Traveller from Ukraine

Sudak

2010-08-30T23:00:00.001-07:00

When we bypassed Alchak mountain, we saw coast of Sudak and mountains behind it. They were our last points of route. Thus, after passing Sudak coast, we reached fortress mountain, where ancient fortress is located. It was founded in Middle Ages and belonged to different people in different times. But the most buildings of it were built by Italian colonists in XIV century. We walked in Sudak fortress more then an hour. But, if we had more time, we could spent more time there.
After that we left the city and went west by automobile road. We moved to one of the highest mountain in this region - Sokil. It isn't the highest one, but it has the most rapid slopes, which rises above the sea coast.
We spent the night on the mountain pass to the north of Sokil and ascended its summit next morning. Then we passed some mountains and returned to Sudak, where we sat down for transport home.
I made a lot of photos about Sudak, its fortress and towers, and, also, about our climbing Sokil summit. Here some of them:

View of Sudak coast

Mountain with Sudak fortress

Fortifications of Sudak fortress

Ruins of ancient walls

View from mountain Sokil

Sonyachna Dolyna

2010-08-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

After Kinomistechko we left sea coast and went directly to the west. Coastline makes bend here, which is called Meganom. Meganom also is a mountain, so we decided to avoid the climb and go through Sonyachna Dolyna (Sunny Valley), which located north of it.
The valley proved to be really sunny: trees were rare and small. Landscapes were very opened. While going we found only a couple of water reservoirs and no river. But people have used such a climate for growing grapes: all fields and gentle hills around were covered with vineyards. And, if you know, Sonyachna Dolyna is one of the famous Ukrainian wine brands.
After crossing Sonyachna Dolyna we made a camp on the mountain near source Ai-Georgiy. This place is elevated over the valley, so we could see the wide scenery with Meganom in the end.
The next morning we left this sunny valley. We returned to the sea and went around mountain Alchak. Passing the mountain we have entered another great valley, where city Sudak is situated. But it is a material for the next part of this story.
And here you can see some photos:

Lake near Sonyachna Dolyna

Ancient church in Sonyachna Dolyna

Vineyards

Our camp on the west of Sonyachna Dolyna. In background - mount Meganom

View of Sudak bay from Eol's grotto

Some photoalbums show our way to Sonyachna Dolyna, some photos from the town, slopes around Ai-Georgiy and seacoast near Alchak.

to be continued

From Karadag to Kinomistechko

2010-08-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

From Kara-Dag we went west. First part of our route lied on the coast of Bleak Sea. If you look at the map, you will see, that this is territory without any forest. Only stones and clay are around. Some hills even have no grass on theirs slopes.
But there are some interesting places. First time of our walking along the coast we could see dark shape of Kara-Dag mountains. And some hours later we entered ruins of Kinomistechko. It is tiny town of mould houses, which ware built about five years ago specially for shooting adventure film about middle-ages East.
So here are photos of our walk along the sea, including ones with view of Kara-Dag. And, of course, interesting pictures from Kinomistechko. Some of them:

Dark mountains of Kara-Dag

Sea ground with lines of seaweeds

Grass-less slopes on the coast of Bleak Sea

Inside Kinomistechko

View of ruins of Kinomistechko

To be continued

Karadag

2010-07-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

One of the main purposes of our travel was to visit the Nature Reserve Karadag. So, the most of the third day we spent on its territory.
In the morning we left our camp near Echki-Dag and went to the town Schebetovka, which is located at the western edge of Karadag and lies on the road from Feodosiya to Sudak. So, if you go to Karadag by car, you will cross this town.
We entered Karadag through the coast village Kurortne, to the south from Schebetovka.
Here some photos from our visiting Karadag.

The Golden Gate

High rocks over the sea

Stone face looks into the valley of Karadag

Ruins of the ancient volcano

Magnetic range

More photos from this day of our travel you can find in online-photoalbums. They show our way to Karadag, rocks of Karadag, Karadag with the sea and other places in Karadag.

To be continued

Kyzyltash

2010-07-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

After visiting Surb-Khach, we have a night in the next forested valley after monastery. By the way, there we found ruins of another ancient monastery - Surb-Stepanos. But it was in worse condition than Surb-Khach. The next morning we went south. After some hours in mountain forest we suddenly got into garden of another live monastery - Kyzyltash. If you want to go by car from Surb-Khach to Kyzyltash, you should make a greate "circle". But, going by foot we could went from one to another in rather shorter way.

Like many others, Kyzyltash monastery didn't act in Soviet times. But, what is most interesting, Soviet government had made military object in this walley, where nuclear weapon was storaged. Now here are no nuclear weapon, but army unit still acts and occupies a large part of valley just near the monastery.

