Update: Sat 19:45

Friday, 07 October

More breakfast confusion as there appeared to be a buffet spread (somewhat lacking in bread) and eventually a waitress appeared and asked if I wanted tea or coffee. I ate what I could sort of hoping that some cooked thing might appear but not so, it became apparent.

I then trotted round to see if I could pick up any Moldovan wine from a supermarket. I'd passed a wine shop but didn't go in as it was bound to be expensive. Eventually I found a supermarket where the wine was priced at 26Lei. Bejesus, that's expensive! I thought, before remembering the exchange rate.

So I popped back to the wine shop and the man (who spoke excellent English as have most people I've interacted with in Moldova) explained that they've really only recently got into making decent wine for export (rather than the muck they used to send to Russia). Now using the latest stainless steel vessels rather than "black metal" as used to be! Naturally he sold me a couple of his own winery's offerings at the outrageous rate of EUR6 a bottle!

I headed north via Old Orhei, "Moldova's most spectacular sight" (LP) which, without me trooping in, appeared to be some holes in the cliff face with a church on top. I declined to enter or even take a picture. It's got that bad.

Running north through Moldova was quite pleasant, slightly less vineyards up here and through fewer villages on the main road in the high 20s. A biker flagged me over and was over the moon to see a (bug splattered) overlanding biker and asked all sorts of questions that I couldn't understand a word of. He was very happy.

I rolled to a halt at the deserted looking Moldovan border crossing "supplied by EU grants" and we could have done with supplying some staff too I told no-one out loud. I eventually hollered my way round the inside to find a woman who told me to go on through, no stampy-stampy. OK.

The Ukrainians weren't being nearly so lax with these devilish Moldovans making us all go to four windows, each wanting both passport and vehicle documents (V5). A record! I have no idea what any of them did other than one was labelled customs.

That done I headed up into the Ukraine stopping for some fuel then stopping several times to attempt to find somewhere to eat and sleep. No food, not open, in the middle of busy towns with no obvious security for the bike I ended up driving 100km and two hours into the night before finding this place. It's in the process of being extended and there was no where to put the bike so it ended up being chained to some railings outside. The woman wanted to try to put it in the mechanics shop down the way but it would have been in their way when they started work in the morning (well before I emerged).

The service wasn't very good. I waited a while for my flattened chicken to appear (noting that a flattened chicken appeared on another table) but no sign. I suspect I was charged for it too but for GBP2 it wasn't worth creating a scene. They seemed to be setting up for a big do in the adjacent rooms. Maybe that's why they were distracted.

Currently at lat/long: n49 4.212 e25 52.847

Motel Orisya(?), Oriskivci(?), Ukraine

Saturday, 08 October

I asked for an omelette and got an omelette. Something must be wrong! I didn't get what turned out to be an espresso until I'd nearly choked on the (dry) bread they provided so it was something of a struggle in the end. It looks like a wedding do, I hope they get better service.

My suspicions about rain were confirmed as I went out to perform the daily re-inflating the rear ritual. It also appeared to be quite cold. It started at 8C and then got colder! It was 6C for an hour or so of rain and spray. Not the most fun I've had on this trip.

I topped up with fuel outside L'viv and then spent the journey to the border looking for an open cafe to spend the remaining Ukrainian ding-dongs on some hot drink. I was unsuccessful (nothing new there). In the meanwhile, the GPS first ran out of detailed maps (I need to download some more into it) then gave up the ghost in the rain. While it's raining my tank bag has a mostly opaque "shower cap" which means I can't read the map and so I was reduced to going old school and reading the road signs, trying to remember what the map had said, lucky guesses and a friendly local.

At least by the time I reached the border the rain had stopped and the sun had come out, temperatures reaching a balmy 14C. The crossing was relatively swift, the Poles doing the heavy lifting of being the EU frontier. There was a huge queue in the other direction, mind.

Poland successfully sold me a coffee (though no cake -- I miss Russia) and has bursts of hotels and motels. Eventually I stopped here when the sun was looking low on the horizon, around 5:15 local time.

I'll update this with a location when the GPS dries out and the buttons start working again. Currently the only button that works is the "on" button. It's the same button as the "off" button but the GPS doesn't respond to the second (or any subsequent) press.

Hotel Lord, nr Rzesnow (possibly), Poland