Road trip travel writers launch Black Sea Circuit

A career in overland adventure travel was launched when Simon Raven and Chris Raven drove across Siberia from the UK to Vladivostok at the dawn of a new millennium. A decade on sees the release of their fourth book BLACK SEA CIRCUIT, which follows the brothers on a quest to drive full circle around this large inland sea at the birthplace of civilisation.

Chris Raven at the cave fortress of Mangup Kale, Crimea.

Simon and Chris were first introduced to the freedom of the open road at a young age with a series of camping trips to France and Italy with their family throughout the 1980s. Following a career in London, Simon as an internet journalist and Chris as a fashion photographer and picture editor, the brothers quit their jobs in the pursuit of a life of adventure. Over the past fifteen years the travel duo have traversed the Trans-oceanic highway from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of South America, travelled the road to Damascus and have documented and photographed off the beaten track destinations across the globe including China’s deep south, tribal India and the Balkan peninsula.

The Monument to the Defenders of Adzhimushkay Quarry. Kerch, Crimea.

The inspiration for their latest book came from the realisation that the legends of Jason and Argonauts, Noah’s Ark and a tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons all originate from the Black Sea. Gripped by curiosity, Simon and Chris fired up their twenty year old Volvo which looked, “As rustic and weather-beaten as a Cold War tank” and headed east. In the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine, the brothers got up close and personal with the fascinating people who inhabit the six nations that surround these colourful shores. Living on the road like the nomadic horse bowmen who once ruled the steppe grasslands, they explored Crimea, the Caucasus region of southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the Georgian kingdom of Colchis, Turkey’s Pontic coast, the megacity of Istanbul and ended their journey in Romania at the outfall of the mighty River Danube.

Priding themselves in going it alone, Simon and Chris have been noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”.

BLACK SEA CIRCUIT
by The Raven Brothers

On Amazon >

Interview: Trans-Siberian authors drive the Black Sea

Simon Raven (below) & Chris Raven (above).
Photo © Samosir Books

Esther Harper interviews Trans-Siberian authors, The Raven brothers, following the launch of their latest travel odyssey 'Black Sea Circuit: An Adventure Through the Caucasus'.

Twitter: @EstherHarper88

It’s great to be interviewing you both again – the first time we met was back in June 2013 when we chatted about your book ‘Driving the Trans-Siberian’. You mentioned that you were just about to head off on the Black Sea trip, so it’s a real pleasure to have my hands on a copy!

Why did you choose to do this journey? What was it that appealed to you?

CHRIS: It seemed like the right time to check out more of Russia and explore the six fascinating nations that surround the Black Sea’s colourful shores. For many decades the Caucasus region of southern Russia has been plagued by war. When Si first suggested the idea of driving through this less visited region of Eurasia, bordering Chechnya, I immediately dismissed the idea. But following further investigation it appeared the northern Caucasus was experiencing a period of relative peace for the first time in many decades. Vladimir Putin was preparing to host the Sochi Winter Olympics, showcasing Russia as a country capable of glamour and sport. The thought of driving around an entire sea seemed all too irresistible…

In our first interview you spoke about how it was never the plan to write a book about your road trip across Russia. Was it always the plan to write a book this time? If it was planned, how do you think this book compares to Driving the Trans-Siberian which wasn’t planned?

SIMON: When we set off on an adventure we’re never sure if it will be a book. We always document our expeditions with photography, but not all journeys have the right ingredients for a story. We did more background reading for Black Sea than Driving the Trans-Siberian, but only planned the journey in the sense that we knew we would drive clockwise around this mysterious inland sea.

Connected to the last question, if it was planned, how did you record your experiences and memories as you travelled? Notes, diaries, photos?

CHRIS: By the end of the trip the glove box of our Volvo saloon was rammed full of notepads, and whenever we get a chance we type up our notes on a laptop. We also take hundreds of photographs for description.

Who do you think the main audience for Black Sea Circuit is? Or, what type of audience did you have in mind when you were writing?

