We were invited by our friends in Molochansk to go to the Carpathian Mountains for a young adults camp in August. We left the evening of the 15th and arrived at the camp after a 22 hour train ride to Lviv and then a six hour bus ride into the mountains to Yaremcha. (it was supposed to be five but our bus required a new battery and so they transferred us to a different bus).
Our base (house) was a massive house halfway up a mountain and we arrived at one in the morning so we couldn't see if we were actually in the mountains or not! The next morning we discovered that yes, there were mountains and my favourite part of western Ukraine: haystacks.
The first afternoon our whole group (29 of us) hiked the rest of the way up the mountain from our house. It was a practice hike for the BIG hike the next day, which I'll get to later.
The first part was a steep scramble but once we got into the forest it got much easier. Plus there were lots of wild raspberries to eat along the way.
The view from the top:
On our last trip to the Carpathians in 2016 I was really unimpressed by the "mountains" and thought they were pretty pathetic and tiny. Well this time I found them so beautiful and like actual mountains (not just big hills). I think we were on the other side of them last time where they are much smaller.
In the evenings (and sometimes mornings) we would have a meeting/worship/discussion time. Pastor Alex was sharing different stories of mountains in the Bible throughout the week and Pasha lead us in some great worship. Steve shared and lead the discussion two of the evenings.
The next day our group headed to Hoverla - the highest mountain in Ukraine at 2,061 meters. After the previous hike I kind of thought, well that was easy, how hard could Hoverla be? Welllll....yeah, it was probably one of the toughest things I've ever done. On top of it being a mountain to climb, it's in Ukraine.....the least concerned country on the planet about safety, ha ha. It was poorly marked and not a well-worn path at all. We wondered along the way how many people die there every year just due to a misstep and subsequent fall or due to wandering off the "path" and just getting lost up there.
It started out easy enough with an upwards trek through a forest. There were so many roots it had the potential to be treacherous but we were full of energy so it wasn't a big deal.
The group was stopping way too often (like, every five or six minutes) and it really wasn't all that hard at that point so we just kept going up on our own.
We cleared the forest and then got into this stubbly, prickly brush, heading pretty straight up.
After the stubbly brush was a semi-dry creek path that got more and more wet the higher up we got. It was all loose rocks with some wet slippery rocks.
After that we reached a big flat plateau with the most disgusting display of human presence - this massive stick that was completely covered in GARBAGE (not to mention all the garbage along the way):
We sat, ate our lunch and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. It was windy and COLD. I was so glad we brought sweaters and windbreakers with us.
From our lunch spot we could see the top and the teeny tiny trail of ant-people winding to the top. We had come this far, we had to get up there into that cloud! The boys had lots of ideas about what it was going to be like inside a cloud, we had to see who was most accurate (conclusion: neither of them, ha ha).
It was a very intense last climb! It was a very steep, loose rock and dirt scramble to the top and we were exhausted (okay fine, Iiiiiiiii was exhausted and my children were still RUNNING up the mountain).
So close!!!
Finally we made it! The crappy monument at the top, surrounded by more garbage....so typical, ha ha.
It was actually really incredible at the top. Some very patriotic person started belting out the Ukrainian national anthem and people all around us joined in. It was quite moving actually.
Snacks and medals for sale at the top:
Someone said a Snickers bar was 75 greeven (normally about 12) and the canned drinks were 100 (normally 6-9 greeven). We had brought our own Pepsi to enjoy at the top and it was probably the best Pepsi I've ever had in my life, ha ha.
This little plane started buzzing us, circling closer and closer as people cheered and in true Ukrainian fashion they took things a little too far (in my opinion) and I had to stop watching as I was absolutely sure they were going to crash into all of us, ha ha.
So what do you do when you've conquered the mountain and are completely exhausted? Wellllll you climb right back down again!
I found the way down just as hard as the way up but for different reasons. We were no longer climbing up BUT we were tired, sore and less sure-footed and the treacherous path up was even more treacherous heading down. Loose and slippery rocks with a cliff to our right. The boys were prancing like mountain goats and I'm pretty sure I had at least six heart attacks on the way down as I was sure they were going to slip and fall allllllllll the way down to the bottom. Remember the crazy roots in the forest I was talking about earlier? Well now we were tired and sore and every step over those roots was brutally painful. I was shocked to see old men in loafers and families with tiny toddling babies climbing like this was just some fun, scenic jaunt but I often felt like it was just crazy unsafe and we were all insane to have done this to ourselves, ha ha.
We got to the bottom first out of the group and found a bench in the small shop area and just parked there for the hour we had to wait for everyone else. I thought I would never move ever again, ha ha. A few shorts months ago something like this would have absolutely killed my body for several days afterwards and I did feel those familiar twinges of pain coming as we climbed up but Steve and the boys would pray for me and the pain would go away so I could continue climbing. God is amazing.
The base didn't have internet and the data on our phones didn't work unless we climbed a little ways up the mountain. We dubbed this area along the fence the internet cafe and would go there in the evening. The views were incredible and there would usually be a little group of us gathered there.
The base itself was pretty much just a shack, all chipboard and plywood. Thankfully it didn't rain while we were there - I'm sure we would have woken up soaking wet! There was a ping pong table that was constantly in use.
Our group was 30 and another church group of 60 people showed up after our first few days. I'm not sure who books these places or plans these things but it was too bad we had to share the place. It was too small for 90 people (even though the sign on the wall of the base said they could accommodate 180 people) but thankfully they were also a Christian group so we could get along well and share the space. Unfortunately because they were the larger group, we immediately got booted out of the chapel so they could use it, and there were a few incidents where Steve had to use his Dad voice to reprimand people playing ping pong and shouting at one in the morning. The walls were paper thin and when one person was up, all the other 89 people were up too! Overall it was fine and we made friends with people in the other group too.
We did some of our evening meetings outside at sunset and it was just beautiful.
We had a rest day after Hoverla and then the next day headed out on another excursion. We went to a really cool waterfall that we waded around in. There was a bridge and bungee jumping too but we didn't do it (we were tempted).
Then we went to Bukovel where there is a man made mountain-water lake. It was beautiful and such a surprise to find in a ski resort town.
We swam and wandered around the lake.
Sunset from our base:
Steve and I celebrated our 15th anniversary on our last day at camp.
Our last evening was celebrated with a sheep cooked over the fire.
We were told that sheep is very fatty so you have to eat it really hot and you can't have anything cold to drink for 30 minutes after eating it, otherwise the fat will harden in your body and will be bad for you. We kind of rolled our eyes at each other and weren't sure if that was just another weird Ukrainian thing...but the meat itself was probably the best meat we've ever had. It was so juicy and delicious.
We ate in rounds - everyone got a helping and then we went back for more in turns. By my last pieces it had been off the fire for a while and had cooled down so that the fat solidified a bit. It was so tough I couldn't eat it and the texture was really gross, so while I'm not sure about the whole fat hardening in my body thing, I will say that it had to be piping hot to be delicious!
We left camp on the 22nd and after a bus ride back to Lviv we spent the afternoon and evening there searching out chocolate and drinking coffee (things Lviv is famous for). Our train left at 1 a.m and we were back in Zap 22 hours later.
In the past a trip like this with long jolting train and bus rides and so much stress on my body would have absolutely done me in for days or possibly weeks. After being prayed for in Spain at the end of June I have completely stopped my weekly fasting. I have had THREE really bad days and the rest have ranged from being good to amazingly good. I feel the familiar twinges and aches often and every once in a while I feel something more major coming on but then it just goes away and I'm back to feeling good again. Thank the Lord for the healing He has done! I'm still not 100% but I'm the closest I've been in a very long time!
We had an amazing trip. Our Molochansk friends are so wonderful and dear to us and we met many new people and were able to have some deep conversations and share Christ's love.
