Cycling in Central Ukraine 2. Taras Schevchenko Places

[dmytro_goncharenko]

Date: 16-17, April 2016. (2 days)
Distance: 170 Km (around 106 miles)
Longest distance per day: 95km (59 miles)
Participants: 2 persons



http://routebuilder.org/1pru

We have met this figure just after start of the trip. It was part of the wooden sculpture group near the entrance to the forest road.



As for me it looks like a pre-christian idol or just a depressive mushroom.

The places to visit:

Besides cute spring nature and surprisingly good and empty roads – there are two places to visit in this area: Moryntsi village, where is  Taras Shevchenko was born. His poetry was inspired by this place, its quite energy and he  have lost his virginity somewhere around in his 13, which is indirectly mentioned in one of his poems.

Open air museum in Moryntsi village.

The fact is that this type of building are super eco-friendly and they were naturally integrated in to landscape.  A kind of local Feng Shui.



Traditional Ukrainian home “Khata”.



Due to short trip time – all my bike bags and backpack were half-empty. The custom frame bag was constructed by me and I considered it like 80% successful. There are few improvements needed, such as one one more additional mounting point and smartphone pocket depth .



Camp before Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi.  We have used light tent (1.2kg) as a part of lightweight bike touring.

Also we have successfully tested dehydrated hiking food manufactured in Ukraine. It keeps national cuisine taste.



Ros River


A palace of the family of Lopukhinykh-Demydovykh in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi.



Old, almost abandoned exhibition of old army equipment near palace of the family of Lopukhinykh-Demydovykh. This one is one of the first Soviet jet planes (1955).



Conclusion:

Central Ukraine remains a kind of “terra incognita” for hiking/cycling tourist. I’m not sure if there is some sense to come here just with tourist reason, but is you are already in Ukraine and have some time – there is sense for bike touring.

Note:

• Use your MTB/hardtail bike instead of road bike. Roads surface can be on horrible level and looks like a moon surface. At the same time – almost all the roads during this trip was normal and has almost no traffic.
  

• There is no much English-speaking people in villages,  but you can try to talk nerdy young people in cities. Ukraine is country of IT outsource, just lookup for coders around you.
  

• You can take your bike to local trains, but there is no place for bike in a buses.
  

• It’s quite safety in a village area, during years of hiking/cycling I had no one incident. At the same time – avoid placing your tent inside of city parks.