Great, no rain today !!! Skies were looking clear, well, at least clearer than yesterday so it was time to pack my things and say goodbye to Simferopol. I was keen to do the enduro gps track I got from the fellow biker I had met 2 days before.
After filling up with petrol my bike and I were ready for some adventure, and oh boy, today it would deliver.
It didn’t take long for my trusty mechanical steed and I to reach the outskirts of town and soon we found ourselves on a little dirt track that slowly climbed higher and higher above sea level.
There were some really nice views to be had and not a soul in sight, except for a 4wd that I had passed at one point.
Since it had rained the day before I was expecting bad conditions, but it wasn’t bad at all during the first section of the track. Then however the road led into the forest and that usually spells trouble. You see, in a forest the wet ground takes longer to dry because the canopy of the trees blocks the wind from evaporating the soil. At least, that is my spin on it. And since it had really stormed yesterday, the track turned into a really awful pool of mud at certain points.
The tires I have on my bike have been worn quite a bit, so their thread is no longer ideal for muddy conditions (not that they are great when they are new, but still).
I get stuck for a fair amount of time in one track and had to resort to digging out mud with a branch, and trying to stick branches everywhere hoping that my rear wheel would catch some grip on the branches and drag itself out of this mess. I must have gone at it for half an hour or so but the adrenaline and sweat might have impaired my judgment of time.
Finally I managed to get out of the worst part of the mud but soon some steep descents were following. I can honestly say that going downhill on a motorbike whose tires are clogged up with mud is not something I set out to do at the beginning of a new day, it just happens, and when it does, it sucks. I fall down a couple of times, but luckily not at any speed worth mentioning and each time without any damage to the bike or its driver.
The forest makes room for open terrain and my spirits start to lift again. There are however still some deep tracks from cars that have driven on here and occasionally I sink into one of them. It is good when they go completely straight, you just keep following them, but when you don’t see that they actually make a sharp curve out of a sudden, this spells disaster and I take a fall once again. This time I had a bit of speed, but nothing bone shattering. The good thing about these wet and muddy conditions is that the ground feels softer to land on. But yeah, this track is taking its toll on me, I can feel that I am getting weaker and tired. Unfortunately this is not a time to loose focus.
Again the road starts climbing higher and higher and the track becomes littered with boulders. This is no terrain for a big motorbike and I feel blessed not to have one :).
After a while I reach the edge of the plateau where beautiful views await me
. I clearly have reached the highest point of the track which can only mean one thing, it will go downhill shortly.
I’m hoping that there are not too many forest sections to go through as I kind of reached my preferable daily limit of dropping the bike. Somebody must have thought the same way as the next downhill section was not at all in the forest, but that didn’t make it any easier unfortunately. I don’t have pictures of this descent, but you can trust me on my word that it was freakin steep and a fine mix between a thick clay underground making for a very slippery surface. Add to that a fine mix of huge boulders and you have a perfect obstacle course to try and maneuvre yourself through. Needless to say that my gps did hardly register any speed whatsoever. Also, the only way would be to descend, there was absolutely no chance I was going to ascend this incline if I came to a dead end somewhere. It all adds to the excitement 🙂
And after this dodgy descent there were again some forests. This time however the big mud pools decided not to join the party. And I thanked them for that. There were some more steep descents but this time no huge boulders to worry about, just the clay. But I managed to come down safely and was soon approaching sea level again. I must admit I had a sigh of relief and some sort of feeling of accomplishment that I made it out there without any damage. I took the bike to the beach to cleanse of most of the mud that had stuck on the frame near the chain. It was a thick layer of clay that would have made pottery artists scream of joy if they had the chance to work of it. If I had a spinning table I could easily reenact the famous scene of the movie ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. I will leave that to your imagination.
There was still plenty of daylight in the day so time for more exploring. I did notice the gps track would now simply guide me over the main roads so no mud or crazy descents to worry about. My next destination was a place called Sudak. The road leading to this town went through some hills so the occasional curve was present. At one of these curves I nearly hit a car. Or I should say, a car nearly hit me. I was perfectly on my lane of the road but the crossing car was going too fast and basically could not make it through the curve and had to come onto my lane. In the corner of my eye I could tell it was some young punk who was convinced he was going to be the new Ukrainian Michael Schumacher but it was obvious that he would need a lot of practice, preferably on empty roads. It really was a couple of centimeters, but I luck was on my side.
After a while I reached Sudak, but saw no reason to stop there, perhaps it were the thousands of beach going people and their inflatable swimming toys that put me off. On to Novi Sveti then. I had seen postcards of this place and it looked rather nice. But again, upon getting there the herd of people didn’t appeal to me. Can you notice a theme here?
On to Feodosia then… I tried following the track as closely as possible but at certain points I had to make a detour as some parts were no longer accessible for vehicles.
I followed the gps track past Feodosia and all to way to the very end of this previously recorded track.
This put me on the edge of a sandy cliff right about here
The sun was setting now and I was contemplating camping on this grassy edge of the cliff.
Would this be stable enough when it rained? I could easily picture some more land dropping off into the black sea due to factors of erosion. Somehow I didn’t want to find out and I drove back a bit to a sea level beach towards Feodosia that I had passed on my way to the cliff. I noticed people camping alongside the beach and I decided to find myself a nice little seaside spot. It was easy to find it, plenty of space as well, but plenty of mosquitoes too. There were so many of them that after putting up my tent my evening was just spent inside the confines of my little fabric fortress. I probably should have camped at the cliffs. There were no mosquitoes there 🙂
This was by far the most challenging track I have ridden. Any heavier bike than a 250cc would have been an even more struggle. Surely yesterdays rain had played a part but I was happy to have done it. The mosquitoes were probably disappointed as I can imagine I must have been smelling like a pig.
Goodbye working holiday visas, Europe here I come 