the Carpathian Mountains. We read a lot before about the crappy terrible road conditions in the Ukraine, but luckily, we are experiencing something else so far. The road was nearly perfect. Apparently, there is a lot of effort to improve the infrastructure, probably also to make the region more attractive for tourism. We drove towards north, in a region that contains one of a few, last remaining true wilderness forests in Europe. The search for a sleeping spot is now getting interesting, since there are no campgrounds in Ukraine. Just a few miles besides the main road, in a side valley, we found a really pretty spot besides a creek. Well, as soon as we are on small side roads, the average speed is dropping from 40 to 5 mph :-).

We got company shortly after we were there. 16 cows and a farmer. The farmer owns only one cow but walks with cows from different farmers to the lush grasslands to feed them. The farmer, Alexej, was of course quite quickly at our place since he probably doesn’t see such guys like us :-). As a nice gesture we offered the older, sweaty guy a cold beer, and 5 minutes later a place to sit in our camper after it started to rain badly. The speaking together worked out quite ok, even though his German was similar to our Ukrainian :-). As Alexej walked around the field to look after the cows, we cooked our dinner and we spontaneously invited him since he was still around near us. He finished the Pasta with tomato sauce even though it was probably not his favorite dish ;-). To say thank you he insisted to give us an old knive of his. All in all, a wonderful encounter.

July 17^th 2021

Uzhok – Uzhok Pass, Ukraine

Miles: 10

Miles total: 2’050

We left our beautiful little place at the creek early in the morning and drove back to the main road. We saw numerous farmers that led their cows to the grasslands. In the villages of the Carpathian Mountains is apparently still a very traditional “small farming” going on. The fields are separated in small areas for the cows, for potatoes or other reasons. Also in the villages we could see that at every house is a small yard with some vegetables and so on. Shortly after the village Uzhok is the road going up a pass with many curves. At the top of the pass is a military checkpoint as well as a big parking area, where we started our hike. A farmer that had his two cows grassing besides the parking lot talked to us and asked where we were going. 10 minutes later a motorbike was coming. The man stopped and askes curiously what we were doing here. The chat was a bit hard, but we could understand from which village he was coming and he and his family is plucking berries near here. Well, there is to say that it would be really interesting when we would speak Ukrainian or Russian language. We could find out much more about the people and the regions.

After another 15 minutes, we saw the rest of his group that was plucking blueberries. Already in Uzhhorod at the market we saw many people selling blueberries, that apparently also coming from this region. During the day we saw a couple times people plucking berries, it seems that the effort, the heavy work at the strong sun, is worth it. We also crossed regularly amazing fields with endless flowers and real wilderness, a beauty of a field as we’ve probably never seen before.

They never have been touched or worked on. In general is the small part that we have seen so far from the Ukraine, very wild when it comes to nature. We took a rest when we arrived at a higher flat area, as the idyllic sense came to an abrupt end. Three prepared off-road vehicles were driving quite fast along the ridge in our direction. They passed us with a speed that we couldn’t really see from which country they were. Our way continued along paths that had a terrible condition and marks from real off-road tires. The Carpathian Mountains are quite famous for off-road freaks. We continued downwards to a poorly marked path away from the ridge.

The path was a bit a fight, we had to cross through dense blueberry bushes, where we off course enjoyed the whole time some of the yummy blueberries ourselves. The trail markings were getting worse and worse when we got back into the beech forest, so we lost the right route and had to navigate by coordinates and paper map back to the right place. At some point we found back to the trail and were safely down in the valley :-). We ended in the same valley that we knew already from where we slept last night, just now we were a bit deeper in the valley. We were fighting a bit the heat and we were glad when we arrived at the main street. The plan was to take the bus or to hitchhike back to the pass where the camper was. Unfortunately left the bus just a minute before we arrived, and hitchhiking didn’t work either. Neither are taxis in this village. Anyways, we didn’t have another choice than walking the road up to the pass, so another 900 feet (300m) in altitude at the sun… After a total of 15 miles (24km) we arrived exhausted but happy at the pass.

