Dear friends!
We can’t wait to share our report on the last April’s tour around Crimea. This year for the first time we opened our season in Crimea and everything went beyond expectations.
Our idea about extending biking season first occurred two years ago. I think there is no need in pointing out the obvious why. Moscow and St. Pete’s weather tend to stay great for 4-5 months a year. Not that it is short, but it wouldn't be too bad if it was more like in Italy or Germany, where the season begins in March and continues throughout October, November, enabling people to bike for a least 7-8 months a year. Some folks won't even leave their bikes at the freezing temperatures. The only way for us to extend our biking season is to move to the south: let's say Crimea or Krasnodar region, which we did.
Last year, in the end, we announced our biking tours around Crimea. We then proceeded with printing leaflets, advertising on radio and the web and spreading some rumors among our friends both personally and via social networks about the possible opportunity to open season early. A positive feedback followed right away and by the end of 2016 we’d had over 30 potentially interested participants for March and April. We were slightly concerned whether we will have enough bikes.
But as it always goes, from the initial 30 only 3 carried through to the beginning of the spring. Despite being slightly disappointed we were still happy, having checked out Crimea beforehand, since we had sent the bikes over in advance. Instead of taking few separate trips we ended up studying the routes as well as checking out some fun places which we hadn't seen before. Crimea is an amazing place. The huge number of interesting sights densely concentrated on rather small territory of Crimea was too tricky to see everything. What we saw instead, was barely a half. There are still lots of places yet to be discovered.
But let’s go back to our trip report now. By late April, our three dear guests flew over to Crimea. We arranged accommodation in the Gomer hotel, the best hotel in Balaklava. First evening, we headed to Sevastopol, where we had dinner and walked along the coast. We finally shared our first week plan with the guys. The plan turned out to be quite simple - mostly traveling around the peninsula all day, morning till night, visiting museums and churches, climb mountains and descend into caves, try local food and enjoy the sun, food and wine. All of those - moving on the bikes, since we organize motorbike tours.
We won’t tell you about every day we spent there, instead we will briefly point out the most interesting and memorable facts:
- Weather was wonderful, warm yet not too hot
- We hiked a lot, over 12 kms per day, which was a challenge for our guests at first, but they eventually got used to it, smile on their face, remembering the first days
- The brightest memories were those of visiting
- The 35th Battery (Maxim Gorky II) monument
- Ikrerman wine production
- Novy Svet (Sudak) area
As far as the routes go, the road were some good mix of both asphalt and unpaved roads. There also was the Submarines museum in Balaklava, Exi-Kermen, Chufut-Kale, Skelskaya cave, Baydarskaya valley, The Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, Swallow's Nest, Genoese fortress in Sudak, Tauric Chersonese, Golitsyn's Trail and much more.
Down below you can find some photos from our trip.
We got back to Moscow just a couple of days ago. We will stay here for the next 4 months, planning our future trips to St. Petersburg and Karelia, around the golden ring and Trans-Siberian highway to Vladivostok!
For more details information about our tours you can visit our website, our tours and calendar for this year.
Next Crimea trip is planned for the end of September. If you want to join us please book in advance to secure bikes you want.
