This was a very long day on the road, that is if you can call some of the cow paths we travelled on a road. Left at 8:30 am and didn't get back until 11:00 pm. For the first 2.5 hours we travelled west on a relatively good highway that's in the process of being four laned. Polish Volhynia is the area that became Polish territory in about 1922. The general state of the housing etc. appears to be slightly better than in Russian Volhynia, where we're staying, but still very primitive. The people in the rural areas appear to live a life not unlike what it was 100 years ago (except many have cell phones). But they ride around on horse drawn wagons, have pigs, chickens, geese, cows, etc. in their yards, and work small patches of land where they appear to grow mainly potatoes and pumpkins. We saw many in the fields digging potatoes by hand (see pic) and burning piles of the dried waste material. In fact the air quality in the region is quite poor on account of all the burning. Our quest today was to find the village and house that Martha (one of our tour members) was born in. From the info she had and could remember, we're about 90% sure we found it. But it looked like it had been recently burned down, so only the foundation and the clay brick oven was left. Very emotional for her. We rattled around on cobblestone roads, where we could only go less than 5 km/hr. Wherever possible we would take a cowpath in the sandy soil that had been worn parallel to the cobblestone, because it was smoother and we could make better time. Through Alex's map reading skill (his GPS didn't work well in the rural areas) and again by asking questions of the oldest people we could find, we eventually found two other villages of significance to Martha. One of the sad things here is that about 80% of the very fertile arable land that our German ancestors cleared is presently not being cultivated. It's completely covered with weeds (thistles etc.) and you can see where the forest is gradually encroaching on it again. If nothing changes, in 20 years this land will all be forest again. The reason for this is that when the Soviet Union collapsed around 1990, the collective farms ceased to operate, and the state owned land fell into disuse. You can see the derelict remains of many collective farms all over the country. Very interesting to see, but I think I've seen enough Ukrainian countryside now! Looking forward to our day in Zhytomer tomorrow.