We looked interesting places in Kyzyltash, especially sacred spring and new wooden church. Then we walked accros willage and saw army unit. After that we went into forested mountains again. To the evening we reached eastern corner of Echki-Dag. There we made a camp with a beautiful view of Kara-Dag and Black Sea in the south.

Links in the text lead to online-photoalbums. Some photos from there you can see below.

Ruins of Surb-Stepanos

New church in Kyzyltash

View of Kyzyltash monastery

Former nuclear object

Morining in Echki-Dag

to be continued

Staryi Krym

2010-07-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

Last spring we traveled to the southeastern part of Crimean peninsula. This is a region of old Crimean capital (Staryi Krym), several ancient monasteries (Surb-Khach, Surb-Stepanos, Kyzyl-Tash), one of the most enigmatic Natural Preserve (Kara-Dag) and medieval Genoas fortress of Sudak. That all we visited for a week.
Our travel started in Staryi Krym. It is one of the oldest cities of Crimea. It was founded in the X-th century and till XV-th century it played the main role of Crimean government. Then it was called Solhat. Once Bakhchysaray became the capital of the peninsula, Stary Krym lost its strategic importance. Since that time it received nowadays name which means "Old Crimea".
We begun our travel with a visit to the ancient mosque - Uzbek's. It was built in 1314 and now part of building is ruined. But even in this condition it looks very interesting.
Another interesting historical sites in Staryi Krym is an ancient Armenian monastery Surb-Khach. It was founded in 1358 and still acts. Only in 1778-1790 and 1925-2002 years its religious life were interrupted. So, we were able to see ancient buildings, rows of khachkars (Armenian icons) and different interesting things inside.
You can see photos from that places in my photoalbums: Staryi Krym, our first steps, Surb-Khach and its interiors. Here are some of them.

Ruins of Uzbek's mosque in Staryi Krym

First climbing. In the background - Staryi Krym

Church of Surb-Khach's monastery

Entrance of Surb-Khach

Khachkars - Armenian analog of icon

to be continued

On Tarasova Gora

2010-07-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

After visiting Kaniv we went to its' southern edge, where Kaniv Natural Preserve is located. It lies on the wooded hills on the right bank of river Dnipro. The highest hill is called Tarasova Gora (Taras' Hill), because the famous Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko was buried there. Now on the top of this hill his memorial complex (Museum, Monument and Park with few memorials) is located.
We came from the river side. From foot of hill to upper territory leads interesting stairs. We coped with them and then got fantastic view on the top of hill.
While walking there I made many photos about Tarasova Gora, alley of characters from Shevchenko poems and just about golden autumn. Here are some of them.

Stairs to the top of Tarasova Gora

Museum and Monument of Taras Shevchenko

Interior of traditional Ukrainian house

Alley of characters from the poems by Shevchenko

A view from Tarasova Gora in autumn

In Kaniv

2010-06-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

In the autumn we traveled to Kaniv - a city in the central Ukraine. It is located on the right bank of the river Dnipro. Here was built one of the largest Ukrainian hydroelectric power station. That is why storage reservoir, which stretches to the southern border of the capital of Ukraine, called the Kaniv Reservoir.
There is another interesting fact about the city. It has a long history - Kaniv mentioned in chronicles since 1144. The most ancient building, which has been preserved to our days is Uspenski Cathedral. It was built 866 years ago. And it was the temple where was held funerals for Taras Shevchenko, the man-symbol of Ukraine.
So, we had an interesting walk in Kaniv. Walking the town I made a lot of photos: about some interesting places, in particular monument of Ivan Pidkova, about Dnipro, and, of course, about beautiful autumn flowers. Here some of them:

Kaniv historical museum

Uspenski Cathedral, which was built 866 years ago

Right bank of river Dnipro

Monument to the legendary Cossack Ivan Pidkova

Bouquet of autumn flowers

But the most interesting materials about this travel will be published in the next post.

In Yalta

2010-06-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

Our last camp was made near the final point of our travel - Yalta. The slope of the mountain has appeared to be too inclined so we set up our tents just on the forest road. No one went this road until the morning, so we had got quiet night.
In the morning we went to Yalta - one of the most popular cities in the southern coast of Crimean peninsula. Our tourist trip with backpacks and tens was over and we finally could enjoy a simple walk in the center of this beautiful city. We also went to the city quay and saw Black Sea. A few hours later we leaved Yalta by mountain trolleybus (the longest trolleybus line in Europe) and returned to Simferopol.
Here are some photos from the last day of our travel.

Our camp near Yalta

Vineyards

In the center of the city

Yalta Quay

The Black Sea

See more photos from the last day of our travel in photoalbums here and here.

