Photo Album Now Ready!

If you click on this link

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/collingwood6/BatteredHumanityCycleTour200802?authkey=EXsuOtXinlc

It will take you to an album of 60 photos from my the tour

Donetsk: New and Old

Donetsk: Ukraines foremost hotel The Donbass Palace

Donetsk My favourite office block of all time

Its a long road that has no turning

Halfway to Ukraine 200km board

Every kilometre on the road out of Volgograd is marked with a kilometre board. The steppe is so flat and the road so straight you can see the next kilometre board quite clearly even with road shimmering in the heat.

Guarding the Eternal Flame

Mamaev Gurgan

The Start - Mamaev Gurgan

I have returned!

I am now back after the trip and arrived home on Sunday at 4pm.
It all went really well and I have 100s of photos and lot of notes that will be made in to a website.
Over the next few days I will get some photos up on the blog.
My thanks to all those who followed the trip.

Kiev and Lyvov

Hi

Those following on the Findme Spot will know I was in Kiev yesterday and in Lyvov today hve used overnight trains to move me on which are very cheap but not the sleeper to London very enjoyable and you get a bed for the night.

Kiev is a wonderful city Lyvov is absolutely magic a mix of many things a pre war middle european city with a perfect medieval square in the old town that could be from Florence.

Terrible history in WWII whole jewish population perished in the region of 200,000

Start bicycling again tomorrow

So will amend Spot message

Regards

Len

Saturday 16th Donetsk

Hello

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh what a great journey, Volgograd marvellous!

Southern Russian steppes very very hot, roads wretched - though flat for 100s and 100s of kilometre like a giant East Anglia with little water so from Volgograd to Ukraine a tough trail riding 10 hours plus need 12 -16 litres of fluid a day minimum carrying water for overnight camps washed in gassy mineral water all had to be bought when I could,

Roads in Ukraine better still very hot though giant hills! Too much riding (ambitious on my part) not enough sight seeing, so change of plan will get overnight train from here to Kiev and then on to Lyvov then start riding again picking up the campsites and hotels in Poland,

Which will allow me to see what I want to see

Len

On to Berlin and the end of my tour at the Reichstag

One of the most famous Soviet Propaganda images of World War II

The Germans trapped in the basement of the Reichstag finally surrendered and on the morning of May 2, 1945 they left the building under a White Flag. It was on this same day, while the German’s surrendered below, Khaldei the photographer and some men found their way to the slippery blood soaked roof and posed what would become one of the most famous pictures of World War II, the raising of red Hammer and Sickle above the Reichstag.

The soldiers in the image were chosen for political reasons. Meliton Kantaria to hold the flag and supporting Kantaria is Mikhail Yegorov. Kantaria, a Georgian sergeant, was picked to please Stalin who himself was from Georgia and Yegorov a Russian fighter represented the motherland.

Less than 12 hours and I am away

I fly to Gatwick from Glasgow at 9am tomorrow with Easy Jet, then on to Kaliningrad with KD Avia late afternoon then with KD Avia to Volgograd arriving 3.30am on Friday morning.

I am two nights at the Octoberskaya Hotel described by two reviewers as the worst hotel they had ever stayed. (photos to follow) (It was the cheapest I could find!)

Big tour of Volgograd (Stalingrad) on Saturday.

Early start on Sunday Photo' Opp at Mamaev Gurgan the massive monument to the battle of Stalingrad pictured above.

The Final Wrap and a Strong Handle

My bike bubble wrapped to go by air

This is the bike taken apart wheels off chain off derailleur off, cranks off, pedals off all held together by cable ties then cardboard around the sharp edges and then yards of bubble wrap.
It is now ready to be wrapped in thick plastic sheet and a handle created to go as baggage with Easy Jet and KD Avia

This tool took it apart and will put it back together

Death of Alexander Solzenitsyn

Amidst all my preparations for my journey.

I was sad to hear of the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn a favourite author. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was an absolute revelation when published in the west. A man of great integrity his novels Cancer Ward and The First Circle ooze a marvellous warmth and humanity, totally at odds with modern times and thought.

Problems in Western Ukraine - Floods etc

As a result of torrential rains and gale-force winds on 23-27 July 2008, five regions in the western part of Ukraine have been flooded. The affected areas are: Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Transcarpathian and Lyiv regions. Due to severe weather conditions 301 settlements in the affected area have been cut off from electricity supply and telephone communication. The floods damaged a large number of bridges and 212.5 km of the highways have been washed away. A total of 7,000 people have been evacuated from flooded settlements. Rescuers and local authorities are organising supplies of drinking water and food for people in the flooded area.

