The day of the tourist trouble.

This story is about one day of a 5-day trip around Ukraine with a bike that will be remembered forever.

It was in the summer of 2021, when my friend and I were touring the Kremenchuk Reservoir.

It was very hot that day, good weather for tourism. It didn't rain, but we had to carry things for rainy weather for all five days. We left for only five days, but we packed as if we were going around the world, each of us.

In fact, this is what happens when you travel autonomously. You take everything you need with you, and it doesn't matter if you're going for a month or a week, it's the same. When there is no infrastructure around, no shops, no restaurants, you can only rely on yourself and your luggage. Sometimes you need to take a lot of plain water in hot weather, and it doesn't matter how ultralight your bike is.

It is the same with things for rainy weather, even if it is not expected to rain, thunderstorms and rainstorms often happen in the summer. Short, but very powerful. So, it is better to take a waterproof jacket, a protective cover for your things, a tent or an awning.

You also need to have kitchen tools, a power bank for charging gadgets, sleeping bags, a first aid kit, and food. So no matter how much you lighten your stuff, it still has a volume and weight that you have to move around.

The first half of this day, we drove under the hot sun. In the afternoon, we had a break and had lunch, but even though we were traveling along the Dnipro River, it was not possible to swim. At this time of the year, the river is very dirty, algae blooms, and the water is covered with a thick, smelly, green layer. So if you go into this water, you will become even dirtier than you were before. But it happens that in places with a strong flow, the water is much cleaner.

Only on this day we have to travel across a large reservoir with almost no current, like a dead sea. In addition, we were blocked by high riverside and ravines, which prevented us from accessing water.

After lunch, it was still hot, but we were in a hurry to get on the road.

Every day we set up camp very late in the evening, it was uncomfortable. We planned the route in advance, and each day we had to drive the planned distance. Planning a route at home on the sofa is not the same as driving the planned route in reality. So we had to drive longer and stop for parking later. But every day we were lucky, looking for good places to camp, away from people.

That day, by noon, we had traveled about 50 kilometers. But there were more difficult 50 kilometers ahead.

It becomes harder to pedal in the afternoon. The sun is exhausting, your body loses a lot of hydration, and you get tired quickly. To catch up with time, we don't rest much, we move forward almost incessantly. In the second half of the day, we arrived in a village where there was a road on the map, but in fact there was no road, there was a swamp and bushes, we lost a lot of time and drove back. I was upset and angry, we had lost energy and time, so we needed to compensate for the lost time by driving faster and shorter rest stops. We had to get onto the highway, where the trucks that were moving close to the bicycle were wind-blown off the road by a wave of air. There was no bike path or dirt road nearby.

It was hard to fight with the cars because we were already tired and exhausted. We drove along the highway for some hours, trying to get past this section of road where the trucks were driving very close. When we achieve the turn from the highway, the sun was already starting to set. But we were no longer in a hurry, as we had made it most of the way in the last few hours. According to the map, it was not very long to the planned place of overnight stay, about 10 km.

So, very tired and hungry, we continued on through the village. We found a store and bought water and food to cook in the evening. We usually buy junk food to avoid wasting time cooking and always drink beer. Yes, it's beer that helps you refresh yourself. Directly after stopping for the night, there is no energy left to even put up a tent. So for the first half hour you just drink beer and can't even move, you feel like you're coming back to life.

On the way from the store, we were looking for a place to stay for the night, a place where we could swim and as far away from the road and people as possible. The sun was already setting, and the sunset was incredibly beautiful.

But we continued to drive on, the road going through a dam that split the river, with a river on one side and a swamp on the other, and no place to camp. Nightfall had already begun, and the dam did not end, instead of the expected 10 km, we overcame another 20 km from the store. That day, we traveled a total of 110 kilometers.

And finally, the dam ended on the left and there was a place near the water, on the shore, where you could stop. I really wanted to get into the water right away, sit in the water that was cooler than the air, wash off the sweat and dust. But that's not the end of the trouble, the day is not over yet.

So I went for a swim without a tent installed and my stuff. It was getting dark, and I was enjoying life in the water, but not for long. As soon as the sun went down, the heat promptly subsided, and large clouds of mosquitoes came out of the reeds to hunt. There were so many mosquitoes that by the time I got out of the water and quickly tried to set up the tent, I was simply eaten alive. Once in the tent, I was no longer happy that I had gone swimming first and then set up the tent, but there had never been so many mosquitoes as there were here.

Sitting in the tent, I could hear the buzz from clouds of mosquitoes, I didn't want to leave the tent to cook. I started eating cold sausages with beer and was surprised at the large number of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes must have wanted beer and sausages after a hot day, too.

But after 12 o'clock in the morning, when it got dark, there were much fewer mosquitoes. My friend and I came out of our tents and lit a fire to sit and talk, as is our tradition. After making tea, we sat by the fire, and the mosquitoes continued to attack us, but not so much. And near my tent, I noticed some movement, and when I directed the light in that direction, we saw that we had guests, it was a raccoon. And even then, I recognized that he would not let us sleep at night, but he was not the only one.

After falling asleep, I was woken up by a raccoon that was scrounging through our things, and it seemed that it wanted to get into the tent, where it smelled like the food I had left in the morning.

The raccoon did not let me sleep, so before I could sleep, I heard the sound of a motorcycle coming at night. It seemed like the devil's motorcycle was flying, it was roaring so hard. As it was later found out, the place where we were staying was a favorite spot for local poachers, who used to set up their hideouts here at night. So the poachers were driving at night without light, and they did not expect that there would be tourist tents in their place. I was very scared when they rode by my tent at high speed without lights. It was good that we set up our tents away from the trail, and it saved us from trouble. It seemed that the poachers were driving all night and I don't know if I could sleep until the morning.

The night was very stormy.

In the morning, after breakfast, we rode on, not having rested at night. We did not have the possibility to stay for a day and rest, we had to go home, about 200 kilometers, which we traveled over the next two days. But the next night we slept well, and it seemed to me that I had never slept so well on this trip.

The lesson I learned on this trip is very useful.

Never plan a trip without leaving a little time for trouble. And it's better to have one day to reserve.