Tag Archives: Ukraine

Anna Grechishkina: World Record Motorcyclist, Ukrainian Patriot

June 17, 2023 mcnews Leave a comment

Anna Grechishkina Ukraine — Photos by Anna Grechishkina

Somewhere deep in the cold, black night, the unlit train passed from one world to another – from a place of beauty and light to one of darkness and pain, where postcard sunsets, breathtaking vistas, and meaningful connections would be replaced with shattered limbs, broken lives, destruction, and death.

Anna Grechishkina felt nothing. Traveling back to a country at war eight years, eight months, and eight days after leaving on her motorcycle to ride around the world, it wasn’t possible to know if it was home anymore. And as the kaleidoscope of thoughts and emotions raged into the night, a singular sense of purpose evolved: to serve! To do whatever needed to be done. To join the people of Ukraine in their fight against the totalitarian aggressor hell bent on destroying everything they had built since their independence in 1991.

Anna was prepared to die, knowing that she would give her life for a higher purpose than the world travels that had put her in the book of Guinness World Records for the longest solo motorcycle journey by a female.

Before the War

Back in 2005, working in human resources at a local bank in Kyiv, Anna began to commute on a Kawasaki Eliminator 125cc. She developed a passion for motorcycling that didn’t end when the bike was stolen from outside her apartment one night.

Replacing it with another Kawasaki, a Vulcan 900, Anna began traveling. She began taking vacations on her motorcycle, and over several years, she rode through Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and elsewhere. Sometimes she rode with friends, but she also made trips alone. While many world travelers find inspiration from books or videos, Anna found it in the stories she heard on the road and the experience itself.

Over the years, it became tougher to come home to a desk job with piles of paperwork, and the dream of a journey around the world began to take shape. It became apparent a Kawasaki cruiser was not the ideal machine for such an adventure, even though it had taken her over every type of terrain imaginable.

With the intention of using a big adventure motorcycle for the journey and the goal of becoming the first Ukrainian woman to ride around the world, Anna looked for sponsors. KTM Ukraine stepped up and provided a 1190 Adventure at a 50% discount. It was a great start, but it still cost her most of her savings.

In July 2013, with little more than 1,000 euros in her pocket, support from some gear sponsors, and a big send off from local Ukrainian media, Anna set off to see how far she could go on her limited funds. After 15 months of planning, leaving home was scary. Fear of not wanting to fail accompanied her as she traveled east across Russia, with a plan to reach Vladivostok, on the Pacific coast. Since Anna didn’t want to rush her trip, it took three months to reach her destination. During that time, she named her journey, “I have a dream,” and the tattoo to match began to take shape.

The road became Anna’s teacher, and as she began to hone her craft and learn how to survive on the road with limited funds, the concept of showing others what’s possible began to emerge. The more she traveled, the more photos she took, and the more she shared her experiences, it all started to come together. Her cash lasted until Vladivostok, where a local motorcycle club helped ship the KTM to Thailand. The journey continued though Malaysia and down to Singapore before another ship to Australia.

By then, Anna was building her social media following and giving presentations for local motorcycle communities, and the money began to trickle in. In total, she spent four months riding in Australia, where she crossed the desolate, treeless Nullarbor Plain on her way to Sydney, and from there she traveled to America.

Arriving in Los Angeles, Anna rode east and realized her dream of riding Route 66. After reaching New York, she turned south and eventually crossed into Mexico. She continued south to Central America and then South America. Finally, the KTM got crated up once more, and Anna purchased a ticket to South Africa.

The next three months were Anna’s biggest test of patience and trust in the journey so far, as a major dock strike left the KTM stranded in Brazil after Anna had already flown ahead to Johannesburg. The situation was further complicated by paperwork issues. Finally, in October of 2016, just in time for Anna’s birthday, she was reunited with her beloved motorcycle.

Most of 2017 was spent riding through Africa, crossing Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi before heading up through Uganda, Rwanda, and on into Egypt. While the whole African experience had been amazing, it was Namibia that stole Anna’s heart. After making a vow to return, she continued riding back to Europe. The first solo motorcycle journey around the world was complete.

By then, 4 1/2 years had elapsed since her nervous departure from Ukraine, riding and traveling with no schedule to adhere to had become a way of life. After returning to Ukraine, Anna had a vivid dream about being back at her old desk job. Morning revealed it wasn’t so, and Anna took the resulting happiness as a sign that it was time to start a second circuit around the world. This time it would be counterclockwise.

Things felt different when she arrived in Argentina; she had a plan and felt more mature. It also became clear that the existing Guinness World Record of 5 1/2 years and 180,000 kilometers ridden by solo female rider Benka Pulko could be beaten. Anna rode, explored, connected, and continued to share her experiences over the next year in South and Central America before arriving in Mexico. The goal was to go as far north as possible in Alaska, a journey she didn’t make on her first visit. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and she found herself stuck in Mexico.

