Chernobyl Challenge, day six, Pinsk to Gomel
Thursday 30th August 2007
No WiFi again so this is a back fill, which is ok. Did I mention falling out of bed in Siedlce? Well I did much to Dave's amusement, no sympathy that boy!
Hello, today we got serious, we all traveled as one from Pinsk to Gomel, all be it at speeds that did not suite everyone. Andy took the lead and we followed like disobedient puppy's. I stayed to his tail for dear life, my little girl will not do much over 90 without me getting worried so to stay close to the lead means it's easier, but, for the guys at he rear it is a far different story and one which today caused some concern. As I said the roads here are very rough and so high speed is not really what you want to do and that caused a rub. Dave 'T' and Mark tended to get “tail end Charlie” and as Dave said he was doing motorway speeds on dirt track's and felt agreevied, rightly so I feel. Anyway this brought about a very useful discussion which benefited all, so that was that. We did ride with some cohesion from then on, and at a more manageable pace.
Lunch was nice, at a roadside cafe, we think we saw a woodland wolf though there is some suspicion it may have been a skinny dog, whatever we saw it. At the next fuel stop we finally managed to coax Nattalia to get on the back of a machine (with Andy's consent of course). She loved it, much to Andy's disgust, she now wants him to get one! Lol we did. Fueling here is different, you say how much you want up front, pay, then fill. My poor little jerry cans got to be very full with the “can you get this in, I don't have room for the last bit”. Both Mike 'S' and I have had misfire issues and Dave 'T' has a backfiring BeMa, not sure how much is fuel related but the 92 is dodgey and the 80? well, no one has had the bottle to try it yet, but the 95 / 98 goes well. Water content unknown
Eventually we get to the first of the two children's home's, this one is for kid between 11 and 16 I think, they call them orphans but it would seem that they mean, in 57 of the 79 cases there, “social orphans” ie their parents are alcoholic's or just abusive, all of the children have mental / health issue's in varying degrees. We arrived to a standing ovation, children lined the drive cheering and clapping. After we parked up and got through the formalities the kids had bike rides posters and other gift's. Tim cracked it though, he had two prospective wives in the making, and the translator!
Grown men humbled by the attentions and enthusiasm of children, throat lumps a plenty, it is already worth the 1500 miles and bum ache!
Many photo's taken and the local news turned up to boot, brilliant.
From here Linda and two of the workers guided us through the labyrinth that is Gomel right to the hotel. Much better than last night, this one has HOT WATER. Turns out that Pinsk had not had hot water for three months. They have a community feed system so one out all out, wow!
Gomel is a reasonable city, what we have seen of it, as Mark pointed all we seem to do is drive to and from hotels, true, but then we could not have made the distances we have any other way. That said tomorrow is a late start so some of the guys are going walk about with Linda and the translator, Lads shopping, whatever next!
For now that is it, tomorrow the youngsters, then the Ukraine border and on to Kiev.
Tara a bit! M