Through Ukraine, Crimea and to the Volga Delta- Best Route?
 

Hi there,

Next summer, en route to Ulaanbaatar and back from the UK over 11 weeks, I am intent on travelling to crimea via the Ukraine.

As it stands, we will enter Ukraine via Slovenia, head to Uzhgorod before travelling south through Moldova, reaching odessa and travelling along the coast of the Black sea before entering Crimea from the North, following the perimeter of the country to Kerch and entering Russia via Krasnodar, heading to Elista before the volga delta at Astrakhan.

I was wondering, can this be considered a wise route?! It seemed to me as if I wasn't missing much travelling through the centre of ukraine, or should I stand corrected? More importantly, regarding security and the current situation in the Caucasus, is the route between Krasnodar and Astrakhan far enough North to be safe?

Bearing in mind we are looking to 'get the most' out of the trip, Crimea seems to be too beautiful and vibrant a country to miss out.

Thanks in advance and sorry if I'm not specific enough!

Krasnodar to Elitsa to Astrkhan is a huge distance north of any problem area. I was riding down there in July. Travelled all the way down south to Sochi and the Georgian border, then cut across to Pyatigorsk and up to Astrakhan and across to Kazakhstan (in reverse). That whole area is full of Russian tourists having a good time. Closest I got to any sort of trouble was heading west from Pyatigorsk - got within 30km of the North Ossetian border (near Mt Dolmay - which is a huge Russian tourist spot that straddles the border). Well not really trouble - at one point I had a couple of local drunks give me a hard time and demand money from me in a restaurant (no, I didn't give them anything, sweet talked my way out - it's not hard to sweet talk drunks) but that could happen anywhere in Russia.

It's wonderful scenery down there in the mountains and well worth a visit.

Garry from oz.

something like follows:

http://www.motodata.ru/trash/map01.jpg

From Uzhgorod to Odessa - boring asphalt road
From Odessa to Krimea - very boring road in endless fields
south coast in Krimea is an excellent place - you can see fotos from last ride there:
Ноябрьский Крым 2008 - motoadventure - Photofile.name

you can have problems while transiting "Pridnestrovie" region between Moldova and UK-raine

also do not ride lower than direct line Krasnodar-Elista
route via Mineralnie Vodi, Grozny and Nevinomyssk is a sigh-seeing but can cause serious problems.