Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

[Putts]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Russia is a totally different kettle of fish, Russians would have much less compunction about locking up foreigners doing semi-dodgy shit. But this wasnt Russia - this was Ukraine.

AD-fucking-Venture! You has it. Rock on.

[DaveyDave]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Sadly no Dave. It was late afternoon. As you saw from early day 3 pics we got a lot of go pro footage in the morning - the battery was dead by lunchtime.

That's a shame. Didn't think you'd pass up the chance to upload a couple if you did have them though.

[motoreiter]

Great wedding pictures, but where was Borat?

[GB]

Please respect the posted rules in Ride Reports and let Walter tell his story as he sees it. Links and discussion around the russian female rider's site have been removed. (This has been a topic of discussion on ADV previously and many contend that it's mostly a hoax, but this isn't the place to discuss it..)

Onwards with this extreme ADVenture

[Colebatch]

We decided to stay in Kiev an extra 24 hours. We were in no rush as we had to wait for Terry's replacement shock to be built and sent to Sumy. And there was something that needed to be welded. I cant remember what it was, but we had time in Kiev, so we might as well sort every niggle,

A biker rode passed us in front of our hotel and we waved him down. We were counting on the bikers help bikers mentality that prevails in the former Soviet Union. Sure enough, the guy that stopped not only offered to help us by taking us to an alloy welder, but then offered to help Terry with his paperwork for the shock import and invited us back to his tattoo parlour for a drink and a chat.

[Colebatch]

I planned to leave Kiev in the late afternoon, just cover about 100 km ... so we had time to kill.

We went to the beach in the middle of the Dnipro river ... at a place called Hydropark ... to relax and take a nap.



But for some reason we couldnt sleep soundly:









Eventually we got going and cruised on some forest trails to a small fuel station / hotel / restaurant about 100 km from Kiev.

[dave6253]

Awesome! Especially the last post.

[bwalsh]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

The Ukrainian government sells permission for tour groups to enter the exclusion zone and visit the actual reactor site.

I remember RTWDoug's trip, what, two years ago(?) where he took the tour, noticed an abandoned sidecar in an old cycle shop and was trying to figure out how to get it home!

Great RR Walter!

[GSlite]

Great stuff so far

[achesley]

Darn guy, I didn't know you were into astrology. Lots of heavenly bodies about the area.

[C-Stain]

Originally Posted by GSlite

Great stuff so far

[acesandeights]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

...
But for some reason we couldnt sleep soundly:



...

I think my RR would have stopped right here. All of my next posts would have been from my new home wherever they grow women like this.

[duibhceK]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

I planned to leave Kiev in the late afternoon, just cover about 100 km ... so we had time to kill.

We went to the beach in the middle of the Dnipro river ... at a place called Hydropark ... to relax and take a nap.

So that's what it looks like in summer. Must say, a big improvement over winter, with the river frozen and the only people around being lads sitting on the ice next to their fishing hole.

great RR so far, keep it coming.

[Johnnyboxer]

Late to this, but looking forward to reading it, on these dark winter nights by the fire

[freefallen]

Storm Sandy left me without power for 5 days in New Jersey. I fell behind.
Anyways... you refreshed my memories. I used to live in Homyel, 100 km from Chernobyl. The Chernobyl's accident was the reason I left everything, grabbed my family and moved to east Russia, Tatarstan to be precise, the land of Chinggis Khan. After 2 years living there, we immigrated to US.

Thank you, Walter, for bringing up the memories even though those years weren't pleasant ones.