Last night's stopover was - as hoped for - functional and uneventful.
Making our way towards the Ukraine-Poland border this morning we came upon something quite remarkable. We drove into a small town and, upon rounding a corner, found ourselves at the back of a queue of stationary traffic. We were immediately struck by the fact that all vehicle occupants were out of their cars and vans and standing with heads bowed. It also immediately struck that everyone else in sight, from kids to old ladies, were also standing still, again, with heads bowed.
I immediately cut the engine and upon doing so, we could hear music being broadcast over the town's PA system. It was clear we were amongst something so Emma compliantly jumped out of the cab whilst I made good the truck to do the same. As I was doing so the music stopped and everyone then resumed their business.
It turned out we'd chanced upon a daily ritual of one minute's silence to remember those lost in the war. It was an extremely powerful thing to witness.
It's been clear to us as we've passed through three of the much less directly troubled regions of the country that there is a palpable dignity, morality and resilience evident, which we find both moving and improbable. Being amongst this gives real perspective and it may not hurt those in the privileged West who habitually whinge about trivia to come and have a look. This is not a country that's rolling over. It clearly has a vision for its own self-determined future. The spirit of Ukraine was perhaps first writ large in the events of the very early days at Snake Island.
In spite of its risible misinformation and bravado, I imagine the Kremlin shuffles uncomfortably.
The border crossing itself was predictably both tedious and chaotic. It took just over two hours and wasn't helped by the fact that a sniffer dog on the Ukraine side indicated on one of the truck's outside lockers. All that was in there (and ever has been) were a few tools and lubricants. A very close examination followed but - quite rightly - resulted in no further action or cause for concern. The whole thing was a bit of a mystery, especially as a sniffer dog on the Polish side totally ignored the very same locker.
To Poland, then. First port of call was the Bieszczady National Park, a place I've known about for decades and which Emma had separately identified as a must-see. It's vast and is known to support all the big predators, as well as countless rare bird species, plus much more in the way of natural history interest.
Well, I have no doubt it does, but it turns out the park is so tightly controlled that accessing any of the more noteworthy flora and fauna is virtually impossible. Parking is controlled and charged, motorcaravans are only allowed to stay in designated areas, it's prohibited to walk or bike anywhere other than on public roads or permitted trails, and to access said walking trails tourists are kettled through turnstiles... and made to pay.
Fair to say the only bits of the actual park it's possible to access, then, are essentially people super-highways and so the chances of seeing anything unusual or rare are virtually zero.
What a disappointment! Of course, we completely back the preservation philosophy but baulk at the cynical cash-spinning manipulation. It would be far more ingenuous, and effective in preservation terms, to simply prohibit all recreational human access.
We really had no stomach to fight for a parking space and then join a conga-line of people lollygagging at the sterile, so pointed the truck west and left. But all was not lost! Just outside the park's formal perimeter we were able to park without restriction, and so did. We then made a recce on the bikes and - as such an exercise often does - this came up trumps and we discovered the non-prohibited forest track we're now parked alongside for the evening.
We're undoubtedly still well in the thick of things and though we've seen nothing noteworthy yet, the camera is set and we're going to explore further in the morning.
Post composed at 22:40 on Thursday 14th August from our intended overnighting spot N 49.18315°, E 22.61709° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:49.18315%2C22.61709