09-Jun-2002 -- The confluence is located 6.5 km west of the village of Putila in the Ukrainian Carpathians. The exact WGS84 spot is on a meadow at 834 m altitude in a very beautiful landscape.
The confluence was visited at 08:40 on 9th June 2002.
I started from the hotel in Putila at 05:15 on Sunday morning and walked 2 km along a dirt road (taken literally, it had been destroyed by lumber trucks), then compass course straight towards the confluence. This took me down gullies with undisturbed creeks, over grass fields, even across a farm yard, where a woman was carrying two buckets of water using a yoke, into a forest where I had to make a detour to pass two angry bulls, then across fields again and up a ridge, finally down to 834 m elevation, where the confluence was found. I saw a man with a horse-cart at distance and the water-carrying woman, no other people at all. There were no roads, motor-vehicles or machinery anywhere. I heard cows, a dog and a rooster. I could see about 20 farms from the top of the ridge, and a church at about 4 km distance. Over 1000 m elevation there were untouched spruce forests. This was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The weather was excellent too.
I found a footpath that led approximately in the direction back to Putila, and after 1 km I met a boy and asked him if it was the road to Putila. Da, daroga na Putile, da, he said, meaning my assumtion was right. After another half km, the footpath was 1.5 m wide, and in a curve I met a bull. He immediately scratched the ground with his foot and warned me to come closer witn four grunts. Then he bellowed loudly and attacked. He was only 15 m away. I rushed into a young spruce plantation to the left and got stuck in a thorn bush, but it was dry and the branch broke when I forced through the bush. Then I threw myself through a row of spruces, they were in rows about 4 m apart, but very dense. The bull came after me, but stopped when he reached the thorny bush. He was then 4 m behind me and looked huge. I ran and walked and pressed myself forward 200 m parallel to the footpath and 30 m besid it. Then I walked up to the path in the spacing between two plantation rows. The bull had heard me and stood on the footpath. He came towards me like shot out of a cannon! I threw myself again through the nearest row of spruces while the bull rushed past me in the clearing. Then I went down a bit in a gully 50 m beside the footpath so the bull could not hear me and continued another 200 m. Then I walked up to the footpath, and the bull was not there. I continued on the footpath, saw a truck parked where the path crossed a river, but there was no road. I walked on grassland with very hig grass along the river. The river was gated. The river was used to drive trucks to the place. Then I saw another truck, and a truck-driveable road started. When the river was crossed, there was a log over the river so footwalkers could pass without having to ford the river. I met a man and asked if this was the way to Putila. No, he said (in Russian), the road goes to a village at the main asphalt road. Two workers rapairing a fence wall told me it was 4 km of gravel road to the village at the main road, then 4 km on the main road to Putila, but take a bus in the village. I was back in Putila at 12:15 and had a big lunch costing 1 dollar 50 cents with 1 litre of juice costing an extra 1 dollar 20 cents (6 Hryvnia). I paid for the lunch and hotel (10 Hryvnia, 2 dollars for the hotel, water was supplied in a bucket).
Henrik Sunden