Yaltynska yaila

2010-06-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

The next stage of our travel was the most higher in the whole trip. For more then an hour we were going along Yaltyska yaila into clouds at a high of 1300-1500 meters. The road ran on the edge of yaila. And if the weather was good we would see a broad landscape on the south with the Black See on the horizon.
Thus, only when we went mountain Djady-Burun and started to come down from yaila, we left the clouds and we could at least see all the landscapes below. They were amazing. You just can see in these pictures:

A road on Yaltynska yaila

Our group

Rocks on the edge of yaila

View on Yalta from yaila

View on the Black Sea coast

More photos of this part of our travel see here and here

To be continued

Going to Kemal-Egerek

2010-06-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

The next part of our route went from river Kacha up to one of the highest Crimean mountains - Kemal-Egerek (1529 m.). We increased the high on more then 1100 meters.
It was about 5 pm. when we crossed Kacha. So we decided to climb Kemal-Egerek the next day. That's why we made our camp on the half of this way - at the tourist stand Kermen (about 800 m.). There we found few wonderful meadows and a source with good water.
Next morning the weather vanished. Around us all was in the clouds. Rained. Clouds and rain followed us till the top of Kemal-Egerek. Thus, even when we had climbed on yaila near mountain Utch-Tash, we still could not see anything around. But we saw many beautiful flowers near the road and amazing rock Djambek-Burun not far from the top. So, at 12.30 we reached Kemal-Egerek. Here are some photos from album "Climbing yaila" and "Kemal-Egerek".

First summit after crossing Kacha

Forest in the clouds

Stones and flowers

Rock Djambek-Burun

On the top of Kemal-Egerek

To be continued

From Alma to Kacha

2010-05-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

After crossing river Alma, we went west. Our map showed us a road, but we couldn't find it in reality. So we started to climb through the forest. Instead of get around mountain Saraman we reached its peak. But then we found a wonderful way and the rest of the evening flew it. We met one man, who looked for lost way from Alma too. He said he couldn't find it too. Maybe this road is only on the map?
This evening we stayed very late - near 21.00. Our camp located on the right bank of small mountain river - Marta. Here we found a lagre glade, where we could put many more tents, than we had.
The next morning we continued moving south, changed Marta valley for valley of one of its tributary - Finaros. After rising and descending we appeared at one of the largest Crimean river - Kacha. There we had dinner.
This day brought me a lot of interesting photos, which I placed into two albums: "Near Finaros" and "In the Kacha valley". Here are some of them.

Crimean evening

Pointer at Finaros station

Tourist halt

Panorama of Kacha lake

Crossing river Kacha
To be continued

Going south

2010-05-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

In the last post I wrote about our arrival to the capital of Crimea - Simferopol. After getting acquaingted with this city we begun our tourist trip. We got to the south edge of Simferopol by mountain trolleybus and then begun to go by foot.
First point of our route was Petropavel paleovulcano. We was able to see petrified parts of ancient lava flows. Now there is a quarry on this place, so all remains of the volcano visible well.
Then we went south. After passing several villages, we entered the forest area. In the first wild valley we stopped at tourist stand Djalman. There we spent the first night. In the morning we continued moving south and few hours later reached the Crimea Nature Reserve. In this place we crossed the river Alma ford. The water was cold but fresh and clean.
Photos about this adventure you can look at photoalbums "To the south of Simferopol" and "Going towards Alma". Here are some pictures of them.

Going to the south

Ancient lava flows

Our group

Forest beauty

Monument dedicated to the Second World War
To be continued

Simferopol

2010-05-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we returned from a new travel. At this time our attention was payed to the southern part of our country - the Crimean Mountains, which are located on the Crimean peninsula.
As you may know, the gateway to the Crimea for most tourists is its capital - Simferopol. You can get to this city by bus, train or by air. And from there you will be offered many ways to get to any place in Crimea.
So, we arrived to Simferopol by train and had a few hours for walking in this city. We saw many interesting things in its streets, especially the beautiful architecture and metal sculptures. But the most ancient monument was archeological complex "Scythian Naples", where visitors can see ruins of Scythian settlements of 3th BC - 3th AD.
I had a photocamera, so you can see the most interesting photos in photo-albums "Simferopol" and "Scythian Naples". Here are some of them.

Tower at the railway station

Cinema "Simferopol"

View of city from the hill of Scythian Naples

Mausoleum of Silur

Dark corridors of ancient town

To be continued

Ivano-Frankivsk

2010-04-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

Crossing river Prut was the last adventure of our travel. After that we caught a bus to the region center - Ivano-Frankivsk. We had several hours before departure of our train, so we decided to take a little walk in this city. What we saw you can see now in these photos.

Ancient church

Modern buildings

City hall

Through the wall of water

Metallic fantasy

Gorgany and Zhenets

2010-04-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

After passing Yablunytsya we entered other mountain village - Palyanytsya. If you know, on of the most popular Ukrainian alpine ski center Bukovel is located here. So, crossing pasture hills we could see in the north mountains with ski traces. Palyanytsya is a beautifull village with new big school and wooden church.

