Cycling to Priluki

Sergey and Irina live in a delightful settlement called Priluki. We first met them and their children when we stayed as guests at their bed-and-breakfast, and we’ve never really left. When we go to see them, however, it’s always in motorized transport. This often feels a bit shameful to me, since they live close to Minsk and I find the route captivatingly beautiful once we get outside the city limits.

The first part of the trip, however, holds no appeal to me at all. We typically roll past the train station and alongside the old airport on congested roads with rough pavement and narrow shoulders. I tried really hard last year to find a good bike route in that direction, and actually did find an acceptable course. I poked through the ring road now and again, but never managed to find my way to familiar territory and kept turning back.

The main problem is that they live outside the scope of regular city maps, and the suburban maps I’ve found never show enough detail. Finally this year I spent a lot of time with Google Earth and figured out that I’d broken out at the wrong place, one exit too far north. I stared and stared at Google’s satellite images and decided that I didn’t want to try to reach Priluki from that exit. Instead, I noodled over the problem at odd moments for the next month or two, referring back to Google Earth and buying every available map.

I decided early on that I would like to start toward the necessary ring-road underpass by riding south on the bike path running near our apartment. My problem was figuring how to get across the railroad tracks that run north and south between me and my exit. I finally solved the puzzle yesterday morning. Google has augmented their satellite imagery with sharper aerial photos, and I was able to zoom in low enough to make out a footpath leading to the tracks from a place I knew how to reach by bike path. Eureka!

I tested the route as soon as I found it, and knocked on the Merkulov’s door about 90 minutes after I left home. Sergey was kind enough to drop whatever else he was doing, round up his son, and join me for a bicycle excursion on the dirt roads joining some of the local villages. The bright yellow rape flowers perfumed the air with a fragrance I never noticed from motorized transport, people swam in the ice-cold ponds, and each village demonstrated the serenity of Belarusian country life.

When we got back, Irina invited me in for fresh green soup she had just made from wild herbs she’d harvested nearby and eggs from the family’s chickens. This had to be one of my best bike rides ever in Belarus.

Matvey and Steve

Sergey cools off