July 18^th 2021

Uzhok Pass – Lemberg (Lviv), Ukraine

Miles: 110

Miles total: 2’160

The perfect road would have been there, if not a bicycle race had taken place. So, we had to follow the detour road covered with potholes. Since we will be staying in cities and hotels the next few days, we had to remove all things that could go bad in the fridge. So, for lunch we potatoes, veggies and fried eggs. We found a side road with no traffic a bit besides the main road. Unfortunately, was this way partially also used as a garbage disposal area. Construction waste, plastic bottles, diapers and much more. So, we didn’t feel bad to also empty our non-chemical toilet there.

July 19^th – 21^st 2021

Lviv, Ukraine

According to the guidebook is Lviv an absolute must when travelling in the Ukraine. And it is true. Besides countless fantastic cathedrals and churches, it has many monuments and wonderful buildings like the opera or university. The heart of the city is the market square, where the ensemble of the 4 and 5 story buildings date back to the 16^th century.  

 Also absolutely worth the visit was the Lychakivskyi cemetery with its several hundred years old graves, mausoleums and chapels from countless famous people. Another visit that will remain in our memories is the pharmacy museum, which is by the way still today operating as a pharmacy.

Outside of downtown is a real traffic chaos since the city has no subway. So besides the regular cars are many busses and street trains (trams) squeezing itself through the streets. But on the other hand it has a large pedestrian area in the city centre that makes it very enjoyable, relaxing and cool! The centre is dotted with restaurants, bars and shops. You can experience a lot at the restaurants! Several „Theme-restaurants“ are there.

Since we read that password in the guide book, but of course forgot it, we tried it with the second possibility mentioned in the guide book. We told him “Putin is an a**-hole”, then he laughed, moved a book shelf aside, gave us a shot of local liquor and said „money for bullets“, as a donation for the shot :-). On the inside were besides political comments and phrases also many military equipment and historical items. The servers were walking around as soldiers and the bill we received in a filter from a gas mask. All in all a funny experience.

Another joyful side of Lviv are the street musicians. Regularly we were listening to them and experienced instruments that we’ve never seen before.

All in all, a very worth seeing city with a lot of charm where one would like to visit again.

July 22^nd – 25^th 2021

Kiev, Ukraine

For once, we exchanged the Iveco versus a train :-). The Intercity train covered the 370 miles (600 Km) distance in a bit more than 5 hours. The alarm went off at 4:30AMand at 6AM the train left.

Kiev as a summary: Population 3 million and therefor a very busy city. Wonderful and unique sights on one side, but on the other hand too big and not that relaxed since there are almost no pedestrian zones with cozy restaurants and so on.

Now about some sights we visited. The subway. Besides some very beautiful, with mosaic stones decorated walls and ceilings, is also the world’s deepest subway station. It takes more than 5 minutes on the fast-moving stairways to get in the over 300 feet (105m) deep underground.

Kiev has of course more to offer than subway stations. The most famous sight is the one-thousand-year-old monastery area Lavra, that is a holy pilgrimage place for the Orthodox. At the huge area are several gold roofed churches, countless museums and cave-labyrinths.

More and more we were asking ourselves where the donation money flows that is coming from partially poorer people. Besides the priests, we saw quite a few luxury vehicles like Range-Rover, Mercedes S-class, Audi A8 or even a 250'000$ Maybach. Unbelievable!! 

There are countless other breathtaking churches and cathedrals in Kiev, but we skip the description, since it would burst this report :-).

The city area that was for us the most enjoyable was Podil with its Andreas passage, which used to be an artist’s quarter that is unfortunately now being bought piece by piece from rich people. But it was thanks to a pedestrian zone and some restaurants quite OK for us.

The quarter Podil is also home to some streets where some buildings are showing a unique ugliness :-). And of course there are in Kiev also military relicts displayed from old times but also from the current conflict with Russia. Then there are also many typical sculptures and constructions from the Soviet era.

The evidently most famous part, and something like the city centre is the Maidan square. The place was in the freezing winter 2004 the location of the Orange Revolution where thousands of people demonstrated in tent towns for weeks against election manipulation. The place was as well the epicentre of the Maidan Revolution in 2014, where 80 peaceful demonstrators were shot from snipers. Several monuments and information boards remember this awful event. We also realized how massive a country like the Ukraine is developing and changing.

