Podolia, the rolling country of western Ukraine between the Dniester and the Southern Bug, is a land of black soil, limestone canyons and old towns. It was a frontier between Poland, Lithuania, the Ottomans and Russia for centuries, and many of its villages carry the layers of that history, with Catholic and Orthodox churches, ruined castles and Jewish cemeteries. The label here, Baranowka, with its Polish-style spelling, gives a clue to the mix, and the ride pairing with Satanivska Dacha, a forested nature area in the region, hints at the walk and the ride on offer.
The nearby towns of Yarmolyntsi and Horodok are small market centres of the Khmelnytskyi region, with fuel, shops and cafes, and the lanes between them go through fields of wheat, sunflowers and sugar beet. Further south, the Dniester canyon cuts deep into the plateau, with the castle at Kamianets-Podilskyi standing on a rocky peninsula in the river loop, and Medzhybizh, where the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidic Judaism, lived in the eighteenth century and is buried.
I have to be straight about the present. Ukraine is at war, and the whole country is subject to missile and drone attacks, military checkpoints, curfews and fuel shortages, so nobody should plan a leisure ride here without checking the latest official travel advice, and for most visitors that advice is to stay away. The western regions are far from the front line, but they are not immune. If you are reading this to plan a trip in better times, the landscape will wait.
When conditions allow, Podolia is rewarding. The roads are often rough, with potholes and patched asphalt, and the villages are slow, with horses and carts and geese on the verge. Early summer brings acacia blossom and a deep green, and autumn is warm and golden. Eat borscht, vareniki with cherries and fresh bread with salo, and be ready for hospitality that insists you eat more. The people here are generous even in hard times, and the memory of a shared table lasts longer than any monument.