To Hoverla by bike

Ecological or green tourism has been gaining popularity around the world. For example, according to the data of the International ecotourism society, this market can reach a turnover of 470 billion dollars in the next six years. Will Ukraine get at least several billions out of it? Theoretically, experts assess the tourist prospects of our country very positively; however, in practice the present situation doesn’t support this positive attitude. Despite having the Carpathians, the Crimea, and unique natural or architectural objects in other regions, Ukraine not only fails to extensively involve foreign tourists, but loses its own – they go to Turkey, Egypt or Balkan countries.

Experts state that banal laziness is among the reasons for such a tendency. According to them, it is much easier for tour agents to sell their customers a ready (though foreign) product than develop their own. So, instead of being intensively promoted in Ukraine, “green” tourism is forced to develop in a haphazard manner.

One of the budding “green” tourism manifestations took place last Saturday in the Carpathians. On Environment Day bikers from all over Ukraine gathered for a cycle race to the highest peak of our country – Hoverla. As it turned out, 2,061 meters above the sea level is not an obstacle for a “rover” (that’s how a bike is called in Western Ukraine). Quite the contrary: a bike trip in the mountains is both an extreme and convenient way to see unique landscapes and monuments.

More importantly, recent trips have now become “civilized,” meaning that the chance to get lost in the mountains is minimal. And all this is owing to the project “BikeCountry.”

HOW IT STARTED

In 2008 enthusiasts of bicycle racing got an idea to imitate a positive European concept in bicycle racing organization – to develop cycle routes, equip hotels and leisure places for bikers, install bicycle rails, etc.

“Exactly at this time I learned about the project contest of the European Council. I came up with the idea to submit a project on developing bicycle routes in the Carpathians,” says a former capital’s PR-consultant who left Kyiv for the Carpathians, and currently is the manager of the “BikeCountry” Viktor Zahreba. “I found adherents, we thought everything over, planned it and submitted an application for the contest.”

As Zahreba told The Day, initially the plans were modest: to build infrastructure for bikes only in the town of Yaremche. However, they had to make the project bigger because of the minimal threshold of the EU grant – 520,000 Euros. So besides Yaremche, plans were supplemented by Vorokhta, Kolomyia, Kosiv, Rakhiv and other Carpathian towns and villages. As a result, the “BikeCountry” won the grant.

“The ideology of our project is involving young people in active leisure.” When the body works – the brain rests. And the Carpathians are the best place where one can do this. So we’re very grateful to the EU, particularly to the EU commission within the framework of Romania-Ukraine neighborhood program, which considered our project and supported it by allotting funds,” continues Viktor Zahreba. “We want Ukraine to belong to the European Union as well. So the symbolic goal of our act is to raise Ukraine’s and the European Union’s flags on Hoverla for Europe Day.”

EXTREME “MISSION” ACCOMPLISHED

Having started in downtown Vorokhta, a column of about 50 participants on bikes with flags fastened on them and 20 journalists in a minivan went 20 kilometers to the training sports base “Zarosliak,” from where tourists usually start their 4.1-kilometer long way to Hoverla. From here the participants had to carry both flags and bikes. So unburdened journalists helped raise the national flag. The Day covered a particularly lengthy segment, then passed the baton on to young bikers already on Small Hoverla.

Despite the challenging road, we had enough energy for the general euphoria which ensued, taking pictures on the summit with snow still in some places, and also with flags of Ukraine and the European Union, attaching them to the flagstaff, regardless of the diverse contingent (ranging from high school and college students to serious men and delicate girls), different professional preparation and basic equipment (many journalists were cold on the summit). The favorable weather helped out: despite the weather forecast predicting a thunderstorm with hail, it was warm and sunny in the mountains. Sometimes even too much – some ended up with sun burns.

And though just eight participants reached the summit with bikes, the solemn “mission” was accomplished. And these eight people needed some more adrenalin: on the way back they were riding bikes right from Hoverla to “Zarosliak.”

TIME TO SHATTER STEREOTYPES

In the opinion of the activists of “BikeCountry,” it’s time to shatter stereotypes about the superiority of the winter Carpathian tourist season over the summer one. The latter, in its turn, should be called bicycle tourism. Since now, owing to the realization of the project, six raions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Trans-Carpathian oblasts are provided with modern bicycle infrastructure. Particularly, about 50 cycling routes were developed and marked, over 700 bicycle stations were installed, a network of 30 lodging sites for bicycle tourists was created, etc.

Representatives of the press had an opportunity to try one of the routes on June 6 – Journalist Day. The algorithm of the bike trip is as follows: going to a bike rental agency, where a bike is selected and adjusted for everyone together with helmet and gloves, and available routes are shown. Renting a bike costs 50-60 hryvnias for half a day, or 80-100 hryvnias per day. After a short instruction we set off for the 17-kilometer long trip along the route No. 303 called “Legend” – from Yaremche to the monastery of St. Andrew and the recreation center “Legend,” built in the traditional Hutsul style.

This route was elaborated specifically for beginners, but it’s not without small extreme elements. Notably, the route passes through a planked footway (pendant bridge which really sways while one is on it) over Prut river. Then you can enjoy Hutsul scenery and the unforgettable smell of fir forest. After all this one can also wash oneself in the cold mountain river Kamianka near the St. Andrew monastery.

As PR-manager of “BikeCountry,” Volodymyr Zakaliuzhny says that one of the project’s goals is to keep tourists in the Carpathians, thus extending the tourist season for the region. The latter welcomes this assistance: small hotels (in the Carpathians they are called farmsteads) actively join the list of bike-mansions – for it’s necessary to arrange a garage, a place to clean and park bikes. At this, not only bike tourists who live in a certain farmstead can use all this, but also other travelers. This is one of the project conditions – so that tourists could wash or fix their bike for free in any farmstead participating in “BikeCountry.”

“The goal of the project is a readily available infrastructure and possibilities for business, so that tourist agents could sell bike tours. And business must decide itself whether it will use the opportunities or not,” tells The Day Zakaliuzhny. “We wish there were a constant flow of traveling cyclists. But so far these are ordinary tourists who after learning about the project show an interest in riding. There are just 10-15 percent of real professionals.”

However, representatives of local tourist business already point to positive changes which cycling tourism brought them. “Tourists coming here on bikes don’t mean to drink alcohol, etc., they are cultured,” says the owner of Yaremche luxurious farmstead Maksym Kryvoruchko. “As soon as we took part in the project, literally within a month a growing number of traveling cyclists started visiting us: we had ten companies which stopped by, and lots just called. The flow of tourists increased, without a doubt. And of course we like it. Now even those people who came here for other purposes are willing to try our cycling tourism after our first proposal and route demonstration.”

The activists of the “BikeCountry” consider the Euro-2012 as a chance for further development of cycling tourism in the Carpathians. “This will be a good chance to get publicity. Europeans will be interested in cheap but thrilling Ukrainian cycling tourism,” Volodymyr Zakaliuzhny confidently states.