Ukraine, country of wonderful underground world and kind locals
We had an idea to climb on the highest European mountain two years ago, when we were returning from Mont Blanc. And year after year three members of the team were still interested and we started planning and joining the team. And then I got the happy news that I was pregnant and it was clear that I have to abandon that thought. And after that came even bigger surprise – they decided to reschedule the trip. I took organization into my own hands and we started collecting money. A few changes were made in this year and the group slightly changed. But something didn’t change – I was still the only woman with 6 men. But that didn’t matter, I’m used to that in this sport.
Starting the trip
Usually I don’t plan every day of the trip, but this time I did. Everyone in the team were a lot older than me and there were people who wanted to know where they’ll be in each day. It was also clear that there’ll be some changes. With a van, that we got for free, we travelled through Hungary towards Ukraine. Soon after crossing the border, the nightmare started. Streets had a lot of holes, had no asphalt, were badly lit even in towns, badly marked and in Cyrillic alphabet. We would quickly be lost without the navigation. But we continued with the drive through the night and in the morning and reached our first goal, Ukrainian speleologists.
Ukrainian Caves
Ukraine is big, so it is wealthy on one side and very poor on the other side. The country is mostly flat and full of labyrinths in the underground. Ukrainian caves are something special for us, speleologists. They are different, are not deep, they are pretty dry, with almost no dripstones. But they have crystals and huge labyrinths. Tunnels aren’t logically connected so it’s very easy to get lost. Speleology is very well developed in Ukraine. Besides exploring in their own country, Ukrainian speleologists discover caves outside their border. One of popular points are definitely Caucasus Mountains, where Ukrainian speleologists dropped 2080 metres deep. They set a new record with the deepest cave in the world named Krubera or Voronya. Ukrainian caves are also very interesting. Their history is known all around the world. They used to live in caves and hide Jews in World War II.
Visiting Mlynky Cave
When we arrived to the remote places, we couldn’t even rely on navigation. We drove on very bad macadam roads with high grass in the middle, between poor wooden houses with chickens, goats and sheep with horse yoke instead of cars. On these roads we met children and with some problems we finally communicated and we reached the speleologists. We soon realized that these children will also be our guides through the cave and that they have their own leader, called Papa. He was an older, kind man, who was definitely one of the most hospitable people on our trip. The time stopped there. At first that was weird for us, as we rushed to get there. But you could get used to that. You don’t have to rush, no one looks at the watch, there’s no schedule to go to the cave, to the dinner... Everything is spontaneous and everything worked out fine in the end. When we were full, well rested, we finally started moving towards the cave. A few children, Papa and our team were soon in narrow cave tunnels that look like a big labyrinth. Somewhere the tunnels were narrow, the ceilings were low and the locals had no helmets, only bandanas and lights. But this is the habit. They say that if you hit yourself once, you become so careful it never happens again. Narrow and low walls are decorated by different crystals. We had to take special care of crystals, they are fragile and we could damage one by accident. We followed our leaders without thinking and no one looked where we came from or where we’re going. But when we turned around and Papa said that I can lead, I immediately turned in the wrong tunnel. That’s a proof that you can get lost in a moment if you don’t know this cave well enough. After three hours of wandering through the underground tunnels, we came back to the same point through different tunnels. I couldn’t even imagine that the locals can be so open and kind. We had some problems communicating but luckily three people in our team knew how to speak Russian and we could talk to Papa. They made us dinner, which turned into a party. Yes, these Ukrainians are really different. They drank all night, even children who were 14 years old or more. This is not weird for them.
From the caves past tunnel of love to Kiev and ghost city
The male part of the team mocked me, when I insisted to visit the tunnel of love. But when we were there, everyone happily sang with the local who was dressed in traditional clothes, played the harmonica and sang the same line over and over again. The freight train still drives through this tunnel three times a day. But what is interesting is that the tunnel is encased with deciduous which formed a tunnel. Here we were walking on the rails and thought about the legend that is the reason to visit this tunnel. The legend says that a wish will be granted if you manage to walk through a tunnel and if your purposes are honest. But because we call it the tunnel of love, the wish will come true only if it concerns a couple in love. No one was complaining when I planned a sightseeing of the capital city. It wouldn’t make sense to just drive past the great city of Kiev, which many call “mother of Russian cities”. The city is full of attractions but the main square is in deep sorrow because of the protests in year 2014. And visiting Chernobyl showed us that there is even more sadness in Ukraine. The reality of Ukraine isn’t any less sad, as there is war on the south. We visited places, which were completely safe, but it is surprising that the residents know less about war than we, in Slovenia.
We left Ukraine with positive experience. Even though people on the countryside are poor, they seem very happy. What is special is their slow pace of life and joy while socialising. We felt at home and we would love to stay another day or two. But the highest mountain of Europe was calling us and we had to continue our trip.
