Lviv August '22

Dear all, I finally got around to organising my thoughts on what I experienced last weekend. An eventful weekend lies behind us. Together with Andreas, I set off for Lviv. We had planned an exciting trip. Our goal was a "triple jump" or "all good things come in threes" :). But let's start from the beginning!

Why the trip?

The answer to this question goes back many weeks, even months. As you may remember, at the end of March, during one of my tours to the Polish/Ukrainian border, I took a mother and her two daughters to Munich, who stayed with us in our flat for a good 8 weeks. After 8 weeks they decided to go back - I had reported: Trip 64 - from Munich to Przemysl.

After rockets hit Vinnytsia in mid-July and the situation in central Ukraine became more and more unstable, we began to think about bringing the girls back to Germany. I promised you when you left that I would be there for you!

The preparation is underway

As the shipment of pet food via freight forwarding is carried out together with the Heimatstern e.V. works very well, I thought of helping in a different way on this trip. I wanted to take food and medicine with me. I also needed a co-driver who was experienced enough to drive this route and who was willing to drive to Ukraine. Andreas (MonchiOnTour) was this driver. He has also crossed the border several times and is otherwise quite fearless.

After the type of relief goods and the 2nd driver were clarified, only the donations had to be collected. Here goes an explicit thank you to all who participated in our action -> GREAT!

The trip to Przemyśl

As before, this trip to Przemyśl was pretty uneventful :D. We started in the evening and arrived at our destination after a good 10 hours. I did the first stage, Andreas did the second. Perfect teamwork!

The journey to Lviv

Reloading in Przemyśl, we set off for Lviv. This route was also driven quickly. However, the entrance to Lviv is always "grounding" due to all the checkpoints. For me, it was no longer particularly impressive, but at first it certainly got to Andreas mentally. I could also remember these feelings on my first tour. You have to swallow at first. Here, at the latest, you realise that you have arrived in a country where war is being waged.

Our planned triple jump

As announced, we have planned a triple jump:

1. Jump: First, the loaded food was unloaded at John's camp. Thanks to his fantastically organised network, this is taken to places near the border and distributed to people in need there. This way, the help arrives where it is really needed - in the hot zone.
2. Jump: As it is of course nonsensical to drive to Ukraine with an empty car, we loaded the car with animal food, which we handed over to Nick in Lviv. Nick is one of the drivers who go directly to the front lines in the hotzones in Ukraine - what a positively crazy guy! This delivery of course helped us at the border as well, as it meant we could drive past the whole queue and push straight across - very crazy! It was quite an effort for me to drive past a 15 km lorry and 2 km car queue, talk to the border control officer and make it clear to him - we have to cross now. No sooner said than done -> after 45 minutes we were in Ukraine - RECORD!
3. Jump: On the return journey we then had the trigger for our trip on board. The mother friend and her two daughters. They were the real reason for the trip. Again, the car was full!

Now, here in the summary in the travel report, I realise that it is hardly possible to describe the complexity of this action. There is a lot of coordination in this, from my point of view, perfect triple jump. First we had to collect all the relief goods, bring them to a sensible place, organise the exchange with animal food and then find a handover point with Nick, who came all the way from Kiev to pick up the donations. These were taken to Sumy to a vet who takes care of countless cats and dogs.

Tour of Lviv

When we had done our "work", we left for a little tour towards the city centre. After finding the right part of town (hard to believe how much difference "going left" makes to "going right" :D), we found a fantastic old town. At least until we came to the market square, where destroyed Russian tanks were on display.

Delivery of the animal feed

While we were on our way home with our guests the next morning, Nick was already on his way to Sumy to unload the animal food. As usual, this was confirmed to us via photos, so we can be sure that the help will reach where it is needed.

What particularly impressed us? Look at the joy and gratitude of the recipient! It is literally written on his face that he has one less thing to worry about for the next few days. And it is these moments, these pictures, that motivate us to continue!

Summary in the slideshow

If all this was too much text for you, or if you want to relive the trip in pictures, you can find help here :).