At one of the evenings we felt, that we wanted to know what the Kiev people are doing in the evenings. First we enjoyed a beer at the river Dnipro, where we really had to escape because of the terrible Ukraine-Pop-Techno-Music :-). Shortly after we ended up in the Café Vagabond, where we treated our throat to another beer and our stomach to some food. Finally it was one or two beer more since two musicians installed a keyboard and started to play some jazz. The funniest part was, when out of nowhere another musician with a flute came and sat beside the other two musicians then read the notes of the keyboarder and started to play with them :-).

A very relaxed evening in an otherwise very hectic city Kiev.

July 26^th 2021

Lviv – Lviv 4-PAWS Bear sanctuary, Ukraine

Miles: 30

Miles total: 2’190

Early in the morning I, Stefan, wanted to write some reports for the web page, since we are weeks behind. I got comfortable in the camper at the hotel parking, plugged in the laptop in our 230V outlet and started writing. After 10 minutes the power went off, and I saw smoke coming out of the 12V – 230V power inverter. It blew up the inverter!! Very fast I got the fire extinguisher ready beside me and disconnected and dismounted the unit to get it out of the car. So, we had to get a new one and we found a Truck service station that helped us. First, they only had 24V – 230V inverters, but the nice people organized from somewhere a 12V – 230V unit, and they even came with us to look for an ATM since we couldn’t pay by card. Later the project, washing clothes, failed, since we couldn’t find a descent laundry place.

The further journey was short. By coincidence we read on Facebook about a bear sanctuary near Lviv, and since we are donating money for this NGO “4-PAWS”, we wanted to see it personally where the donations are going :-).

July 27^th 2021

Lviv – Pidhorodsi, Ukraine

Miles: 80

Miles total: 2’270

The bear forest Domazhyr is offering a proper and lifelong home for the mistreated bears. The bears are coming from hunting stations where they were used as bate for training hunting dogs, from restaurants and hotels where they were held in tiny cages as an attraction to get more customers and also from former circus and zoos. They have found here a new home. All the bears have a tragic and extremely sad past created from humans…

The area of the bear park contains today roughly 15ha and visitors have the possibility to walk around the forest. We got to see some bears, they were swimming, eating or just walking in the woods. It is nice to see that humans gave a new home and a worth living live to those traumatised animals. The bears can unfortunately never go back to the wilderness, since most certainly wouldn’t survive anymore. We can really recommend the animal protect organisation „4-Paws“, and we will definitely continue to support them!

July 28^th 2021

Pidhorodsi, Ukraine

After quite some time we did nothing the entire day and enjoyed the wonderful place at the river. Throughout the day some locals came and went for fishing, swimming or picnicking.

July 29^th 2021

Pidhorodsi – Trukhaniv, Ukraine

Miles: 30

Miles total: 2’300

Today we visited the castle Tustan, which is not anymore a castle today :-). The rock formations made from sandstone were attractive, where a real breathtaking castle made from wood used to be a long time ago (According to computer animated pictures). Once again we were astonished how the infrastructure had to be improved in the recent years. Perfect new roads, new restaurants etc.…

Now something about the life in the villages, where we always have to be a bit careful when driving through them. Besides the usual dogs and cats that are crossing the streets, are also free walking chickens, goose and even turkeys on the road. As well are storks in many of the villages that were also already closer to our windshield than we hoped :-). We ate our lunch in the little town Schidnyzja. Thanks to „Google Translate“ we can usually see the menu in German and we were able to order some fine Ukrainian dishes. We have to be a bit careful what we order, that we don’t order veal brain, which still being  eaten here once in a while :-/. 

July 30^th 2021

Trukhaniv

We started our second hike in Ukraine directly from our sleeping point. We reached our destination already after 2 hours, the mystic Dovbush rocks in the middle of the forest.

Those are up to 150 feet (50m) high sand stone rocks, that were used as temples, monasteries or military shelters over the past hundreds of years. The only things that remember those times are rooms and steps that are carved into the rocks. Today’s name is coming from the Ukrainian Robin Hood, Oleksa Dovbush. According the legend, they hided the treasures there and used the place as a shelter. The legend says also, that nobody found the big treasure up till now, that is still somewhere there. Today the rocks are a favoured destination for tourists and it is as well attractive for rock climbers. There are a lot of other rocks spread out in the forest, but the Ukrainian tourists are not really interested in them. But they also are fantastic and with some imagination you can see lions or wales in the shapes of the rocks :-).