After so many years on the road, Anna had built a large network of friends and was able to secure a place to stay on the beach in Yucatan for the first six months of the pandemic. Living just 100 yards from the ocean was not a bad place to wait and see what would happen next. As border restrictions were constantly extended, her goal of getting to the U.S. seemed out of reach. Then an opportunity to fly to Germany opened up, and after a two-month wait for the KTM to catch up, Anna was locked down again, not knowing for how long.

When the borders finally reopened, it was time for the KTM to devour some miles. With the GPS set on the North Cape above the Arctic Circle at the top of Norway, it was good to be back in the saddle. Traveling through the northernmost part of Europe, a land of snow, reindeer, and endless daylight around the summer solstice, Anna’s life felt normal again.

Returning Home

Back in Germany some months later, Anna booked passage for Namibia because she couldn’t get through Morocco to ride down, and on Feb. 23, 2022, she arrived in Windhoek. Little did she know that the next day the world would be turned upside down for her and 44 million fellow Ukrainians.

Waking up on Feb. 24 to news of the Russian invasion of her country, Anna was suddenly faced with a difficult decision. How could she stay on the road enjoying her life and posting pictures while her country was at war? She had to go – to be with her people and her country, to do something.

A call to a friend at a local battalion in Kyiv set the process in motion. The preparations began and so did Anna’s fundraising as she gave interviews and talks. In the meantime, the world witnessed the horrifying first days of the war with its gruesome images of women and children being bombed. Anna secured safe storage for her faithful KTM in Windhoek, and the long return journey began.

Back in Kyiv, it was straight to military training, where she learned about weapons, combat medicine, and how to not only deal with the physical wounds and amputations but also emotional loss and trauma. It’s imperative to know how to help, and she learned what to say – or not to say – to the victims.

When she and I talked by telephone, she told me, “I knew I could be killed anytime, that it was unsafe, but it is more important than my life to help.”

During the training, one of the most important things Anna learned was not to hate. “When you hate, you have already lost, as hatred will defeat you and let them win.”

It’s difficult not to hate when your country has been invaded, but Anna and all the volunteers in her Territorial defense group know that they must operate with a clear, cold mind.

Anna is immensely proud of the Ukrainians who have shown the world they are ready to fight to the death for their country. At the time of writing, Anna is making dangerous trips to the front lines, and since we met, the number of projects she has undertaken is mind boggling.

Her trusty Vulcan 900 has been back in service. Anna has used it to visit some of the areas hit the hardest, bringing awareness to the atrocities, as well as aid and supplies when she can. During a recent phone call with Anna, I could hear explosions in the background as she delivered supplies to soldiers on the front lines.

As I look for a way to wrap up this brief snapshot of the incredible life of Anna Grechishkina, I can only hope we are all inspired by her travels, her bravery, and her heart. And that she continues to receive the support she needs from our global motorcycle community that has rallied around to support her incredible efforts for the people of Ukraine.

Follow Anna Grechishkina on Instagram @anna_grechishkina.

The post Anna Grechishkina: World Record Motorcyclist, Ukrainian Patriot appeared first on Rider Magazine.

Source: RiderMagazine.com

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Nowhere is Safe | A Motorcycle Journalist Rides Through Ukraine

August 11, 2022 mcnews Leave a comment

This report from Ukraine is by Neale Bayly, a motojournalist and photographer with more than 20 years under his belt. He also founded the nonprofit Wellspring International Outreach in 2011 with a mission to “bring aid and attention to the abandoned and at-risk children throughout the world.” Bayly recently returned from a three-week, 6,600-km (approx. 4,100 miles) motorcycle trip across Europe and into war-torn Ukraine, which he described as a “beautiful country with incredible people standing resiliently against a brutal regime intent on their destruction.”

The idea for the ride came about a few days into the war back in February when my friend, Kiran Ridley, called me from Ukraine. Covering the war from Lviv in Western Ukraine, he was using a cheap Chinese motorcycle to navigate the 30-km lines of refugees fleeing Ukraine at the Polish border. The access he was getting to people and their stories with the motorcycle was a game changer, but the bike was running badly, and he was improperly dressed for the winter weather and alone in this incredibly high stress environment.

As the phone line went dead after that first phone call, my mind went into overdrive. Images of the destruction and devastation the Russians were inflicting on the civilian population was keeping me awake at night, and after a couple more calls, a plan was set.

Oleg Satanovsky at BMW Motorrad USA had a pair of F 850 GS Adventures lined up in Munich with hard bags and navigation. Matthew Miles provided Rev’It protective clothing, Jeff Weil at Arai sent helmets, and my long-term donors jumped in with support. With the easy part done, we went to work on securing the myriad of details that remained: international press passes, approval from the Ukrainian military, high-grade plates for bulletproof vests, fixers, hotels, and most importantly, deciding on the stories we would chase.

Ukraine: ‘Nowhere is safe when the Russians start shelling’

In total, we spent close to three weeks in Ukraine, riding from Lviv to Kyiv, Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel, scenes of the worst atrocities early in the war. Then we rode to the seaport of Odessa. At times, we were based out of local hotels for a few days and chased a wide variety of stories.

