Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     

Cruising to Zaporozhye (Зaлopiжжя)

 
 
 
 
Sailing overnight from Kherson, we passed through the lock at Kakhovka in the early hours of the morning and awoke to dawn and power lines across the Dnieper. The rest of the morning cruise to Zaporozhye provided a contrast between beautiful scenery, smoke-belching factories (euphemistically referred to as "enterprises"), large, bland, polluted towns, huge bridges, equally huge dams and a thirty six metre high lock, just before Zaporozhye, that was awe-inspiring.
   
   
Programme for 19th June 2008   
   
   
   
   
   
 
  At one point a boat pulled up alongside the ship and some people (vendors perhaps?)
  attempted to board our ship. After sharp words and noises from the bridge, they left!
   
 
 
     
Pictures taken from the front of the ship as we entered the massive lock at Zaporozhye.
Below: Pictures taken from the back of the ship as the lock gates closed slowly behind us
   
Lunch was served as we bobbed silently and gently upwards...
... until the scenery changed completely at the top and we found ourselves in a giant dam, with a statue of Lenin hailing us from the bank.
   
After passing through the lock, we docked almost immediately in the city of Zaporozhye
Onto the coaches again (same coaches and same drivers that we'd had at every port so far!) and a stop at Lenin's statue. The one side of the square is on the banks of the river with good views, the other side (above) marks the start of Lenin Prospekt, which, it is claimed, holds the record for the longest avenue in Europe (11 kms).
   
We then drove for about 3kms along Lenin Avenue. It was fairly typical of the other Ukranian cities we had seen and we only got a couple of pictures through the coach window, one being a statue of the composer, Mikhail Glinka (below).
 
After seeing the highlights of the city, we drove across to the island of Khortitsa, where our first stop was at a Cossack museum. It could have been interesting, but the guided tour was rather slow. The local guide gave lengthy explanations of every exhibit in Ukrainian which then needed translation by our guide. We weren't the only ones to fast-track our way through the museum and head for the exit!

Our next stop was also on the island, a thirty minute drive from the museum. Another disappointment, unfortunately. The venue was pleasant enough, but the "Cossacks" were part of a performing group that, whilst mildly entertaining, didn't do it for us, although most others seemed to enjoy it.
   
   
We arrived back at the ship at 7.30pm and departed almost immediately.
 
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble