SATURDAY 27th JUNE 2009 (IZMAIIL to RENI and BACK)

SATURDAY 27th JUNE 2009

We left the truckies 'take-your-life-into-your-own-hands' overnight stop and were happy to be on our way early. The bike was running okay (meaning we weren't stranded 500 metres from the starting point) and life actually seemed good. We were leaving Ukraine today and were looking forward to the next set of challenges (a lie!). It was only 65 kilometers to the border yet that took us nearly three hours. Yes, the bike is still slow but the next problem to face seemed to be the road conditions. It was ROUGH which slowed us down even further. It seemed this whole section of land was the drainage pond for all the mountains in Moldova and Romania - mile after mile of wetlands. The road looked liked it was probably submerged a lot of the time. Today, though, it was dry - just terribly bumpy. Paul was fighting the side-car as he had to man-handle every corner. 'The HORS' struggled on regardless. We were aiming for RENI and once in the township followed the signs to the border. Sometimes these were only very small arrows nailed to a tree, sometimes there was nothing. Why this was a problem for us was because the road deteriorated to something like a goat track (complete with goats!). It was only the occasional large transport truck coming in the opposite direction that we guessed we were on the right track. Good to see the local council has our safety in mind though.....we were traveling at about 10 kph on the good sections because it was SO rough and then we'd find 'SPEED HUMPS'. Bloody hell - wonder what they were there for...??? And to think this was the main 'ring-road' around Reni! Very hard to photograph the huge holes as impossible to take photos and hang-on at the same time...!!! Have only managed to photograph the 'smooth' sections...!!!

And there it was....our ticket to the OTHER SIDE...the border. We had to purchase a green card (for insurance purposes) and with that done we decided to have something to eat before continuing on in to Romania. Who knows what lurks on THAT side...???

As we were allowed through one gate and head towards the other a 'REPUBLICA MOLDOVA' sign appeared. What's that doing at the Romanian border...???

With our passports and technical documents duly presented we were told to wait outside. Luckily for us there were seats and shelter from the sun. Even the bike was parked in the shade and thought the rest would do 'The HORS' good. We waited and waited. Then the customs bloke went to the quarantine bloke. This has to be a good sign. Then the words you don't want to hear echoed out LOUD and CLEAR....."There is a problem".

It turns out we weren't heading into Romania at all...!!! We were entering MOLDOVA. WHAT...!!! We had two maps and both showed this road leaving Ukraine and entering Romania. We took this route deliberately to avoid Moldova and here we are - right where we didn't want to be...!!! And it took two days to get here.

We figured we'd be able to get around it somehow. Romania was 9 kilometers up the road. A nine kilometer stretch of road was between us and the rest of our trip/misadventure...!!! We waited and waited, tried more smiling, tried bluffing our way through....."come on mate, it's only 9 kays..." But to no avail. It seems the customs people weren't happy as we didn't have the correct 'Customs Declaration to Export' and neither did we have an entry Visa. That's because we weren't going to Moldova. SHIT. We waited and waited to no avail. We ended up chatting with a uniformed fellow from Portugal who was there on some kind of 'mission'. He spoke reasonable English and explained if we were from any other country, then probably no worries, something could be arranged. Because we were from Australia there were no reciprocal arrangements between the two countries to help numbskulls from Sandfly in such situations!

We didn't believe him (well we did but didn't want to) and continued to 'harass' the customs officer. Then we heard an American accent and gravitated to it like bees to honey. It was great to speak even one sentence to someone who understood EVERYTHING we said and vice-versa. He suggested we try bribing the officer - he reckons it usually works. It'll either work or we'll rot in a dirty Moldovan gaol for the next 20 years! For the sake of nine kilometers we decided to try it. We saw the officers face soften and thought this just might work, but then he shook his head and it was a definite 'NO'. There was no misinterpreting the message.

When my camera was brought out the guards got agitated and were right on to me to put it away. No photographs allowed. I only wanted to photograph a farmer tossing his hay on to a cart in the field behind Passport Control. I then managed to get the photo through the toilet window. THIS IS MOLDOVA...
There are many horse and carts in this area and much farm and crop work is manually done. We often saw many people in the fields with their hoes taking care of the weeds between the crop.


There was nothing for it than to head back to Izmaiil. Shit, it's only 60 kilometers but it may as well have been 600...!!! The customs bloke reckoned we had to go back to Odessa to get correct papers. The next thing we had to face was we were in 'no-mans land' between Ukraine and Moldova. We only had ONE entry visa to Ukraine and used that flying in to Kyiv. Will they let us back in...??? Turns out - no problem.

We trudged the rough road back to Izmaiil stopping half-way along to rest the bike - and ourselves. This is where it's lucky I don't have to write a chapter on 'how the side-car broke off the bike and speared off into the wheat field coming to rest against an abandoned cart left in the paddock...!!!' Paul did his regular nut-and-bolt check and found the sidecar bolts quite loose - the split pins hadn't been put back in. That was duly attended too...!!! We sat on our little stools and enjoyed the surrounds and worked through what our choices were. One plan that came to mind was to sneak across the Romanian border illegally on the fishing boats and continue our trip but after making enquiries it seems this practice has stopped. Maybe just as well - with our luck to date any number of things could've gone wrong. Would've been good to stick it up the border guards though!

Once back in Izmaiil we rode into the city centre and was pleasantly surprised with what we found. Quite a nice city with churches, statues, gardens, fountains, a large port area and huge entertainment-community areas. I found another stork nest with three young storks sitting atop. Not as spectacular as others I've seen with adult birds standing tall in massively huge nests balanced beautifully on top of power poles.

We found some accommodation with the all-important out-of-sight parking for the bike. After the truckies stop last night this was like heaven. We walked up the road to get a pizza for tea. Pizza shops are everywhere over here but that suits us okay. We ate then back to our lodging. We need to get away early tomorrow (back to Odessa) to beat the heat - or prevent the fuel from boiling too early in the trip...!!!