We toured a Soviet-era coal mine to learn how the energy front is being fought 1,500 feet below the surface of the earth, and we spent the day with young soldiers recovering from recent amputations at a horse therapy farm. We also visited a 16th-century monastery housing refugees. Mirroring the work of the monastery 80 years ago during the holocaust, their presence is kept secret to avoid the potential for shelling.

We hitched a ride on an old wooden rowboat from a couple of fishermen in Vylkove, 25 miles from Snake Island, the 42-acre Ukrainian outpost in the Black Sea that garnered worldwide attention early in the war when Ukrainian soldiers refused to surrender despite calls from a Russian warship to put down their arms.

The two fishermen we met have lost their livelihoods, as they are no longer able to fish their normal waters.

This was just one example of when we left our motorcycles and traveled in the car with our “fixer,” Andriy (last name withheld, and specific locations are not provided for safety and security reasons), when the places we were visiting were too “hot” – the local term for areas receiving active missile strikes.

Mykolaiv was probably the most tense. While documenting an apartment complex where a series of strikes had just taken place, we got caught in the city as the warning sounded in advance of another air strike. All we could do was put on our vests and shelter in place in a local park, having made the decision to be as far away from the buildings as possible.

But realistically, nowhere is safe when the Russians start shelling, a fact that was brought home a few days later while working a story about the winter crop harvest outside of Odessa.

The air alert app went off on Andriy’s phone, and we learned of a massive series of strikes on Vinnytsia, a city that hadn’t been hit since March and was providing refuge for many Ukrainians escaping the front lines. We had planned our lunch stop on one of the historic, shady tree-lined streets at a nice restaurant earlier in the day, but that changed in an instant.

We rode for Vinnytsia, deep in thought but with no idea what to expect. The smooth two-lane highway cut through beautiful fields of sunflowers, grain, and corn, and white clouds floated on a tranquil blue sky. It was a stark contrast to the scene we found in Vinnytsia, which was indescribable for so many reasons.

Even as fireman fought the last fires in the charred remains of the buildings, World Central Kitchen was on-site handing out water and meals to people rendered homeless by the strikes. Cleanup crews were hard at work, and all the bodies had been removed – just not quite all the parts, which made me glad we had skipped lunch.

The physical destruction was mind blowing, the scale of it beyond comprehension, and the stoic resolve of the emergency workers clearing the site humbling. We saw cars being lifted onto flatbed trucks by machines and war crimes inspectors documenting.

News crews broadcast that 35 people were dead and 65 badly injured to an audience tired of the war and waiting for their next media addiction to scroll through.

A temporary calm, the smile from a child, and the familiar darkness

The following days were spent in a calmer region as we rode deep into the Carpathian Mountains along the Romanian border. We had connected with a Ukrainian film crew that wanted to film a couple of Brits riding BMW motorcycles through their country, and they had identified an old Soviet listening station on top of the mountains for us to photograph. Long abandoned, it remains as a testament to the Soviet occupation the Ukrainian people endured before independence.

Traveling with our crew, smooth two-lane highway turned to heavily patched, broken tarmac and eventually to dirt. The mountains rose up, and we rode through scenery at times rivaling the Alps. Hour after hour as we rode back in time, the road deteriorated, and we had to abandon the car and rent a local Mitsubishi four-wheel drive. We fought our way up a narrow dirt trail, eventually having to park the BMWs and pile into the Mitsubishi, the bikes’ road tires just not allowing any more progress.

Our fixer down below found a guest house and a homecooked meal for our return from the surreal photo session on the top of the mountains. Late into the night, we broke bread with our friends, dirty and tired but happy from an incredible day.

As we ate, we learned from our producer, Omel, of life under Soviet control, the democracy and freedom they had built in Ukraine, and how they were again fighting against this massive totalitarian regime hellbent on destroying them and their way of life.

Out of the Carpathians, we had one last story waiting at a children’s hospital in Lviv. There we met an 11-year-old boy named Leo, a refugee from Severodonetsk, where the constant bombing he had endured left him unable to walk. He had also just undergone surgery to remove a tumor on his leg. He and his mother told us their story of escape, and we were left speechless.

Thanks to all the donors, we were able to leave a check for $10,000, and it felt like Leo really enjoyed hanging out with a film crew and a couple of dirty, hairy British journalists on motorcycles.

After the heart-warming meeting, wheeling back to the hospital, the air alert warning howled across the city in the warm afternoon air as Leo turned to wave one last goodbye. If the smile on his face was the sun that lit our day, the thought that after all he has endured, this 11-year-old boy could never be safe there, even in a children’s hospital, cast a shadow across my heart that sent me spiraling into the darkness that so often came as my mind tried to comprehend the brutality of this war.

For more information on Wellspring International Outreach or to donate, click here.

The post Nowhere is Safe | A Motorcycle Journalist Rides Through Ukraine first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com

MotorCycle News

Tag Archives: Ukraine

Anna Grechishkina: World Record Motorcyclist, Ukrainian Patriot

Before the War

Returning Home

Nowhere is Safe | A Motorcycle Journalist Rides Through Ukraine

Ukraine: ‘Nowhere is safe when the Russians start shelling’

A temporary calm, the smile from a child, and the familiar darkness

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