Ukraine

Day 127 Friday 5^th August 2011 

We did not prebook any hotels – our target today was set as Vinnytsia, a modest 450 kilometre ride  all to be made easier by Mark downloading Ukraine maps for his Tom Tom Sat Nav. We set off in the drizzle but this soon cleared to grey skies before opening out into sunshine and blue skies in the afternoon.

The day went well and none of the dreaded traffic cops stepped to stop us so our cunning plan of sticking to the speed limits has worked but the roads haven’t improved any overnight with one very  close encounter with a manhole that was devoid of its manhole cover – that would have been disasterous and further rams home why you shouldn’t ride at night in these places.

Mark’s Tom Tom navigation was spot on and we arribed in Vinnytsia at around 5pm (don’t know why we always arrive and leave in rush hour ! ).  We picked a hotel at random from the list provided on his device – the hotel Podilla – and we were taken by the wonders of modern technology to its doorstep where Mark booked us a room at the princely sum of around 500 grivna (about £35).

We had our evening meal – starters, main course and a couple of beers each – and were surprised to see that our bill for all that was 139 grivna (around £10 – that’s £5 each !) – so there you have it folks – good accommodation and food for under £30 each (breakfast included) – this may well be the place to come for a good holiday.

I managed to Skype Gina and caught up on things happening on the home front but ir won’t be too long now before I can give her a hug and a kiss – maybe a couple of weeks before we are home as we have made such good progress. Our plan for tomorrow is to head to Chernivsti which is close to the Romanian border and we will either stay there or cross into Romania and find something along the way down south towards the Transfaragasan highway which is our next sight that we want to see.