cyclingfurther

Bikes, waiting to get on board

Our couchsurfing host in Kerch, Sveta, helped us big time with us trying to get to Georgia without having to go through Abkhasia, a disputed territory that considers itself an independant state, recognized only by a few countries :  Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela,Nauru, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. European tourists have a hard time trying to get the visa and enter the territory.

There is no passenger boat between Kerch and Georgia, but it is possible to catch a 2 days ride with the weekly cargo to links Kerch and Poti, with a few arrangements with the company, UKRFerry. Sveta made the right phone calls and lead us to the tiny office, where we could get our ticket for about 100 euros, including meals, nights and bicycles. We had 2 days to wait for the boat, and Sveta, who is as well a bicycle enthusiast, introduced us to her cycling friends and we visited together the kerch area on our bikes during those 2 days, which was really nice. The place is full of history and there are remains of greek, ottoman and soviet eras next to each other.

Our ukranian cycling team!

On the boat, there is not much to do : no entertainment, no bar, and no way to watch Ukraine playing France  as the television signal was too poor in the middle of the sea. Sleeping, learning some russian, and taking refeshing showers were among the highlights.

Our lunch buddies were 2 germans, Andre and Jens, motorbiking around the black sea for 5 weeks (check out their site), but we spent most of the time with the younger part of the  cargo crew, english speaking guys who were happy to have some new company. They enthusiastically showed us around, led us to the hidden ping pong table, the welding room, and their own cabins, where we exchanged music, ate biscuits, learn russian bad words, and took funny pictures. Another time killer on the boat was all the talking about that paranoïd gay rastaman, who claimed that his cabin-mates were secret agent from the FBI.

The crew

The crew’s ping pong table

The crew’s welding room

The ride took longer than scheduled, and we finally arrived in Poti after 2 nights, 5 meals, and 46 hours on the boat. The georgian custom control was once again a formality : instead of checking what was in our bags, the officer took our Russian phrasebook and checked Nico’s knowledge. As he passed the test with mention, we were good to go 🙂

Tags: Cycling Further, Cycling Ukraine

Huge contrast compared to the past days : it’s flat!!! And really flat. We are on our way to Kerch, the last city before Russia, where stands the boat that we hope will bring us to Georgia (otherwise we’d most likely be stuck, as the abcasian border is a tricky one for westerners). There is one national road, 80 km long, where we can push to 25km per hour average. It’s been a while we couldn’t get to that speed. There is no shadow, but we go fast enough to refresh ourselves with selfmade wind. We cycled up north, and decided to reach the Azov sea to spend the night. We went through small villages, then found a nice place to stop and watch the Ukranian team, which was playing against Sweden…and won!

Flat lands

Our camping spot in Shcholkine

Ukranian gangster after the game

The place, Shcholkine, was much bigger than what it looked on the map, and the street that lead to the beach is surprisingly full of clubs and restaurants. And the most surprising is that we actually found a place with alternative music that fit our tastes…for one of the very first time since the beginning of the trip. The DJ was playing dubstep, drum and bass, breakbeat and jungle for a handful of nice people who became our party buddies for the night….a long, long night 🙂

The next day started late, with a slight hangover. The temperature was above 30 degrees and we had to cover about 80km to get to Kerch.   While eating and rehydrating, we met one of our party buddies from the last night, Valery, who told us it would be much shorter to cycle along the sea shore to get to Kerch, that the road was good for bikes even if it wasn’t tarmac. We thought it’d be shorter, chiller, and nicer, so we went for it…but after a few kilometers we realized that the path wasn’t that great for cyclists, as the thick layer of sand made it impossible for us to cycle for a few kilometers.

 Valery our party friend

 Path is no good!

After struggling for some time to pull our bikes in the sand, we found a way out and got back on some ridable roads. Not tarmac either, but at least we could cycle. At 6PM, we still had to ride 50km so had to rush to avoid cycling too much in the dark. Halfway between forest and countryside, we stopped to get some water in a small shop, and ended up in the middle of a hippie gathering with rastas, anarchists, punks and also few people that looked more normal. Absolute surprise to find those guys here! They welcomed us to spend some time with them at the festival, but we  declined the offer as we had to get to Kerch on the same day. After some research, we found out that this Rainbow Gathering is a worldwide community of utopists who live together in peace and love for a month in the nature, far away from consumerism and mass media. True that this area is ideal for that hippie lifestyle.

 Those are not hippies

Few kilometers afterwards, we got back on the main road and can finally speed up. We enjoy the scenery as much as we can, as we are aware that this is our last cycling day in Crimea.

As for many other places, we feel that could have spent several extra weeks exploring the area, but the boat is waiting for us in Kerch…at least we hope so 🙂

Cycling Crimea has been a fantastic experience and we’d definitely recommend the peninsula to all of you.

