Fixies and set-sail
After the experiences in Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) it was refreshing to arrive in the Ukraine. I crossed the border around half past seven. From here on I had a clear path till Odessa. My plan is to sail from here to Georgia, from where I will travel trough Armenia to Iran.
This route actually is radically different from the route other travellers used in their journey to the East. Also in times of Ármin Vámbéry the usual route was trough Turkey to the East, and this custom is used till the present day. My objective is to leave traditional routed behind, and this will be seen during the whole length of the expedition. My aim is to discover new places. Places which were visited only by a handful of Europeans.
Getting a ticket to the ferry was not as easy as in 2008, when I travelled, together with my friend Krisztián, from Odessa to Istanbul with UKRFERRY sailing company. That time we just went to the docks and everything was sorted out. For this trip I had to find the office of the company, which is located in a hard-to-find street; get my 50kg heavy bike up on the 1st floor; pay for and get the ferry ticket. But the launch is not from Odessa, but from Illichivsk. I had to get my boarding card from the office in Illichivsk, which is 2km from the port.
I was searching for a stay in Odessa, but I was not keen on paying 15EUR for a 1,5mx2m size hole when I got the seacoast for camping. At the Potemkin Stairs in Odessa I met the local fixie group. They took me to a place just 5km outside Odessa; I camped there that night, next to the Black Sea.
The next morning I had strong headwind and arrived 1,5h later at the Illichivsk office as planned. The ferry company already tried to call me from Odessa to ask where I have been, if I was lost.
In the end everything turned out great; I didn’t missed the ferry; the Ukraine custom officers approved my bag of medicine, which I got from the Neopharm Lachesis pharmacy. They allowed me to enter the deck where I found a lot of cars and trucks already waiting for the sail.
I parked my bike next to them, and carried my bags up to the 4th floor, where my cabin was. Alfter 13 days, 1420km this was the moment I was able to rest a bit. But I did not stop entirely. I still had to wash my clothes, write my diary and get over the route in Georgia and Armenia.
The ferry sailed out on May 16 2013 from the port and with that similar to Ármin Vámbéry, I was sailing through the Black Sea.
Time passed fast on the ferry. On the first day the Sun set 19:21 (GMT+1), on the second day half an hour sooner. When we reached Georgia the sunset already had an hour difference as we gone through a time zone.
I got two acquaintances on the sail, the 18 year old German guy Robin and the 66 year old Rolf. Robin just graduated and decided to take a wandering trip to the Caucasus on his own, and Rolf, as he told me, is a well known TV celebrity in eastern Germany, is mostly known for his trips around the World in his Trabant. He took part on the Budapest-Bamako rally as well. Currently he is on his way to the Nepal, to the Nanga Parbat, in an 18 year old BMW. To keep us occupied we made bottle posts; placed leaflets in empty bottles and launched them into the Black Sea.
On May 18, Saturday, six o’clock in the afternoon, after 48h of sailing, we first saw the coastline of Georgia.
