Motor Caravan to Ukraine

This summer I took my Talbot Express motor caravan to Ukraine. Last year, I was warned by a British couple with a motor caravan that the frontier crossing into Ukraine involved several hours of waiting and much bureaucratic scrutiny by the authorities there. Also that the traffic police were corrupt and would stop vehicles with foreign number plates to try and extract bogus cash fines.  I had heard that Ukraine was making changes to its procedures in order to accommodate the Euro football fans, so I decided to go, but not for the football because it didn’t interest me.

Before arrival at one of the Poland/ Ukraine borders I saw a horrendous queue of trucks waiting to enter, but the cars just drove around them and I followed them. As I approached, I saw an almost empty lane marked “EU”, so I entered and moved quickly to the front.  I was required to open all cupboard doors within the habitation, and to open the rear sheet of my baggage trailer.  I was dreading that they would ask me empty out the contents, but they simply took a photograph of the loaded trailer. The authorities were perplexed that my trailer did not have its own registration document and carried the same registration as the motor caravan. I was given an entry visa stamp in my passport without payment, valid for 90 days. The entry process took around 30 minutes.

Escaping from Britain’s wet and cold weather, I headed for the Black Sea coast in the south of Ukraine. The condition of some of the roads was poor. On the good lengths of road I had to remain alert as they could end suddenly, and hitting deep potholes at more than 50 MPH is not recommended.

The western edge of Ukraine (following the Carpathian Mountains) was lush, but as I travelled further south the temperature rose noticeably and it became apparent that the terrain was becoming dryer and the grass became yellow gold. On arrival at Odessa on the Black Sea coast the temperature had risen to +39C. The architecture here was classical and the ambience very cosmopolitan. I continued further south into Crimea where the temperature reached +45C on some days, with a sea water bathing temperature of +24C.

Locally purchased fruit, vegetables, milk and eggs were cheap by British standards, but quality cheese, beef and many other products found in supermarkets were of similar price to the UK. Campsites were few and cost around the equivalent of £4.20 each night (no electricity) and usually had primitive showers and toilet facilities.  However, many Ukrainian, and Russian tourists rough camp adjacent to the more remote beaches and I just parked up with the other tourists. I loved Sevastopol, and also Yalta was nice, but was in peak season and rather manic. I continued to Alusta where I rested several days parked for free adjacent to the beach. I continued on a winding mountain/ coastal road with fantastic views to Sudak with it castle walls, which has seen no significant rain for months. Again I found free camping in a little bay 5 kilometres from Sudak.

I found the people generally most friendly with school children eager to practice their school English lessons on me. They would look at my van registration and ask “have you really come all the way from England?”

There were numerous traffic police control points, but I was always waved through without problems. I use standard 95 octane petrol costing £0.88 pence per litre, which is just as well because I clocked up over 2500 miles in Ukraine alone. A great visit with absoloutely no regrets.