So what’s happened over the last couple of months?
It seems like not much of note (except that Steve bought a bike) but we’re just steadily working our way through things; we have been having fortnightly Skype catch ups.
Top of the agenda has been the Russia/Ukraine conflict zone and the Russian annexing of the Crimean peninsula. The original plan was to head through the Crimea and into Russia from there but after a bit of research this is not actually possible. Foreign tourists cannot cross from Ukraine to the Crimea as Ukraine still sees it as their territory (which the UN also does). So the only option is to enter from the Russian side because Russia actually controls it. Not ideal as that’s not the direction we are headed and also because Ukraine sees it as illegal. We’re not keen to be put in a Ukrainian jail!
So we spent quite a lot of time discussing options:
- going further north in Ukraine to cross into Russia above the conflict zone
- getting a ferry across the Black Sea into Russia
- going south of the Black Sea on the way to Baku and the way back from Baku.
In the end we’ve decided to head further north into Ukraine and go north of the conflict zone. We decided that the experience of Ukraine and Russia is a vital component of the trip.
The feature photo is an approximate route that we’re planning on. Part of the beauty of this trip is that we are not going to stick to a given route, we want to take it as it comes and let it be a bit fluid.