SIMON: I think the book appeals to a wide audience. Anyone who yearns to know what lies over the horizon would enjoy Black Sea Circuit.

CHRIS: History plays an important role in understanding the Black Sea. If you love archaeology, tales of wandering Knights or draw dropping facts about Stalin’s early life as a bandit our book aims to take you there. 

Full Circle Around the Black Sea

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 following the Trans-Siberian railway line. They have traversed the Trans-oceanic highway from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of South America and in 2007 travelled the road to Damascus. Their latest book ‘Black Sea Circuit: An Adventure Through the Caucasus’ follows the brothers on an epic quest to explore this ancient inland sea and investigate the people, the history and the legends that colour these shores.

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

On Amazon >

Read about a road trip of a lifetime!

Black Sea Circuit. Crimea. Photo by Chris Raven

Black Sea Circuit
by The Raven Brothers

In the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine, my brother and I agreed one sunny afternoon to drive full circle around the Black Sea.

For many years we had yearned to travel this region of the world, where Europe meets Asia, and to explore the six fascinating countries that share the Black Sea’s colourful shores. With Russia hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics our eyes were drawn to the Caucasus. Naturally, we were a little dubious at first about venturing deep into what is considered to be southern Russia’s Wild West. This region bordering Chechnya conjured up images of war, violence and kidnapping. The thought of actually driving through the Caucasus made my spine tingle.

Following weeks of research, I joined Si for a barbecue in the spring of 2013 to discuss the risks of embarking on such a challenging journey.

He flipped a burger on the barbecue and told me to relax. ‘Think lush green rolling hills, spa towns and traditional rural folk tending to their crops in vast open fields. There is relative peace in the region now and, besides, the Caucasus is our only way into Georgia.’

Si was right. Receiving conflicting reports from the Georgian and Russian consulates in London, there appeared to be a fifty percent chance that the ‘Verkhny Lars - Darial Gorge’ border crossing between Russia and Georgia was now open to foreigners. Fellow adventurers had written on travel forums stating that this route was now indeed open, while others claimed it was only accessible to citizens of countries in the ex-Soviet grouping called the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). The thought of not knowing if we could make it through sounded fantastically exciting.

Epic overland adventure is nothing new to me and Si. In 2003, the year before Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set off on their motorcycle road trip across Russia with a film crew, we drove a Ford Sierra from the UK across Siberia to Vladivostok. Deep in the Siberian wilderness, the Zilov Gap section of the Amur highway between Chita and Khabarovsk was still being bulldozed at the time and it wasn’t fully completed until Vladimir Putin officially opened the road in 2010. We wrote a book about the journey ‘Driving the Trans-Siberian’ and Lonely Planet kindly mentioned us in their Russia travel guide. In the years before civil war erupted in Syria we also managed to coax a rusty Ford Escort from the UK to Damascus. The elections were taking place in this turbulent country at the heart of the Middle East, and president Bashar al-Assad was soon re-elected for the second term. I will never forget that eerie moment when the border guard looked at us both just before we crossed into Syria and said, “This is not Iraq”. I often think of the many people we met along the way; the kind people who treated us like friends without asking for anything in return.

With limited means our road trips are not for the faint hearted and to save money we often sleep in the car. For many people the thought of grabbing a few hours shut eye with a steering wheel wedged between your thighs might be considered unacceptable. I struggle to disagree, but it’s the pedals that get caught under the sleeping bag that I find the most annoying.

