Black Sea Cycling Route and Keraban Le Tetu, Keraban the Inflexible, Вироглавия Керабан

Keraban the Inflexible is a real person - Turkish merchant from Istanbul. Jules Vernes wrote a book, inspired by history: He refused to pay a tax imposed for crossing the Bosporus and in order not to break the low made a trip around the Black Sea Coast to get to the other side of the Bosporus.


We linked this story to our efforts to plan and  make a cycling route on the Black Sea Coast. Unlike Keraban  we plan the route to be used from many people for a long time. So it must be well planned and we have to keep in mind being realistic so in the first stage it will be just along the West Coast from Ukraine to Istanbul. But like Keraban we have to overpass regulations or administrative burdans that make our way difficult in many countries. A very short list of them is: the border crossing Check Point between Bulgaria and Turkey, still not existent, the limitations to put sign posting for cycling trails, etc. And most probably like Keraban we will be forced to bypass laws and regulations and hopefully it will be shorter than touring the Black Sea.




The approximate route of Keraban was this. A short comment: Why did not he pass along the Turkish, Bulgarian and Romanian Black Sea Coast?                


Because there was no road, even not a path. And if it seems strange or not true -  have a look at the Turkish map of today.   Still no road! In Bulgaria our road was constructed just 50 years ago. Till then all transportation was by sea, therefore no need for roads.

Now look again at the map and you will see that in the areas where there is a road, there are towns and resorts and tourism and industry.  In Turkey (no road) the landscape   is the same as it was 2000 years ago-there are only five villages at 250 km. shore. Now follow this logic and imagine that there is a cycling trail along the west coast. There will be cyclists all along the route, they will visit all those isolated villages on the Turkish coast and will take a considerable number of tourist (about 7%) from the crowded resorts in Bulgaria and Romania, from the car to the bike. Which is the modal shift-from motorized to non-motorized transport. From the conventional to the sustainable tourism From the normal to the healthy form of transport.            

This is the proposed route! And it is not so expensive to construct. Most of the rivers are narrow and the bridges needed are small - like those below:
















And if one day those small inexpensive bridges will join the existing sections of the route and will form the whole BSCT route - the new EuroVelo route. And some cycling lanes of course, built from the local authorities! Push and help  them to do it.

Then you will easily see those places. Put on random order on purpose - they are all beautiful and all worth seeing and exploring...by bike!:
Durankolak                                                            

Igneada lake Turkey

Kamchia, Bulgaria
Perhaps with a cycling bridge over it!

Katranka,  Ukraine

 Mamaia, Romania

Constanta, Romania

Ropotamo River, Bulgaria
Perhaps with a cycling bridge

 Sozopol, Bulgaria

Veleka River, Bulgaria

Kiyikoy, Turkey

History links

During the discussions and the presentations of ICT and EuroVelo at the municipalities of Varna and Burgas and found that the media and the participants liked very much the following historical links and parallels we did with our present activities:

1. Piri Rais map and charted.

This map together with a charter (detailed information about the shores - water sources, cities, etc.) was presented to Sultan Selim in 1520. This strategic document had tremendous impact of the following events as it caused the decision of the sultan to start building a fleet. Till then the Ottomans had no fleet and the Venetians and the Genovese transported them when needed. With the new fleet the Ottomans conquered the Black sea shores and the eastern Mediterranean. For the following 400 years the Black Sea area assured  the major source for the Empire's treasury.  The impact of the Piri Rais map and charter is huge for the history as without it is doubtful if the fleet would have been created and if the empire would have been expanded.

We made a direct link of the letter of support for EuroVelo and the Black Sea Cyclimg Trail development with the Piri Rais map. We believe the BSCT could be  huge importance for the tourism and economy of the whole west coast of the Black Sea.

Another link is the Donauradweg (the Danube Cycling Trail) . 40 years ago, before it was constructed no one could have imagined the economical impact and the cycling touristic flow it has now.

The initial survey of the coast lines in the region shows that the west Black Sea coast is mostly flat and not so much populated in comparison to Greece, Turkey and Italy. This makes it suitable for the development of cycling tourism together with the suitable climate - not so hot climate.

ICT recent activities from BCA

The Project ICT (Iron Curtain Trail)  www.ict13.eu inspired and made possible the development of EuroVelo network in Bulgaria and the Black Sea region by starting the Black Sea Cycling Trail.
During 2013 we have done our planned activities on the ICT project: Methodolgy, Best Practice, Survey of the route, Detailed Action Plan and Preparation of the developments and pilot actions.
During the implementation process we realized, together with the local authorities we were working with, taht the full potential of the ICT will only be released if and when the proper development in the Black Sea area will be done. The most important ones are: The opening of border check point at Resovo between Bulgaria and Turkey and the Black Sea Cycling Trail launching as EuroVelo route.
These ICT project activities opened a wide range of necessary actions on National regional and local level in Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania. As all activities were with different importance and priority but none of them could be left aside for future implementation we had to unite with other partners  organisations in the following directions:

- Launching of Bulgarian Cycling Strategy (similar activities fro Turkey, Greece and Romania)
- Work on INSPIRED - Inclusion of Cycling Policies in the Plans for Regional Development
- Lobby for support at National and European level for


One year before the end of ICT we had to think of its sustainability and find solutions for the continuous support from the local authorities along the route.

We organized meetings at the municipalities of Burgas and Varna  for announcing the ICT results up to now, the planed activities and the possibility for future development of EuroVelo by launching the Black Sea Cycling Trail. We got much higher media interest than expected and decided to continue in this direction with future meetings and events apart from the ICT planned ones. The major PR event for the mayors of the Bulgarian Black Sea area will be the signing of the letter of support to the European Parliament. At the moment the staff of the municipalities is preparing the best time for the  event of  the signing.

Photos and other comments will follow shortly.

Meeting in Varna - 14.12.2013

Meeting in Burgas - 2.12.2013