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| A discarded Russian newspaper floats on the surface of the Black Sea. Photo by Simon Raven. |
In
the summer of 2013 there was a period of relative peace around the Black Sea for the first time in many decades; an eerie calm before the storm.
Seizing
a rare opportunity to explore the six nations that surround this fascinating
region of the world at the gateway of Eurasia, UK authors and road trip travel
writers, Simon Raven and Chris Raven, fired up their twenty year old Volvo and
embarked on a quest to drive full circle around the Black Sea.
Six
months after they completed their expedition through Crimea, the Caucasus
mountains of Southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the ancient kingdom of Colchis and
Turkey’s Pontic coast, tension erupted in East Ukraine which ultimately led to
Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the tragic slaughter of thousands of Ukrainian and
Russian soldiers and civilians. This ancient route around the Black Sea became impassable once more.
Epic
overland travel is nothing new to Simon and Chris. In 2003 they drove across Russia from the UK
to Vladivostok Damascus
Noah’s
Ark , Jason and the Argonauts and a tribe of
fierce female warriors know as the Amazons all originate from the Black Sea . The Greeks established trading colonies here
with the nomadic steppe tribes a thousand years before the birth of Abrahamic
religions in the Levant . Genghis Khan, Attila
the Hun, Alexander the Great, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir
Putin have all left their mark on this region. Offering a rare glimpse
into a world at the frontier of Eurasia , Simon
and Chris unravel this complex region at the birthplace
of civilisation.
BLACK SEA CIRCUIT: An Adventure Through the Caucasus
by The Raven Brothers