On that sunny afternoon in the garden, with my head buried deep in a world atlas, I looked down at the Black Sea. My eyes were drawn to the Crimean peninsula that hangs from the neck of the southern Ukraine like a sparkling diamond. Bounded by Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, this journey at the gateway of Eurasia had all the right ingredients for an expedition of a lifetime. Many thousands of years ago tribes of nomadic settlers born out of the Altai Mountains, Mongolia and the Central Asian steppes migrated to the Black Sea and fought great battles. Powerful civilisations have risen along these shores leaving behind ancient kurgan burial mounds brimming with gold and ruins of once great cities, opulent palaces, temples and forts. Thracians, Hittites, Scythians, Sarmatians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Venetians, Mongols, Genoese, Tatars, Turks and Russians, have all left their mark on the Black Sea. Enduring myths and legends inspire us to this present day, from Jason and the Argonauts to the tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons. Since its transformation from a lake into a sea approximately 7,000 years ago, the Black Sea has witnessed the gravest of human misfortunes, played host to the most terrifying atrocities and suffered multiple apocalypses from the arrival of the Black Death to the near extinction of all life inside its waters.

‘So, what d’you think?’ Si grinned, offering me a cold beer. ‘Fancy another adventure?’

What did we have to lose? Six countries, a sea and a twenty year old Volvo 440 – the plan was set. I jumped out of my foldaway chair and slammed the map shut. Our quest to drive around the Black Sea was about to begin.

BLACK SEA CIRCUIT
by The Raven Brothers

On Amazon >

5 Overland Adventures

                          Simon Raven (l) & Chris Raven (r) on the Road to Damascus, Syria. 

                                                           Copyright Samosir Books

Over the past decade, UK authors and road trip travel writers, Simon Raven and Chris Raven, have carved a career in extreme overland adventure travel. Priding themselves in going it alone without the costly support crews used by Top Gear or Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor, the brothers drove from the UK to Vladivostok in in a rusty Ford Sierra.

Amongst multiple overland expeditions, Simon and Chris successfully traversed the Trans-oceanic highway from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of South America. Documenting this fascinating route over the Andes and through the Peruvian Amazon years before the completion of the Trans-Amazonica, their book 'Carnival Express', published in the UK by Samosir Books, was to establish the brothers as modern day explorers and pioneers of new and less explored overland routes. Regular contributors of travel articles and photography to various online publications over the years, Simon and Chris have covered endless international destinations across the globe including tribal India, China's deep south, the road to Damascus and the Balkan peninsula.

The brother’s exciting expedition to Crimea and the Caucasus sees our trusty pioneers embark on a quest to drive full circle around the Black Sea. Gripped by curiosity following the discovery that this strange inland sea is the origin of endless myths and legends including Noah’s Ark, Jason and the Argonauts and a tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons, Simon and Chris fired up their twenty year old Volvo in the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine and headed east. Seizing a rare window of opportunity to drive full circle around the Black Sea, the travelling duo investigate this less explored region of the world that for decades has been impassable due to violent conflict in the Caucasus, partly caused by two wars in Chechnya, the Abkhazia conflict in Georgia and the Russo-Georgian war. Receiving conflicting reports from the Russian and Georgian consulates in London, the brothers successfully crossed this less visited frontier at the gateway of Eurasia and had the opportunity to bring this fascinating corner of Europe to life in their book ‘Black Sea Circuit’ which was launched on 4th June 2015.

Only months after completing their journey from Odessa in the Ukraine to the Danube Delta in Romania, passing through Crimea, Southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the ancient Georgian kingdom of Colchis and Turkey’s Pontic coast, this inspiring route became impassable once more as war erupted in East Ukraine following the Euromaidan protests in Kiev in early 2014. Offering a rare glimpse into a region of Europe where the ancient Greeks first established trading colonies with the nomadic steppe tribes, thousands of years before the birth of Abrahamic religions in the Levant, ‘Black Sea Circuit’ is an eye opening account of the origns of the modern world at the birthplace of civilisation.