Tags: Cycling Further, Cycling Ukraine

The next morning was as sunny as the previous ones, and we woke up in front of that incredibly big rock. It was passed 10 AM and we missed our chance to cycle in the morning, the heat being alrady too heavy. But Novy Svit is a pretty nice place and we are happy to spend few more hours here, taking a swim and go for a walk next to the nearby cliffs.

During our walk, we found our 2 campers again, who advised where to go next : on a remote beach 30 km away, a meeting point for hippies and ecologists…why not? We started in the late afternoon for another hilly and hot ride. No need to mention that the landscapes are once again pretty amazing. On the way, we met another cyclotourist, Zahid from Uzbekistan, on his way for a 7 months trip around the black sea. As you can see, he carries way less stuff than we do -one of his heaviest piece is his rug for praying-, he’s way older, and his bike is way less appropriate than ours for a long trip. Such an inspiring and admirable man. We exchanged our adresses (not email, the physical ones :), promised him to send the picture we took together to Uzbekistan, and got our first place to stay in Central Asia.

Down at the sea level, we had to find that little hippie beach, and asked the first guy we saw if he knew where it was. He did, and directly offered to lead us to the spot, after getting some food from the local store. We decided to camp together, as he was spending some holiday time in Crimea too. He lead us not to the beach we were aiming for, but at a spot that he knew, high up in the mountains, next to a spring. We set up the tent, found some dead hoak for the fire, and started the evening. Roman was a 50-something years old santa claus sosie. Currently clinical researcher, but he used to work as a climber/rescuer in the caucasian mountains during USSR period. He  had good english and explained us how he cured his cancer symptoms by fasting several times for more than 20 days, and eating raw food only. He spent quite some time advocating for his diet, saying we should try it during our bike trip, to feel more energetic. Good call, but I think we like our sashliks too much to get rid meat right now! Roman also makes us try several different natural crimean wine, which is renowned in Ukraine and beyond. Tasty. Then plays a bit of guitar, singing traditional folk russian songs. Another pretty good evening in Crimea…

Tags: Cycling Further, Cycling Ukraine

Few days past since our last post in Yalta…we’ve spend most of the time very close to nature, camped the whole week and did not have ectricity to feed our computer and update the blog. We first followed the coast from west to east, and had to climb many hills and mountains under heavy sun. We never sweat as much as we did in Crimea, even if we cycled mostly in the morning, and after 5PM. Crimea has been way tougher that what we expected, but the scenery we’ve been cycling in and the people we met made our trip in the region unforgettable. Why this region is not known in the west stays a mystery for us (even Romanians do not seem to know much about crimea), as it is a perfect holiday destination : nature, sun, history, good food, and laid back people.

Our first camping night was above a beach in a very small village where we stopped to watch Euro2012 soccer game Russia-Czech Republic. All the people watching the game were cheering for Russia, who won the game. It was therefore in an euphoric environment that we’ve set up the tent in the dark, in front of a big warm moon giving us enough light to see, and look at the sky.

1AM moonshine

The heat woke us up early in the morning. We went to cool down into the sea, packed, and left to the east towards Sudak, one of the big town in south Crimea. We arrived there in the afternoon after long and very hot uphills. We stopped for lunch and waited the sun to chill down a bit. On the beach, in the center of the town.

7AM sunshine

Back up in the mountains…

…and down at the beach in Sudak

We met there 2 local campers, Kate and Olek, who advised us where to find a good camping spot for the night. We followed their advice and headed up to Novy Svit, few kilometers away from Sudak. We rode next to some big castles and huge rocks before reaching the village, which is pretty small and seems to be for the upper class society. While trying to find a good spot to put the tent, a fisherman came to talk to us and ask about our trip, seeming to be pretty enthusiastic about it. He was living just next to  sea, so we asked him if we could possibly put the tent closeby…which he accepted. He didnt’t want any money, but a ‘present’, which is over here synonym of vodka bottle. When we came back from the shop with the present, he was cooking some fish soup for all of us, made out of his catches of the day. We shared the -very good- meal with 2 of his moscovit friends, and interrupt the soup with vodka shots from time to time.

On the way to Novy Svit

With Sergey

We understand Sergey is a crazy and interesting character. He fishes only with his hands (no net, no fishing rod, no boat), can dives 50 meters down and stay up to 3 minutes in apnea. He practices some kind of tibetan yoga to control his breath, and plays ukranian flute.

Nico started playing flute too for an improvised concert, which was an awesome way to connect without language. Afterwards, Sergey felt the need to get back to water and showed us his techniques of concentration before diving, using cosmic and dolphin energy 🙂

Playing flute after night diving…a normal night for Sergey

We saw light in the water ; it was Sergey’s mates, fishing with torches. They showed us all the types of fishes and medusas in the area, then the catches they just made.

There was still some work to do to empty our present and we were spending very good time all together. We went to sleep late in the night, loaded and happy to have met such an incredible guy.

Tags: Cycling Further, Cycling Ukraine