RESOURCE POTENTIAL OF THE ORGANISATION OF COMBINED SPORTS TREKS IN UKRAINE

Resource sport-tourist opportunities of Ukraine in pedestrian and water trekking tourism are mostly limited to routes not higher than the 2nd category of complexity (d.c.) and only in some areas can correspond to 3 d.c. At the same time there is a territorial combination of hiking and water routes of 2-3 d.c. in some regions of Ukraine creates an opportunity to organise combined hikes of 3-4 d.c., i.e. to increase the sport-tourist potential of some regions of Ukraine. Therefore it seems to us perspective to investigate resource possibilities of the organisation of the combined sports treks and thereby to increase sports potential of some tourist areas of Ukraine on one category of complexity. The most resource-rich area of water tourism is the Carpathian region. The author's long-term experience of rafting on Carpathian rivers shows that only those river sections that have a stable summer water flow sufficient for rafting on catamarans are suitable for building combined pedestrian-water routes (in summer). For rafting of the 3rd category of complexity the upper and middle sections of the rivers Chernyi Cheremosh and Chernaya Tisa with continuation by the rivers Cheremosh and Tisa are suitable. Other variants are not reliable for summer rafting. At the same time, the optimal difficulty of the pedestrian part of the route is 2 d.c., which is sufficient for connecting river bundles or passing interesting obstacles. Choosing a more difficult pedestrian part of the route will lead to overcoming unnecessary height differences with heavy rucksacks and overload the participants. When planning a combined route with 2 d.c. rafting, it is possible to include the lower section of the Black Cheremosh + Cheremosh River, as well as rafting along such right tributaries of the Dniester as the Lomnitsa + Dniester and Stryj Rivers, which have their sources and long upper part in the Carpathians. The landscape of the left bank of the Dniester is a large limestone plateau of coral origin. The relief of the plateau is characterised by narrow gorges and canyons of the left tributaries, the grandiose canyon of the Dniester and elongated hill formations - former lines of coral reefs called ‘tovars’. The largest national park in Ukraine, Podolskie Tovry, is located on the territory of this plateau. The nature of vegetation, a lot of interesting natural objects and dissected terrain actualise the demand for bicycle routes to cover this unique territory. From the point of view of organising combined trips, the disadvantage of the left tributaries of the Dniester is the insufficient water flow in summer for rafting on catamarans. In addition, there are often blockages in the narrow gorges. These tributaries are passable by kayak in May, but are only passable by kayaks and packrafts during the summer season. Since kayaks and canoes are not suitable for combined routes, we will look at the potential for building combined routes in this region using packrafts for water rafting. In general, the optimum difficulty of such cycling-water rafting routes will be 3 d.c. The research has shown that: – there are two regions in Ukraine that have potential for organising sports combined treks - the Carpathians and the basin of the left tributaries of the Dniester; – the Carpathian region has sufficient resource potential for the organisation of combined hiking and water treks of the 4th category of complexity with rafting on catamarans on the rivers of the second (2 d.c.+2 d.c.) or third (2 d.c.+3 d.c.) category of complexity. There are variants of both continuous rafting and passing of river bundles connected by pedestrian segments of the route. The optimal complexity of the pedestrian part of the route is 2 d.c.; – on the example of a combined trek of 4 d.c., carried out by the author in 2003, shows the practical feasibility of combined treks in the Carpathian region; – many left tributaries of the Dniester have a category 2 difficulty, but do not have sufficient water flow for catamaran rafting. At the same time, the left bank of the Dniester has sufficient resource potential to carry out combined treks of 3 d.c. based on the combination of cycling and water routes (2 d.c.+2 d.c.). At the same time it is possible to make both continuous rafting (tributary+Dniester) and to pass tributary bundles connected by bicycle segments of the route. The optimal means of rafting along the tributaries is a packraft; – in the post-war period, we assess the prospects for realising the resource potential of combined hiking in the Carpathians as having medium-term demand, and in the left bank of the Dniester as having long-term postponed demand; – other areas with rivers of 2 d.c. and higher, due to their landscape features have no prospects for combined treks. Keywords: combined trips, difficulty category, sports and tourism potential, catamaran, packraft.