SATURDAY 13th JUNE 2009 (CHERKASSY & FAMOUS 'URAL' RIDER)

SATURDAY 13th JUNE 2009


Our day began with an early morning phone call to say we must vacate the apartment by midday! Well that came as a surprise! We had almost settled in to down-town high-rised apartment living...!!!

We packed our bags and waited for Roman to come, the door-bell rang but it was the owner of the apartment. Bugger. We started loading up our backpacks but he indicated that we could wait in the apartment. Meanwhile, Roman was busy finding us another place to stay.

We were eventually taken to our second apartment where we had to wait for half-an-hour for the owner to arrive.

Once we settled in and gave Roman and Svetlana their presents from Tasmania we then wandered up the road to the local market. We were surprised they were closing so early - we didn't realise that it was nearly the end of the working day. Another day almost over and no motorcycle miles under our belt...!!!




We had 'lunch' at 6.00pm then walked to the 'Hill of Glory' dedicated to the end of WW2. Good view of the Dnipro River from here. This river freezes in winter (temperatures here get to minus 30 in winter) and cars and bikes drive out on to the river to fish in the small areas not frozen. The ice can be a meter thick!


We finally went to Igor's (our mechanic) to 'make inspection'. The ammo box has been fitted, the bolts checked, a carby replaced due to corroded seat, throttle cable replaced and electrical system checked. Igor is being very thorough as he does not want us to break down tooooo many times...!!!



Just as we thought we were going home we ended up waiting at a bar for a 'famous' Ural motorcycle rider who wants to meet us. Turns out famous is 'well known' and we were looking forward to meeting someone else with a genuine oldie. Weren't we surprised when a lime-green Ural chopper complete with painted skulls on tank rocked in...!!! Alexander and wife Marina were very nice people. We were soon joined by Bodya ROMANENKO on his 1953 Dnepr M-72 complete with German helmet, camouflage pants and leather cut-of. Certainly looked the part (straight out of the 1940's).




We eventually got back to our apartment and again collapsed in to sleep. How can you get so tired not riding...???