   

Join the Raven brothers on four epic overland adventures across the USA, Russia, Black Sea and South America!

by The Raven Brothers

Driving the Trans-Siberian: The Ultimate Road Trip Across Russia

Black Sea Circuit: Crimea & the Caucasus

Hike, Drive, Stayin' Alive! (10 Stories of Adventure)

Carnival Express: A South America Adventure

Living the Linger: Freedom on the American Highway

Hike, Drive, Stayin' Alive!

by The Raven Brothers

On Amazon >

Out of shape and unprepared, The Raven Brothers return to the road in a collection of ten quests to travel to their dream destinations against all odds! After two decades pioneering new routes across the globe, you would expect the authors of 'Driving the Trans-Siberian' to be hotshot explorers, with a sixth sense and an ability to survive in almost any situation. Think again! With virtually zero knowledge of the workings of the internal combustion engine and very limited skills of wilderness survival, Simon and Chris struggle into their hiking boots and power across three continents by river, tarmac and trail.

Venture to the top of Norway, cruise the road to Damascus, hike the Camino trail into Spain’s Wild West, row the Ganges, explore Frida Kahlo’s world in Mexico City, hangout with the dead in Sicily’s eerie catacombs, crawl deep inside Bolivia’s notorious silver mine, seek lions in Gujarat, wellness in Berlin and journey into the Naga Hills where tribal kings still rule.

Noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”, 'Hike, Drive, Stayin’ Alive!' signals a return to the duo writing “buttock clenching” travel comedy with the first in a series of candid stories of adventure by The Raven Brothers.

Black Sea Circuit: An Adventure Through the Caucasus

BLACK SEA CIRCUIT
by The Raven Brothers

The legends of Jason and the Argonauts, Noah’s Ark and a tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons all originate from the Black Sea.

Gripped by curiosity, Simon and Chris fire up their twenty year old Volvo that looks as rustic and weather-beaten as a Cold War tank and embark on a quest to drive full circle around this ancient body of water at the birthplace of civilisation.

In the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine, the brothers get up close and personal with the fascinating people who inhabit the six nations that surround these colourful shores. Living on the road like the nomadic horse bowmen who once ruled the steppe grasslands, they explore Crimea, the Caucasus region of southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the Georgian kingdom of Colchis, Turkey’s Pontic coast, the megacity of Istanbul and complete their journey in Romania at the outfall of the mighty River Danube.

A career in overland adventure travel was launched when Simon and Chris coaxed a rusty Ford Sierra across Siberia from the UK to Vladivostok. Priding themselves in going it alone, the brothers have been noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”.

BLACK SEA CIRCUIT by The Raven Brothers

Order your copy online from Amazon and all major book retailers. ISBN 9780954884284.

On Amazon >

Summer begins with a road trip odyssey

Samosir Books announce the launch of their latest travel odyssey, BLACK SEA CIRCUIT, by UK authors and road trip travel writers, The Raven Brothers.

Georgia border with Azerbaijan. Photo by Simon Raven.

The legends of Jason and the Argonauts, Noah’s Ark and a tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons all originate from the Black Sea. Gripped by curiosity, Simon and Chris fire up their twenty year old Volvo that looks, “as rustic and weather-beaten as a Cold War tank” and embark on a quest to drive full circle around this ancient body of water at the birthplace of civilisation. In the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine, the brothers get up close and personal with the fascinating people who inhabit the six nations that surround these colourful shores. Living on the road like the nomadic horse bowmen who once ruled the steppe grasslands, they explore Crimea, the Caucasus region of southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the Georgian kingdom of Colchis, Turkey’s Pontic coast, the megacity of Istanbul and complete their journey in Romania at the outfall of the mighty River Danube.

A career in overland adventure travel was launched when Simon Raven and Chris Raven drove across Siberia from the UK to Vladivostok at the dawn of a new millennium. An account of their journey ‘Driving the Trans-Siberian’ was first published by Samosir Books in 2003 and became the second book in the ‘Linger Series' travel trilogy. Over the past fifteen years the brothers have traversed the Trans-oceanic highway from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of South America, travelled the road to Damascus and explored multiple destinations across the globe including China’s deep south, tribal India and the Balkan peninsula. Priding themselves in going it alone, Simon and Chris have been noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”.

BLACK SEA CIRCUIT
by Chris Raven & Simon Raven

Order your copy online from Amazon and all major book retailers. ISBN 9780954884284.

On Amazon >