Ukraine (local)

Road cicle tour in fast pace by Ukrainian Azov coast and Crimea coast started from Russian Rostov-On-Don City. First part was gone on with my companion and all other way I run along.

A mountain bike ride along and across the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian Mountains from the Ukraine-Poland border to the Ukraine-Romania border. The route is approximately 500 km long. It is by no means an ''extreme'' tour (most probably it can be described as ''moderately challenging''). The main purpose of this ride is to map out and document a through-trail that uses forest roads, jeep roads, local dirt roads, and low-traffic local roads where other options are not available.

Having in 2001 experienced how nice a country Ukraine in many ways is, I returned for more riding in 2002. During about two months I rode 3927 km in Crimea and along the Dniepr river. I arrived in Ukraine by boat from Istanbul in Turkey and left the same way. Since last time I was in Ukraine things have improved; better food (now one can have Ukrainian made cornflakes and musli), the cities also look better. Surely Kuchma is doing something right. One thing hadn't improved though - the horrible mentality in most state-owned hotels. Luckily there are several types of alternative accommodation. Ukraine is cheap and during two months I spent less than 1000 USD. On the whole I enjoyed the riding as much as the previous year, not that Ukraine is always pleasant, but it is rarely boring. There is something special about riding in Ukraine, the contrasts, it's socialist history, the absence of western tourists, the light, the Ukrainians, well, I can't exactly put my finger on it but nice it is.

The itinerary/places where I slept was as follows; Feodosia - Ribatche - Jalta - Feodosia - (Kerch) - Feodosia - Strelkovoe - Dzankoj - Feodosia - Otradnoe - Feodosia - Kurortnoe - Sudak - Jalta - Lyubimovka - Pribreshnoe - Mirnyj - Meshvodnoe - Khorli - Lazurnoe - Golaja Pristan - Kahovka - Kamjanka Dnieprovka - Nikopol - Dniepro Dzerzhinsk - Komsomolsk - Chigirin - Cherkasy - Prokhorovka - Kedina Gora - Khorol - Komsomolsk - Dniepro Dzerzhinsk - Novomoskovsk - Vasilivka - Strelkovoe - Feodosia - Belogorsk - Bakshisaray - Inkerman.

During six months in Ukraine I did 11 longer bicycle trips, in total 5300 km. I sincerely enjoyed riding in Ukraine and want to recommend it to other cyclists. [...] The following is a kind of diary about the last six trips followed by some practical information.