Since we checked out before the hike, that there is a restaurant along the hike, we didn’t take our usual hiking food with us. On the way down the valley, we had to realise that this restaurant was closed :-(. But luckily we found another place just minutes away and could fill up our bellies with “Banosh” (Polenta) and “Varenyky” (this time with sauerkraut filled pasta-pockets) while listening to too loud ukrainian Pop-Dance Music :-).  

The way back led us through a village where we saw, besides the traditional wooden houses, a quite bad kitschy church. At this point is to say, that such silver-gold-partially blue churches are quite common in Ukrainian villages.

We continued through the woods where countless wild raspberry and other berries were growing and where we could sweeten up our hike by eating quite many of them. Those berries are also being collected by the locals. Further on we had to go through muddy trails where sometimes even a little creek was passing through.

July 31^st & August 1^st 2021

Trukhaniv – Slavske, Ukraine

Miles: 60

Miles total: 2’360

We landed in a bit bizarre tourist town, mainly because we needed to do our laundry and empty our toilet. The town Slavske is a ski resort in winter and a mecca for ATV’s and other off-road jeeps. We found on the internet something like a campground and we could get installed at the friendly place. We could do our laundry and luckily also empty our toilet! The price per night, unbelievable 3$ and she didn’t even wanted some money for the huge pile of laundry!

By coincidence was a music festival going on in Slavske. We were really happy that we were able to compensate for our lack in culture and music ;-). We went the 3 miles to the (free of charge by the way) festival by hitchhiking. The first bands, one of them with the name Latexfauna, had a contest on who plays the worst music ;-). Quite bad Ukraine-Dance-Pop music or how you wanna call this. Afterwards the music got much better. A family that could speak descent English was sitting next to us as we enjoyed a beer at a table. Shortly after we got some sausage and liquor, we were friends on Facebook and we watched videos on how the crawled around in mud with his Nissan Patrol.

The mix of people at the festival was complete. Families with small children and dogs, teenagers, older people, just everybody was there! Apparently were also many people from bigger cities like Lviv or even Kiev at the festival.

The 2^nd evening at the festival was less cozy. A thunderstorm with heavy winds was arriving. It got crowded underneath the tents, the wind blew the rain everywhere, the power went off and quite some visitors fled to their cars and went home. The older generation seems to be from the tougher crew, the 60 year old lady with the gold teeth besides us wasn’t reacting much to the weather and opened after 15 minutes the second bottle of vodka with their friends. A really nice change such a festival :-).

August 2^nd 2021

Slavske – Mukacheve, Ukraine

Miles: 110

Miles total: 2’470

Already in Switzerland we lost some pressure in one of the tires. Now it got worse and we had to find a shop that repairs the tube for us. We couldn’t get it fixed in Slavske, so we had to choose a different route as planned and went to the city of Mukacheve. The route led through beautiful forested hills and valleys, but it was still exhausting due to the enormous traffic. In the meantime, we are not anymore the slowest on the road with the Iveco, we are average, thanks to the old Ladas, UAZ and Tatra trucks ;-).

The first tire shop in Mukacheve sent us to some truck shop. There they didn’t wanna do it and sent us to a small tyre shop that was just closing! After that it got annoying. At the fifth shop a really nice young guy came with us and we followed him for 30 minutes to 5 other shops, without success!

As a compensation for the trouble, we landed at a really yummy restaurant where we filled up our bellies!

We slept at a parking of a wonderful castle in Mukacheve. We got really surprised when another camper from Check republic arrived, since we almost didn’t see any camper at all in Ukraine. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the quite place as we were hoping. The young generation also uses that place as a meeting point and they were having party until late in the night!

August 3^rd 2021

Mukacheve – Welykyj, Ukraine

Miles: 100

Miles total: 2’570

First thing in the morning we visited the castle Palanok, where we stayed overnight. Finally, two hours later we left the castle again. It was to our surprise really beautiful and interesting!

Afterwards, we tried once again to get our tire fixed, even though we failed so many times the day before. At the place where we were the day before that was already closed. They already wanted to start taking the tire off as soon as we arrived :-). The guys really knew their work in the small shop! Really professionally they dismounted the tire and fixed the tube. The entire job costed 7$ and within 40 minutes we were back on the road. Great!

The police were in the mood the get to know us after just 10 Minutes on the road! The police didn’t much appreciate the crossing of the double safety line to get on the other side. The fine was 11$ :-). And to fight the corruption, we couldn’t pay cash, we had to go to a bank to pay the fine.

