Kamyanyets, Belarus - Polarsteps

After Treblinka we ride through the forests of pine and birch and the rural country of East Poland to Belarus. On the way we see a lot of wooden houses, yellow rapeseed fields and almost cheerful graveyards because all the colourful plastic flowers. The border crossing is as always a bit unnerving but the Belarusians are very friendly and we have the right paperwork which makes it not too difficult. It's our first practice with the Russian language. We follow the regional roads to the last primeval forest of Europe, Belovezhskaya Pushcha NP. Here there's only wooden houses but much more colorful than the polish side. The roads are almost empty and if there's a side track to a village the road stops and becomes sand. We stop at a village right in front of the park and look for a place to sleep. Merijn found some hotels to choose from, number 1,2,3 or 4...... Probably state hotels. The street view is strange, at the start is difficult to tell why, but I think it has to do with the lack of shopping windows and advertisements. Although we can read Cyrillic is hard to tell what is what and it seems everything is closed. It all feels a bit hidden. But then I see a sign of what seems to be a guesthouse. We look for it and end up with a really nice couple in an overcute widen house for ourselves and a real Russian banja! Our first day in Belarus feels really welcome.