A journey to Crimea, 2021

I haven't been to this fabulous peninsula, which I love very much and consider to be my second homeland, for long. That time the bridge was still under construction and the road across Kerch wasn't a pleasant experience.

This is the St. Nicholas's lighthouse-church in village Malorechenskoye.

To reach the peninsula you just have to go a 17 km distance of a perfect highway.

So I've driven over the Crimean Bridge for the first time and it has really impressed me! In my life I have seen a lot of beautiful and colossal bridges and viaducts in different parts of the world, but the Crimean one has entered the top ten in my personal rating. (I should add that I haven't been to China yet and seen their engineering achievements in pictures only).

The Tavrida highway, which runs across the peninsula from east to west, is also as good as the best European highways. It is a pleasure to drive along it! The only drawback is that there are still few modern petrol stations. But there aren't many cars, actually.

This is Tarkhankut and the fantastic views.

Usually the "dog days" start here in June, so everything is being prepared for it now. The hotels, restaurants and cafes are being repaired and renovated. Everything is being put in order and beaches are being equipped. A tourist boom is expected in the Crimea due to the closed borders of Turkey and other foreign countries. The owner of one hotel told me that he had already sold out 80% of the rooms.

The rocks look like the ones in the north of Scotland. And maybe even more fascinating!

This time our trip was successful and comfortable. I was driving a car and had a light motorbike on a trailer behind. We could move in any direction without worrying about where we would stay overnight or have dinner. We have visited the most beautiful places on the seashore, by the river, an amazing plateau overlooking the temple and so on.

This is a white rock near Belogorsk.

And this is a great place to stay overnight. It's village Rybachye.

And the KTM-350 motorbike model made it possible to overcome these high peaks and go down these steep descents, where not everyone would be able to climb even on foot.

We were lucky with the weather. It was sunny, but not hot because of a light breeze. In addition, on the second day of our journey we joined our friends-endurists and have been riding together for three days as part of the Crimea-2021 rally. We have experienced gorgeous tracks, amazingly beautiful routes offered by Dima Belov and a ton of adrenaline and great mood!

SU 8 at the Crimea-2021 rally turned out to be not so easy.

The Meganom Cape.

Our enduro-journey across the Crimea continues. Today we are exploring one of the most beautiful places in the peninsula, the Meganom Cape and its surroundings.
Last night we parked on a wild beach 4 km away from the lighthouse. We were just at the edge of the water!

We managed to get to the remote locations by our cars. There were almost no people, which was great!

Victor Scaletto is a very interesting person to speak to. He has been building a life-size replica of the 17th-century English frigate "Lord of the Seas" in the bay of Burgaz for seven years. What a hopeful enthusiast and dreamer he is!

To sum up, May is the best month for such a journey to the Crimea. The "dog days" haven't started yet, the beaches aren't crowded and there are very few people and cars. You can ride a motorbike not only along mountain trails but also along sandy and pebble beaches, without being afraid to run over someone accidentally. And the weather is perfect. It's warm enough but not boiling hot. Although the sea is still cool (the temperature of the water is about +15°C) you can swim for like 10 minutes, which is enough to wash off the fatigue and the dust of the mountain roads.

This is a sandy beach near the Meganom Cape and there are no people around! We will spend two or three days here.

The Novy Svet settlement, Black Sea

Well, can anyone fail to fall in love with the Crimea?

All these tracks have names. But I haven't memorised them.

However, if you prefer comfort and good service, like lying by the pool all day and having a cool beer brought right to the sunbed, then this location won't suit you. But if you're an adventure seeker and love mountains, sun, sea, incredible views, the smell of juniper and long mountain trails (and roads along which you can walk with a backpack), then you have chosen a right destination! You can enjoy riding a bike or a motorbike here for at least a lifetime!

This is the seaview from the grotto.

This grotto is located at the Kapchik Cape. A colony of bats lives under its arches.

On the third day we decided to diversify our Crimean journey and hike along the mountain trails from village Veseloye to Novy Svet settlement, following the Golitsyn trail. Then we went further, to Sudak.

As a result, we walked 34.349 steps and almost 22 km of the incredibly beautiful paths along the coast, rocky trails, ascents and descents. We experienced the awesome views that were surely worth sweating and getting corns on our feet!

And this is a great end to our hike. :)

A secret facility

Crimea is not only a resort with the sea, beaches and mountains. Several thousand years of human history have left their mark on this wonderful land. There are a lot of ancient cave cities, fortresses, palaces of khans and princes, wine cellars and plants…

What's more, the contemporary history of the Crimea has not passed without a trace. The strategic position of the peninsula was assumed to be used as the main outpost in the Black Sea basin. In Soviet times the Crimea used to be a huge unsinkable aircraft carrier with nuclear weapons on board. It was literally packed with secret military facilities, about which even the locals knew little.

But we explored the secret paths to a secret facility.

There is an underground submarine base in Balaklava (the 825 GTS object); an unfinished Reserve Command Post of the Black Sea Fleet (also known as the "Object №221", "Alsu-2"), located in the mountainside in the Crimea, between Foros and Balaklava; then a military post 62047 ("Kiziltash" or the "Object 712"), which is actually a storage base of nuclear weapons. I was serving there from 1986 to 1991.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union all these strategic facilities (as well as the unfinished nuclear power plant in Shchelkovo) were abandoned, looted and partly destroyed. We reached one of these interesting establishments, which used to be a torpedo test station by the hydropower plant, near the village Ordzhonikidze by our motorbikes. That place was thrilling and beautiful!

This is the sight of the hydropower plant from the top point of the Kiik-Atlama Cape. On the right there is a Dvuyakornaya Bay, where torpedoes were tested.

Nowadays the pier is being used for parking private yachts and boats.

More than a hundred years ago this plant was built on the shore of the Dvuyakornaya Bay, at the Kiik-Atlama Cape. Its main purpose was the assembly and testing of anti-ship torpedoes of all types.

There is an abandoned lighthouse on the edge of the cape.

Today five workshops, two launch pads, an observation tower, a dock and many other facilities represent a post-apocalyptic landscape similar to the Chernobyl one.

The location used to be a top secret facility, but now only ruins of it have remained. There is also a checkpoint, where for some reason the guards are still on duty and no one is allowed inside. Well, if you do not have a special required pass, you can replace it with a 1000-rouble banknote.

The General's Beaches

I have lived in the Crimea for six years and then visited it regularly but I have never been to its northern coast. For some reason it seemed to me that there was nothing interesting in that part of the peninsula (from Kerch to Kazantip). Maybe just some shallow muddy Sea of Azov and the endless field.

But I was wrong. Firstly, the plain itself is very interesting and diverse. Most of the territory here is occupied by the Karalar Nature Reserve. This is a wild plain, cut by the ground roads, along which hares, foxes and other small animals run.

This is one of those dozens or even hundreds of bays with perfectly clean sand.

You can meet a lot of different birds, wild geese and snakes here. But the main beauty is the coast of the Sea of Azov, cut by dozens of small bays with the purest sandy beaches. They are called the General's beaches. The steep and rocky shores of a bizarre shape are enclosed by these coves, huge stones, grottoes and arches. There are almost no people there. And you can get to this place by your own transport only.

This is a perfect location to travel by jeep or by motorbike. You may enjoy your holiday away from civilization in a tent right by the water!

We are following such paths along the sea.
I recommend everyone to visit this attraction. Just do not forget to take a lot of food and bottles of water with you, since there are no supermarkets here.

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