We are two riders looking for one or two more to join us on a round trip from Germany, to Romania and Ukraine via Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. Return to via Slovakia and Czech Republic.

We will start early, on May 19th.

Preferably backroads, and gravel (not enduro), some mountain trails, etc. We love riding, but we don't want to miss out on great sights to see on the way.

The route through Romania will be along the Carpathian mountains towards the border crossing to Ukraine (the place where you have to transit through Moldova). In Ukraine it is small roads (probably a lot of gravel) to Crimea, through Odessa. When we have had our "we made it to Swallow's Nest s", we will return along the coast of the Sea Of Azov, backroads heading into the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine, ride some mountain trails and then head to Lviv. After that, we're returning via Slovakia and Czech, where we will celebrate the end of a great ride in Prague.

Best guess is a total of 7-8000 km, where the first legs and last legs will be long as they are mostly German highways.

Though we like to ride on gravel, the majority of kilometers will be on some sort of paved roads.

Work and family says 3 weeks at the most, so there's distances to be covered. There's always the option of riding main roads if we need to move faster. And nothing has been set in stone, so plans will most likely change as we move.

Normally we get up and are on the road at about 9am (depending on the previous evening/night). Then ride until 6pm-ish (sometimes earlier if there's some cool stuff to see, sometimes later if we're in the middle of nowhere). We make a lot of stops during the day, so a 60/40 moving/stopping time ratio is realistic. We prefer B&B, hostels, cheap hotels, or similar. So when we find a place to stay the night, the routine previously has been getting a shower, get something to eat, drink, and another , and whatever nightlife the place had to offer.

To get some distance covered the first day (night), we are taking the autozug from Hambug, Germany to Austria. That way we will cover the German Autobahns, drink and drive legally, move while we sleep and dream about the ride ahead of us. From there, we'll see what happens.

The current route plan looks roughly like this:


You could join either the entire trip or part of it.

Have a great 2013!

Jesper

Trip looks good Jesper; we did the Germany - Czech - Slovakia - Hungary - Romania - Western Ukraine - Slovakia - Austria - Germany trip with the kids as pillions last summer. Looks like you´re planning to cross the southern Carpatians twice, probably the Transalpina and the Transfogarasch. Both are great, but will with 99,9% probability still be closed in May for snow, unless they start clearing the Transalpina which I don´t think they will do. Both apparently clear only in June, sometimes only in July only. So don´t bet the farm on these two fantastic, scenic roads (even the Transalpina is now paved, though).
Cheers
Chris

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Yes, snow can definitely be an issue. We aren't planning on riding Transfagarasan, we did that last year in early June. The gate at the top was closed due to some rock slides on the south side. There was a fair bit of snow on the sides, but the road was cleared. So we went to the top, had lunch at the restaurant at the lake, took the mandatory boy band pose photos, and returned the same way. Still a great ride, though.

We do want to try Transalpina. If the snow becomes a problem, we will turn around. This will be late May, so we hope for the best, but I agree, it is too early to be sure. We do have some alternative options along lower altitudes.

The other one is a gravel road west of Petrosani, road 664, from Vulcan to Targu Jiu. It's gravel, but not as high as Transalpina. Peak is 1600 meters as opposed to Transalpinas 2100 meters. We'll see. We're counting on global heating.

Thanks a lot for your comments.

I have looked at your route. Are you hoping to pass into Romania from Ukraine at the south of Moldova ?

I do not think that this is possible without passing through a very small (and by all accounts) corrupt part of Moldova. Whilst it looks like there is a border crossing between Romania and Ukraine on the Black Sea I am fairly sure that there isn't.

Unless things have changed in the past year or two.


IGNORE ALL THE ABOVE- sorry.... should have read your post properly - your route says that you are going through the small part of Moldova

We have been wondering why there is no border crossing directly between Romania and Ukraine in that area. It doesn't make sense. I guess it is a political decision. Or they couldn't agree on a funding model for a bridge across Danube. Who knows.

Hi Jesper,

I am looking into doing a similar trip this year, just wondering what bikes you will be riding and why you intend to celibrate the end of the trip in Prague?

I live just outside of Prague in CZ so maybe we could meet up for a and debrief of the trip.

Cheers

Al

Well, celebrating the end of the trip might not be the right way of putting it. Just making sure that we have a great time one of the last days of the trip, really. I used to live in Prague for a couple of years and I really liked it. Going back always reminds me of a great time there.

We'd definitely like to meet you. But you really should consider joining us on the trip (or parts of it) as well.

We both ride BMW GS.

Hello! I crossed the border between Ukraine and Romania, north of the town of Siret, road M19. I traveled last summer through Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, crossed Turkey up through Central Europe, total 14500 km in 4 week.

I will have to think about that great offer, the one problem that I have is that I ride a yamaha FJR1300 which is a sports tourer and only ha 10cms ground clearence from the botom of the fairing to the road so NO off road or rough roads for me.
May be we could meet up in Slovakia somewhere? on your return leg of the trip.

Cheers

Al

Yes, there are a couple of border crossings on the northern part of Romania. Last year, we crossed the one at Sighetu Marmatiei. This is a very quiet and easy border crossing and had no queues at all when we were there.

Where in the Ukraine did you go?

Absolutely, that would be great. And if you had some suggestions on what to see, we'd like that. When I was in CZ, I never really explored much of the country besides Prague. I regret that. I know Czeske Budejovitche (?) has some great things to offer (including great ).

I'm going to be a little ahead of you as I'll be travelling from the UK via Zurich for a work assignment to be in Chernivsti for the Ukrainian Sidecar Motocross GP on 19th May. I may ride directly to Budapest and fly to Zurich to save some time if I can find somewhere safe to leave the bike for a week.

I'm then planning a week to ride through Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus before heading back to Schwedt on the Polish/German border for the German GP a week later.

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It does sound like you will be out of Ukraine by the time we get there. Could have been cool to meet though. Could have been cool to see the sidecar race as well.

Hi Jesper,

myself and two mates will be down in Bosnia, Montenegro,Croatia
from June 3rd, will be camping mostly.
If you guys are around at that time it would be great to meet up for a ,

Dave

Hi Jesper

Me and my son will arrive too Odessa around 28-29 may from Georgia,this will be on our way back home,after Odessa we will ride to Lviv and from there to Gdansk and the ferry back to Stockholm Sweden,could be fun to meet and empty a can ore two around Lviv if the time is right.


Kim