Chernobyl challenge Day Five Siedlce to Pinsk
29 August 2007
This blog will not surface on the day it is written, there is no Wi Fi see! We are in Pinsk, Belarus. The weather has been good to us so far and today is no different, fine sunny but not so warm today. The weather is getting cooler a we move East, just as you would expect really. Today is just like an autumn day, about 17c and sunny.
We left Poland as we had planned, once we had got our bearings in Sedlce, both groups got into a similar mess but managed to get it sorted so away we run. Boring, in many ways it was, but the roads were clearer and a little better to ride on. John 'G' was low on fuel so we pulled over to use the fuel in one of the reserve can's, just as we finished someone noticed that we were on the opposite side and some 50 or so yards from a fuel station mmmm! Not so bad though it turns out they only sold LPG gas. As arranged we met the fast boy's, Dave 'K' was a voluntary associate slow member today, at a road side cafe before the border. They had some old aircraft on display an old MIG and a couple more. Tim did try to get in the MIG and broke the hatch! On to the border, how much we appreciate Nattalia she is an angel to us. How many different places did we need for a stamp, how old is the bike, stamp, what have you got to declare, stamp, insurance 2 Euro, stamp, is the bike in your name, stamp, how much money are you bringing in, stamp! Five in all but not from one place, we walked........ oooh.... yard's. But, did we whinge....................of course, and got a bit worried when Tim was taken to a little office? Nattalia sorted him out though, thankfully.
We were through in 2 ½ hours which is quite a feat we are told for a group of twelve folk.
For those who may wish to come to the East it is worth knowing that as a UK passport holder you can by-pas the red tape and go to the front of the queue legally!
The next stop was Brest Fort wonderfully place but we passed a steam engine museum and they wouldn't stop , not fair that! The fort is worth a visit for sure, Andy left us there to fetch Natalia's son, the whole family came back with him, fantastic. Silly sod thought he had lost his keys, now't new there I have done it before, this time I had Mike's, Tims and my helmets locked to my bike. STRESS, but they were found in my jacket of many pockets only after I had been back to the cafe though. I don't know, one sheep, is all it takes.
We finally arrived in Pinsk, a long and boring drive. The country is flat with trees, lots of trees. When we stopped for a break two local lads were trying to jump start an old MZ with no success, but commendable effort though. We had earlier been detoured over a field to avoid an accident site, the trail bikes were fine but the Be Ma and the blackbirds had fun getting up a grass bank back on to the road.
Pinsk is a sorry town trying very hard to recover, in places it is looking good but generally suffering from a serious lack of money. The hotel is reminiscent of “The shinning” scary!
Freaky really, as I write this Dave switched the TV over and “The shinning” is being shown, in Russian!
Tomorrow we go to Gomel and meet the kids, and we are told, the local biker club want to meet up for a yarn. Lets just see eh.