Waterfalls and Winches

When will it end? We leave Ivano-Frankivsk at a decent hour, and all fresh from the hotel we stayed in. Our goal today, find a way through the mountains to a nice waterfall to camp at. We motor south enjoy the cool air, it’s a slightly overcast day but that is fine, it only rains a little here and there. Arriving at Nadvirna we head to the ruins situated at a lovely park. Ruyiny Nadvirnyans’koho Zamku, Sadly I cant remember the era, I want to say the 1600’s? anyways, its ruins left of a castle, slowly decaying away to nothing, you can still go underneath in the tunnel for a look, but it is only a matter of time before it all collapses. Some ladies where there cleaning which was nice to see. There is a rubbish problem, but nothing like Turkey.

After we finish our walk, we head down the street to a small café and shop, coffeed up with some extra booze in the back for tonight its time to explore, The first road feel promising, but about 10km down we hit a gate that I cant open. But we do see a very cool timber frame house standing in the bush. Saddened we head back to the main road to try again, Well, first we stop at the river on the edge of the small town to relax for a minute, where an absolutely beyond understanding drunk comes and starts yelling, what is going on? Unsure if he is unhappy we are in his town, or just that drunk he doesn’t know what is going on, we give him a ciggy and he leaves, as do we. That’s enough action for now.

Now I pull out my mapping software and dig, even use google maps satellite view to aid, and I piece a track together that looks rough but doable. We start, the road gets smaller and smaller, then laps around a small house. I think this is the end, but we ask and are allowed to go through, and that’s where the fun begins. Right away we air down as its muddy, and its been raining. The trail is steep and a bit of camber, I don’t think we get more than 2kms down the track and the wagon is now straddling a washout as we go up a steep climb, I run out of room and the wagon slides into the ditch as we come around the corner and I lose all momentum. I try a little effort to see if it will budge, but we are high centered and to avoid breaking anything we decide its finally time to use our winch.

Its steep, its hot out, I find a suitable tree to hook to and am able to pull the wagon ahead a good distance and just as I finish the pull the wagon drops into a hole and most of the wheels come off the ground. Alright, well at least the wagon cant roll backwards from here. I find another set of trees and here we go again, this time it’s a small pull and I am free. With one last climb left I hammer up, its off camber and requires speed to stop from slipping into the side embankment. But we have made it!!

The rest of the track is easy, but has mud holes. We finish at the water fall, Maniava, and enjoy the sounds as a group of people actually go rappelling off the side. Very cool. The next bit of track is steep and through a small waterfall which was very cool. Then we find a spot off the road to park up. Stunning, the river beside us, in a canyon. We do have some traffic till about 6pm. Funnily enough another very drunk guy, and even when some English speaking Ukrainians showed up, they even said they don’t understand him. I get my hair cut, as I do by Asareh in every country we hit and I make the worst perogies ever. But such is life. It mists slowly all night, but that keeps the temp down for sleeping.

 

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