August 4^th 2021

Welykyj – Keveliv, Ukraine

Miles: 40

Miles total: 2’610

The planned hike into the nature preserve, where we tried to sleep the evening before, didn’t happen! We couldn’t drive up the small track towards the preserve as we did yesterday, the barrier was closed. Also, we couldn’t park there.

We continued somewhat demotivated and came after a short time to the geographical center of Europe. This point is quite discussed, since it is not sure if Greenland or other European Islands around the globe are counting as well :-). We came to a very familiarly campground in the tiny village Keveliv. We immediately got to know the other people due to the small size of the campground :-). In addition it is quite funny at the campground since we shared it with chickens, bunnies, dogs, cats, sheep etc.. And there were even some storks in the field near us and 2 cows got lost on the campground :-).

August 5^th 2021

Keveliv, Ukraine

We started hiking at 8 AM to the 3600 feet (1100m) higher mountain Sheshul. The way up was luckily mostly in the woods and not at the sun. The hiking in Ukraine is always a bit more adventurous as in Switzerland, also this time. We chose some shorter route and had once again to climb over trees and some cows were blocking the path :-).

The last ascent led us through thicket where we would have wanted to exchange our Swiss army knife versus a machete. We finally won the fight against the 7 feet (2m) tall bushes and got rewarded with a great view across the famous mountains Petros und Hoverla (highest mountain in Ukraine).

We enjoyed our lunch on top of the 5670 feet (1730m) mountain totally alone before we started our descent. We chose another route down to the valley and crossed some really run-down tiny barns, which are still being used today. It is also quite different here in Ukraine compared to Switzerland, that multiple-days-hikes are really popular. You can see tents at many spots.

The weather wasn’t on our side anymore and it started to rain! A few times we were looking for shelter near a barn or in the forest. Quite far down it started once again to rain heavily and the wind was joining as well, so we looked for shelter near a house. Two sisters, maybe 16 and 20 years old, with a baby arrived 5 minutes later at this house. Even though we were wet everywhere, they invited us immediately in their house and gave us some warm tea and some cookies. Wonderful hospitality! It was also interesting for us to see how they live. Very simple but still everything you need. We assume that in the country side are still many very young parents.

August 7^th 2021

Keveliv – Worochta, Ukraine

Miles: 50

Miles total: 2’660

After a short drive, we came to the touristy village of Bukovel, where we originally intended to stay for the night. All the people, that we mentioned that we are going to Bukovel, were a bit astonished and asked us if we had seen pictures. And then we arrived there in Bukovel!

We dived into another world, in an unreal, totally weird, artificial and for us repellent world. The people come here for skiing in winter and in summer it is a playground for grownups. A place full of hotels, overpriced restaurants, souvenier shops, zip-Lines, sled tracks, lakes for swimming etc.. and much more. You almost don’t see a regular house anymore, everything is artificial, no charm nor character. But for us it worth seeing anyways, since something crazy like this we almost never see, something so extremely contrary to the country life in Ukraine.

We also imagined our sleeping spot near the highest mountain (Hoverla) of the Ukraine a bit different.

The most amusing part of the day was the refilling of the water tank, which we did at a fresh water spring at the main road :-). At this spring, half of the village is coming to refill, and therefore they also block regularly the main road with their vehicles. Some are coming with small bottles, others with a dozen 7 gallon containers. A busy back and forth, whose turn is it, and who is letting who go first. Quite funny to watch, and we were in the middle of it with our 2.5 gallon (10L) bottle. Everybody thought it was quite amusing when we filled one after another into our car.

August 10^th 2021

Worochta – Zaroslyak, Ukraine

Miles: 10

Miles total: 2’690

Today we got to know what bad road conditions are in Ukraine! To be able to start hiking immediately the next day, we went directly to the starting point. We needed over an hour to cover the five miles (8km)! 

Put holes were always altering with stones, and we didn’t use the gearbox since first gear was enough to go all the way up :-). Thanks to the short heavy rain we were quickly driving in a riverbed. Offroad-capabilities are an advantage, but absolutely not a necessity if you see the others fighting on the way up in their average cars. We got a bit surprised when we saw the large long-range busses, shaking right to left on the way up. At the destination, the countless cars and minibuses were creating a fantastic parking chaos and the alley of souvenir-shop were selling drinks, walking sticks, food and even “gold” medals for the reaching of the highest mountain in Ukraine :-). 

