Dan took me to the bus station to find a ride that would take me and my bike to Cherviaviv where Chris was waiting for me. I could not believe it! He had actually done 170 km! I was so impressed.

We finally found a comfortable minibus that agreed to take me and the bike at the condition that I pay for 3 seats. It was still a cheap price compared to what I used to in Switzerland.

After a couple of hours, me and my bike were dropped in Chernaviv centre. I did not know how to say "Take me to the main bus station please" in Russian nor Ukrainian. So this place would have to do. The trick now was to be able to describe it to Chris so he could find me. A few MMS and SMS later, he did find me indeed. It was nice to see him. He was gone for one day only but I was already missing him.

We had a couple of hours before heading to our last stop Slavutich so we decided to go for lunch. Mac Donald's seemed to be the easiest as they have pictures and known food.

It was 2 o'clock when we finally head the road again. It was nice to be back on the bike. I had left my 2 rear bags at Dan so it was much lighter. The road to Slavutich was quite nice, not too many holes or bumps. However, there was a strange atmosphere. Not many cars, no sign of human nor animal life. We were riding in the dead zone after all!!! This was a strange feeling because there no real sign of radioactivity except the geigercounter showing 33 minigamas.

We went through a village on the way. I was surprise to see vegetables for sale on the side of the road. These people live here like nothing happened. I remembered the many names of villages crossed in red that I had seen at the Chernobyl museum in Kiev and I shivered.

It was about 5 pm when we finally saw the pilot car from Slavutich waiting for us. Our new translator was already there, a nice girl who spoke excellent English and was able to translate back and forth with ease. She told us, there was a biking club from Slavutich that was waiting for us and was going to ride with us for the last 14 km. How exciting.

And here there were, about 20 of them, 19 men and 1 woman only all geared up for the ride. TV crew, journalists and photographers were also waiting for us. What a welcome!! I was tired but all my energy came back. After the interview and the pictures, we all hit the road, while a police pilot car was leading the way. That was so much fun. I felt like in a mini Tour de France.

We finally hit Slavutich 45 minutes later! We were invited to go the mayor's office where there was going to be a big press conference with everybody. The bikers, a couple people from the community centre of Slavutich and 2 deputee mayors. This was our last press conference. I was now more at ease to answer questions as I had a few weeks of experience. It's actually really fun.

The deputees gave us some gifts and the leader of the club gave us a medal which was given to the original settlers of Slavutich. What an honor! Both Chris and I were very touched.

Then the director of centre, Victor told us that we were going to be his guests for the 2 days we were staying in the town. To our big surprise he spoke French rather well so there was no need for a translator. He was quite funny and witty. We hit it off right away. He was living with his wife Walentina and son Ian in a nice apartment in Slavutich. Walentina was just as nice and fun as her husband and she spoke English.

We had this big dinner with a few friends of Wictor and Walentina, the depute mayor and his wife been among them. Sacha, another friend had prepared this huge fish he had caught the day before. It was delicious! We drank wine and vodka . This was such a nice evening! Again I felt I had known these people for ever.

It was 11 pm when we finally went to bed. Walentina and Wiktor were so nice to have lent their own bedroom while they slept in the living room.