3-Hour Hike

Hello everyone everywhere! I dedicate this post to those whose New Year's resolution was to hike more in 2021. I want to tell you about the second biggest river in Ukraine that we are lucky to live next to. So the two largest rivers in Ukraine are Dnipro and Dnister. The latter cuts through western Ukraine and discharges its waters into the Black Sea. The small town of Zalishchyky that became our temporary resort sits on the left bank of this magnificent river and due to it the town's view is famous all over Ukraine and not only. Why? Check out this video by Ukrainer to see why:

I want to tell you a couple of facts about this river and our hike along it the other day. The river rises near town Drohobych which sits at the foot of Ukrainian Carpathians. So the river is considered to be a mountain stream and Carpathians generously feed it with snow and rains which results in floods during spring snow break. It used to have a lot of names and was mentioned back in the times by ancient Greeks that called it Tyras. Later on, it carried names Danastris and Danastus and the Turks called it Turia. The river served as a border between different states at different times. Today the river is the border between two Ukrainian oblasts (administrative regions) - Chernivtsi and Ternopil regions. While in ancient times it was used as a trade route, nowadays it is more recreational area and navigation no longer takes place except several ferries that connect villages on opposite banks. Dnister forms a unique natural landmark - the Dnister Canyon. You can find amazing places along the river shore: overhanging cliffs, mysterious caves and manmade places like cave church Bakota. In Zalishchyky Dnister is pretty wide but not very deep. Though in 2020 the river level raised very high and villages located on low sections of the shore suffered from the big water. The town consists of two parts - the old town sitting at the bottom of the river valley and the new town sitting on the top of the hill - and for us, living in the new town, the river is located down below, we need to descend a very steep slope to get to the river which we did the other day. So while all mountaineers say that descent it the most dangerous part of "climbing" I can tell you that in our case ascending was quite an undertaking. If you take a look at this photo and spot a church dome in the right top part of the photo it will give you a perspective on our descend since the church was our starting point.

Though it is an enjoyable hike, you should keep in mind that it's very muddy and there is a lot of small pebbles that can make you slip very easily. And better you are very careful when trying to grab some branch to hold to it - the slopes are covered in rose hip bushes and hawthorn. Once you get to the bottom, you can walk right next to the river and enjoy the views.

Hope you enjoyed this short 4-mile hike and the views. Till the new story! Stay safe!