Day 14

We had breakfast in the company of a South African couple and a Scotsman who lived in Poland. They were fascinated by our tour and the experiences we've already had; they also were informative about life after communism and how the Ukraine used to be part of Poland until after WW2 when it was given over to Russia.

The Ukraine is the probably the poorest country we've visited so far. As we left Lviv and travelled south the agriculture became less intense and we saw more individuals and couples working the land. The haystacks in the fields are how I assume they have always been harvested and stored. We've seen men using scythes to cut the crops and load it onto small carts pulled by horses. None of the huge modern equipment we seen on fields and passed on the roads in other countries. The preferred mode of transport seems to be horse and cart, we have seen very few cars and no motorbikes yet.

We have navigated ourselves here today with a little help from a man in a petrol station who marked where we were on a map. Once we came came off the main road all Tarmac seemed to disappear and the roads were rutted and full of enormous potholes! After Colin head butted me as we hit one very large one, for the first time ever I actually held on to the bike and braced myself as far back on the bike as possible do as to avoid injury to either of us!

Once again we got close to the hotel but after taking 3 wrong roads we asked a man in a street market stall who smiled and pointed to the right. I misunderstood him and we turned right only to realise we were wrong again so this time stopped and asked a car park guard; he was trying to explain when a woman stopped her car and when she found out where we wanted gestured for me to get in the car and Colin to follow; however she took off at such a pace I was worried he would lose us! We ended up yards from where the street man had said! The hotel front was being refurbished and that was why there wasn't any signs to indicate it's name.

We have had nothing but kindness and help from every-one we've encountered, not just in the Ukraine but in every country so far. The waitress in the hotel restaurant was so apologetic because she only had limited English- we've no Ukrainian but she felt it looked bad on the hotel because we all struggled to communicate.

I've sat and chilled out in the gardens and Colin has been asleep in the room; riding in the heat and having to concentrate so hard is very tiring .

Where we are in Polyana was established as a spa town, we were encouraged to sample the mineral water; it was just like tasting the sea, we were then told only to have the smallest sips in a glass of normal water until we got used to it- thankfully we're only here for 1 day and I don't have to get used to it!

The small hamlets we drove through to get here are probably a lot truer reflection of the lives of the majority of the population.