August 11^th 2021

Zaroslyak, Ukraine

We decided to start our hike at 6:15AM due to the unsure weather condition. First, the well marked trail led us through a forest and juniper bushes until it finally went over the tree line and steep towards the peak.

As soon as we left the forest, we discovered the breathtaking sea of fog over a huge area in the surrounding valleys. A mystic feeling. But not just for this it was worth getting up so early.

When we arrived after 2 hours hiking on top of the 6762 feet (2061m) high Hoverla, we were after another guy the first people on top and we could enjoy the spectacular views without the masses of people! This changed 30 minutes later. More and more people came up and two souvenir sellers put up their stand and sold medals, magnets and other stuff. The Hoverla is as the highest mountain in Ukraine a very popular hiking destination in the Carpathian mountains and it is also possible to reach without being in good shape. Since a couple of years, it is also some kind of a national symbol of the Ukraine, that’s why many blue-yellow flags are put up. What we found quite amusing was the easy gear that they were wearing. Light cloth shoes and purse were not the exception :-). We felt a bit „overdressed“ :-). But our hike was not yet over, we continued a few miles over the ridge to the mountain lake Ozera Nezamovytne.

Across the ridge, we got offered always new great views and the little lakes along made the hike diversified. The National Park is also very popular for multiple days hikes. We saw many tent areas und crossed several heavy loaded hikers. The downside from this great experience is, that due to the masses of people doing this, that there are also everywhere places that they use for toilet and toilet paper is at many places.

Anyways, the lake is also very popular for day hikers and it is a very beautiful place to be or to see it from the nearby peak Turkul :-).

August 12^th 2021

Zaroslyak – Worochta, Ukraine

Miles: 20

Miles total: 2’710

Once again, we were fascinated about the masses of people that want to hike up the highest mountain in Ukraine.

Even worse than 2 days ago was the traffic chaos when they parked and when we started to go down! Unfortunately, one of the cars that we crossed, didn’t know how to drive and slightly slided backwards into ours! Luckily we only got a scratch, so we continued driving. And we had again over an hour to cover the 5 miles to go down the valley!

August 13^th 2021

Worochta – Kosiv, Ukraine

Miles: 50

Miles total: 2’760

We continued over smaller side roads. You always see locals that are selling their own products along the road. Mushrooms, honey, berries etc.

Just 5 minutes later we stopped again to get some souvenirs from the Ukraine. The sheep wool products were just the right thing at the right time.

Immediately after we stopped, a young lady was walking up the hill to our car. She was that impressed by our car that we first made a tour with her and her daughter in the camper :-). Shortly after, her sister from the next house was joining with her children and they came also into our home. They’ve probably never seen such a house on wheels before :-).

The self-made products of the two sisters were very beautiful! Socks, slippers, carpets, seating pads, etc. out of sheep wool, which by the way is also produced in the area. We could see at different places the sheep wool hanging outside of the houses. The two friendly and funny sisters even showed us the loom where they produce by hand their products.

We continued happily with some slippers, socks and a small carpet.

August 14^th 2021

Kosiv – Terebletsche, Ukraine

Miles: 80

Miles total: 2’840

A huge market was going on in the village we stayed!

Everything got offered across a huge area! Clothes, shoes, tools of any kind, furniture, food, car spare parts, washing machines, lawn mewers and much more! We just went for the bread, chillies and honey :-).

Then once again a wonderful experience in the Ukraine. A man was knocking on our door when we quickly stopped at a parking near the heavily trafficked main road. He gave us some cucumbers from his yard and some spicy self-made sauce, and mentioned that he was already once in beautiful Switzerland when he was a truck driver. Such experiences are equally valid for a nice travel as beautiful hikes are :-).

We spent the last night in Ukraine that close to the border of Romania, that we could easily see the watch tower from the border control. We enjoyed the evening in the middle of sunflowers. Then we got a bit confused when a Landrover passed by and two friendly men got out of the car 50 yards (50m) away from us with riffles in their hand. They left again 10 minutes after. Later in the evening we heard a few riffle shots. Probably they went hunting for some animals.

But a really nice final evening of our wonderful Ukrainian trip.