As you can see it cuts right across my route so I am hoping that by the time I reach there around the 20th August I will be able to cross the area.

Volgograd to Berlin Distances and Accumulated Distance

No	Place Name	Notes	Distance Kilometres	Accumulated Distance
1	Volgograd	Start: Mamaev Kurgan	000	0000
2	Kalach du Don		075	0075
3	Morozovsk		128	0203
4	Junction M4 & M21		134	0337
5	Krasnodon	Entered Ukraine	067	0404
6	Anthracit	Donetsk Basin	054	0458
7	Donetsk		100	0558
8	Dnepropetrovsk		239	0797
9	Verknedneprovsk	Following the Dneiper	060	0857
10	Kremenchug		084	0941
11	Cherkassy		113	1054
12	Kanev		056	1110
13	Ukrainka		065	1175
14	Kiev		040	1215
15	Zhitomir	Halfway	136	1351
16	Baranovka		077	1428
17	Ostrog		080	1508
18	Kremencs		070	1578
19	Lyvov		140	1718
20	Prezemysl	Entered Poland	094	1812
21	Stryzyzow		080	1892
22	Tarnow		067	1959
22	Krakow		080	2039
23	Auschwitz		065	2104
24	Katowice		040	2154
25	Opole		091	2245
26	Wroclaw		084	2325
27	Gorlitz	Entered Germany	164	2489
28	Dresden		093	2586
29	Luckau		095	2683
30	Berlin	Finish: Reichstag	080	2763

Volgograd to Berlin on Google Earth

Click this to see the full route

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&ie=UTF8&msid=117600224896336519995.0004533ded549d8678e53&ll=58.263287,6.679688&spn=97.841772,225&z=2

Cycle route across the Ukraine

WHY ?

Battered Humanity Cycle Tour

Volgograd to Berlin - 2008

Russia: Stalingrad (Volgograd) - Kalach du Don

Ukraine: Lugansk - Donetsk - Dnepropetsk - Cherkasy - Kiev - Babi Yar - Lyvov

Poland: Przemysl - Krakow - Auschwitz - Katowice - Wroclaw

Germany: Gorlitz - Dresden - Berlin

Definitions

Battered

1. To hit heavily and repeatedly with violent blows.

2. To subject to repeated beatings or physical abuse.

3. To damage, as by heavy wear.

Humanity

1. Humans considered as a group; the human race.

2. The condition or quality of being human.

3. The quality of being humane; benevolence.

4. A humane characteristic, attribute, or act.

The idea for this journey arrived in my mind some years ago through my long interest in twentieth century history, particularly the conflict between Germany and Russia from June 1941 to May 9^th 1945 known in the West as the Eastern Front and to the Russians as the Great Patriotic War.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the archives which allowed professional historians to look again at these event again. Much has been revealed regarding the brutal conduct of the Soviet Army during this period towards its enemies, the civil population of the countries it conquered and towards its own soldiers. The achievement of its armed forces in defeating Hitlers Germany given their terrible suffering is even more remarkable.

I couldn’t quite understand initially why I wanted to do this trip and to this moment I often feel my explanation to others and to myself is not fully adequate.

I was moved along in my thinking by the poem "Church Going" by Philip Larkin

"Since somebody will always be surprising

A hunger in himself to be more serious

And gravitating with it to this ground

He once heard was so proper to grow wise in

If only that so many dead lie round"

The area I will cycle through was the "centre of gravity " for
the war in Europe as the area was conquered and reconquered
by the armies of  two dictators
and  created a truly staggering loss of life.

Western Belarus and Ukraine and Eastern Poland with long established
Jewish communities were subject to the most intense warfare,
the worst civilian horrors, deportations, German and Soviet
occupation and the scourging of the Holocaust.

The Ukraine lost the greatest number of its civilian population of any country in Europe.

Belarus lost the highest proportion of its civilian population

The journey was always going to be Stalingrad (now Volgograd) to Berlin.

It was going to be a walk ( Would have took too long – so no)

By train as it was in keeping with how humanity was moved around, both armies used trains and Auschwitz was deliberately sited at a major railway junction (decided it would not require sufficient physical effort on my part – so no)

On an elderly Royal Enfield motorcycle (It would have required a far longer journey to cover the ground riding there then riding back, again not sufficient effort on my part and overall would have taken longer than the cycle ride - so no again.