Then we started to climb up Gorgan mountain range. The weather became worse. We have got into rain and clouds. But we conquered a top of Gorgan - mountain Synyak. It is unusual mountains, which are consist of different stones. And there are no soil.

From mountain range we came down to the valley of Zhenets. We spent the night in the small wooden house (because of the rain) near Zhenets waterfall. And next day we reached one of the large Carpathian river - Prut.

Church in Palyanytsya

On the top of Gorgany

In the stone spaces of Gorgany

Mountain river in Zhenets valley

River Prut

From Kukul along the former frontier

2010-04-02T00:36:00.000-07:00

After Kryve Hede the way became rather good. We easily climbed up mount Kukul and then went along Kukul pastures. The weather was fine, so we could see Chornogorian mountain range with Hoverla in the front edge for a long time. Kukul pastures replaced with deep forest. We reached Voronenko mountain pass and then moved towards next mountain pass in Yablunytsya. This village we reached at the next day. So, watch our photos!

View of Chornohora from Kukul

Kukul pastures

Pasture and Hoverla in background

Road in Voronenko

Yablunytsya

Hoverla

2010-03-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

Morning met us with dense clouds around. We couldn't see even a bank of Nesamovyte lake near our tent. But some hours later all the fog got out and we have seen the sun. This day we climbed up the highest mountain of Ukraine - Hoverla. After that we went to the north and got into wind-fallen trees in Kryve Hede. Some hours of fighting with the nature made us very tired, so we set up a camp on the saddle behind Kryve Hede.You are welcome to watch some photoalbums from this day:

The highesth Ukrainian mountain - Hoverla

Symbol of Ukraine on the top of Hoverla

Fine weater

Fallen tree

Road in Kryve Hede

Chornohora

2010-03-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

After top of Pip Ivan we started go along Chornohora mountain range. Sometimes the weather was sunny and then I made a lot of photos with wide view. But after an hour of good weather we have got into clouds with dense cold rain. We became wet to the skin. So, we were very happy to find a flat place for our tent on the bank of Nesamovyte lake.
The next day made us a present with an excelent weather. We continued go farther towards the highest mount in Ukraine - Hoverla. Here are some photos from Chornohora. Links below can led you to the whole photoalbums.

Sign of former Polish-Czech border

Tourists mark

Nesamovyte lake

Clouds on Chornohora

Landscape of Chornohora

continuation

Climbing up Chornohora

2010-03-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Second day of our trip begun with climbing up the east edge of the higest Ukrainian mountain range - Chornohora. We spent night in the mountain valley and in the morning start going across firtree forest. We made some photo near the waterfalls and then our way led us through the fantastic stone creatures - valley of Vuhaty Kamin. The final part of climbing finished at the former polish astronomic observatory on the top of mount Pip Ivan (2028 m).
So, you are welcome to watch photos of this morning.

Waterfalls

Stone fantasy

100 percent of adventures

2010-03-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Last summer we travelled into Carpathians. Our trip has become so interesting, that we wrote a whole book about it: "100 percent of adventures or Chornohory-Gorgany 2009". Also, we have made a lot of bright photos. So, I invite you to take part in phototravel.
Our travel begun in the little mountain village Krasnik. First kilometers we went along the bank of the river Black Cheremosh. After the second (and the last) settlement Dzembronya we started climbing the higest mountain range in Ukraine - Chornohora.
I propose you to watch some photos from the first day of our trip. Clicking into descriptions of images, you can go to the rest photos of albums.

Memorial complex in Krasnik

Bridge across Black Cheremosh

First rocks

Farm in mountain valley

Carpathian evening

continuation

Ukraine

2010-03-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to say some words about my country. If you live in other country, you may not know, where Ukraine is located. Look at the map.

Ukraine lies on the east from the centre of Europe. For us, as tourists, it is interesting because of two mountain systems: Carpathians and Crimea. We climb up those mountains every year. Also, Ukraine has a lot of historical places. Ancient greeks and romes, scythians and sarmatians, knights and cossacks lived here. And now there are many interesting and enigmatic ruins scattered in the different places of Ukraine. Wild nature and thrilling history - what can be better to make an excelent travel!

Welcome

2010-03-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

Hi, everyone!
My name is Victor Polyanko. My friends and I like to travel in our native country - Ukraine. The following articles will tell about our trips.
Thus, this blog was created for everyone who wants to learn more about interesting places in Ukraine. If you are interested in Ukrainian mountains (the Crimea and Carpathians), rivers, forests, caves, ancient castles and cities, this blog is for you!
By the way, if you speak Ukrainian, you can find the Ukrainian version of our travels: http://mandrivnik.blox.ua.