4-Xtremes – Part 32: between bureaucracy and beauty

Just thinking of films from the Soviet era conjures up all sort of terrifyingly hostile scenes of espionage. And so it’s no wonder that Ukraine is not necessarily high up on the list of top tourist destinations. But who would have thought that the country had so much to offer?

More on that shortly, but let’s first go back to Moldova, from where we – equipped with our Romanian corona test result – wanted to cross the next border. With Ukraine firmly in our sights, Moldova was intended merely as a transit country for us. Between Moldova and Ukraine lies the independent, yet officially unrecognised state of Transnistria. Passing via this state is the most direct and shortest route into Ukraine. Every other route on Moldavian soil would have meant covering many more miles.

No local currency. No entry.

We had already passed the border checks into this unrecognised republic and the entry formalities were sorted. All that was left was for us to pay the toll charges – and that’s exactly where we came unstuck. As we had crossed Moldova without stopping, we didn’t have any of the local currency. The border force don’t accept credit cards, US dollars or Romanian lei. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would need to turn around and take the long-winded route through Moldova.

Then, when we finally crossed into Ukraine, we experienced the next bureaucratic hurdle: among the formalities was the download of an app and the requirement to conduct an antigen test in the country within 72 hours. Everything is subject to a very strict procedure here: the tests can only be carried out in specific, certified laboratories which then, in turn, would approve us in the app on behalf of the state so that we could move freely within the country. This was somewhat reminiscent of the Soviet era.

Romantic camp-fire atmosphere with home-made borscht.

Interestingly, Ukraine has several deserts. One of them is the Oleshky Sands desert which covers an impressive 160 square kilometres. The majority of it is used by the military, but in the south there is a nature reserve. This was our next stop and we were able to spend the night in the dunes, where we made our own borscht over the camp-fire. This dish is a traditional eastern European soup made with beetroot and white cabbage.

And who knows, maybe beetroot was even partly responsible for creating the next destination on our route: the Syvash – a pink-coloured lake! If all of the factors are right – temperature, incident sunlight and salt content – the beta-carotine of a specific green algae turns the lake pink, which makes for a truly unbelievable sight! At the other end of the Syvash is Crimea, whose border runs right through the body of water. The lake is comparably flat and has a very high salt content, which means that – just like in the Dead Sea – it’s virtually impossible to sink. We decided to take two days for ourselves and literally let ourselves be carried away.

The next morning, we were out walking Aimée and bumped into one of the archaeologists. He told us he would happily show us some of the petroglyphs before the park opened for the day. As he couldn’t speak English and we don’t speak Ukrainian, he tried to explain the petroglyphs using pantomimes. From a distance, it must have looked quite amusing and we unfortunately only understood half of it! But it’s precisely this type of unexpected encounter that makes our journeys so worthwhile!

We were now parked on the banks of the immense Dnieper River where we decided to take a break. Sometimes, it’s only when we write up our reports that we actually realise just how much we have experienced along the way. And we can now confirm that Ukraine has so much to offer and is not as grey, dreary and inhospitable as you might think.

Photos: 4-Xtremes