Polissia Nature Reserve is located in northern Ukraine near the Belarus border. It was created in 1968 to preserve pine forests and swamps. You can get there by car from Kyiv in 4 hours. The central estate of the reserve is located in the Selezivka village, where you can find a visitor center and a small museum of nature. Near the estate begins the marked eco trail (3 km) with information boards.
We spent two days in the reserve living in wooden cabins almost in the forest. In the cabins there is nothing but the beds, no bathrooms (however, there are sinks in some cabins). But there is a furnace, so it won't be cold even in winter. There's also a well from which we took water for brushing the teeth, washing and drinking.
What to do there? Our answer is - to explore the beautiful nature. A large number of swamps made the area inaccessible to humans and unsuitable for agriculture. It saved the animals from destruction. We didn't see any big animals, but found a lot of small ones. The most interesting find was a forest dormouse that loves to sleep in birdhouses. Therefore, if you see traces of excrement around the hole in a birdhouse, it is likely that a dormouse will be there. We have found it twice. Curiously, the mouse didn't run away both times: it jumped on the back of someone of us and sat there for about a minute.
There are also many animal tracks, we found traces of a moose. Some time ago local people found traces of a wolf just 50 meters from the cabins. We also saw several beaver dams on the swamps.
But the most interesting thing in the forests for a wide range of tourists is mushrooming (in autumn). There are so many mushrooms that some people in our group got sick with the "mushroom fever." They refused to tour and got up at 6 am to gather more mushrooms :) I never saw such huge ones as we found here.
So, if you want to gather mushrooms, you can drive to the village in the morning, walk in the forest and return home in the evening.
The reserve features a unique form of beekeeping - apiculture (bortnytstvo). It remained from the times of the Kiev Rus (more than 1000 years old). Many local residents make special hives and hang them in the forest. Bee families find them and settle inside.
Polissia Nature Reserve ©Yuriy Buriak
Huge cep mushroom ©Yuriy Buriak
Huge birch bolete ©Yuriy Buriak
Cep mushroom ©Yuriy Buriak
Finding such a "family of mushrooms" is considered a great success in the Kyiv region, but not here ©Yuriy Buriak
Red-capped scaber stalk ©Yuriy Buriak
Checking the presence of the forest dormouse ©Yuriy Buriak
Forest dormouse ©Yuriy Buriak
Forest dormouse ©Yuriy Buriak
Minifrog ©Yuriy Buriak
Legless lizard ©Yuriy Buriak
Squirrel ©Yuriy Buriak
Young birch trees ©Yuriy Buriak
Unique type of beekeeping - apiculture (bortnytstvo) ©Yuriy Buriak
Place for feeding animals ©Yuriy Buriak
There is a lot of different kinds of berries in the forest ©Yuriy Buriak
Moss ©Yuriy Buriak
Platform with animal tracks ©Yuriy Buriak
Heather ©Yuriy Buriak
You can climb the tower and look around. ©Yuriy Buriak
Grybove (Mushroom) lake ©Yuriy Buriak
Artificial nests for birds ©Yuriy Buriak
Birch forest ©Yuriy Buriak
Such funny mushrooms grow everywhere. ©Yuriy Buriak
Scenery on the way to the reserve ©Yuriy Buriak
Large anthills ©Yuriy Buriak
Beaver dam ©Yuriy Buriak
Beaver dam ©Yuriy Buriak
Swamp ©Yuriy Buriak
Cabins in the forest where we slept. ©Yuriy Buriak
There is a high level of humidity in the forests. ©Yuriy Buriak
Artificial ponds ©Yuriy Buriak
Dugout (resembles a hobbit house) ©Yuriy Buriak
Polissia Nature Reserve ©Yuriy Buriak
Moss on the trees differs from the rest of Ukraine. ©Yuriy Buriak
Artificial canals in the forest were formed after the gravel road construction. ©Yuriy Buriak
Russula ©Yuriy Buriak
Fern ©Yuriy Buriak
Moss of two types: white and green ©Yuriy Buriak
The pines are orange near the trunk. ©Yuriy Buriak
Small pines have different coloring. ©Yuriy Buriak
Next generation of footwear - eco ©Yuriy Buriak
Amanita ©Yuriy Buriak
Getting there: It will take you about 4 hours by car from Kyiv. Use the gravel road from the Syrnytsya village to the Selezivka village as a landmark. The central estate of the reserve is located in Selezivka. We bought an organized tour from the "Unique Ukraine" travel agency.
