A View That Takes Your Breath Away

On the second day at ROJ we decided to hike up to the top of this rock.  It was no big deal for Sasha who is in excellent shape or Julia who has endless energy and a competitive spirit-- but for me it was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. 

I'm sure we surprised this goat as much as it surprised us.

Every few feet of the steady hike up, I had to stop and rest. I turned around and took pictures of the village around us. Here is a home right next to the river. After an old retired prosecuter.bought it-- up went the cold, ugly cement fence.

Isn't it picturesque?

These grottos were nice and cool.  The perfect place to stop and rest. 

At the top of the rock

Right below Julia is ROJ property.

Here is a house across the river from ROJ.  It is quite palatial.  On one of our walks, we stopped and had a refreshing drink from the spigot outside the gate.

Here is a closer look at ROJ.  The tent is where everyone met during children's camp.

Someone had big plans for these buildings,  They hoped they would be nice apartments but now they sit abandoned.  Some foreigner bought them for a few thousand dollars but has yet to do anything with them yet.  What a waste if you ask me.  I can think of so many good uses for them.

Climbing to the top of this rock took my breath away.  So did the view.

This is the river on the walk back to ROJ. 

This is what the walk looks like to ROJ.  It is not like any other experience we have had in Ukraine on previous trips.

I miss it already.