Unexpected journey to Lipichanskaya Pusha (Belarus)

I still cant believe that I lived over 30 years near such beautiful place and havent been there.  This is just about Lipichanskaya Pushcha. I wanted to go there for a long time but onlu this year we managed to do this. And it turns out not just in vain, but in great vain. Places are truly gorgeous, and if you go along our route, you can collect a lot of interesting POIs, enjoy the views, join the history of Belarus.

I will not describe logistics, accommodation and other technical aspects. This will be written in the route. And here I will tell you briefly about the campaign and POI.

Here is official information about Pushcha: "The territory of the reserve is very picturesque due to such landforms as pine-covered continental dunes, elders, eolian hills, steep river terraces, etc.

Of the lands of the Lipichanskaya Pushcha reserve, 87% are forests and only about 4% are swamps. The forest of the reserve are mainly old - oak forests, pine forests, lichen forests. Among them, rare indigenous communities are represented: oak forests, maple trees, and hawks.

On the territory of the reserve, there are centuries-old, outstandingly sized trees of pedunculate oak (more than 100 cm in diameter), ash (over 210 years old and more than 45 cm in diameter), hornbeam (more than 40 cm in diameter), “collar” shaped pine, sections of Karelian birch trees. "From here we draw conclusions about what awaits us".

Although looking ahead I’ll say that the veloby.net users will find adventures everywhere, and of course we managed to find those 4% of the swamps))

The campaign began with a suspension bridge across the Neman. By the way, the longest in Belarus.

Looks like Silent Hill.

Not so dramatically in the morning.

Very cool view from the top.

We decided to start our journey from 7 a.m. 

Foud hunters house:

Crawled through the field waist-deep in the grass.

The morning is very beautiful on Shara river. Especially with a cup of a tea.

Then we moved along the coast in search of POIs and adventures.
 

The shores were cool at first. There are few trees, but a bit swamped. It is interesting to walk there.

We went to the tar of the 19th century. The only one left in Belarus!

Together with a brief tour it turned out to be a very interesting place.

A little spring...

Everywhere in the path we found traces of the activity of sprouting beavers. What are they doing on such deep river?

If you meet beavers here - stay away and certainly do not try to stroke them. Although a beaver is a cute-looking beast, it kills a person with one bite.

Oaks fallen into the river are awesome.

We have visited Black Birch. There are only 6 of them in the whole Pushcha or even Belarus. In essence, nothing special, but still cool.

On the way we came across parkings. Cool and comfortable. I have not seen such a bunch of cool camps on one route for a long time. Many of them are ennobled. 

And again we go along the coast. How cool it is. 

Old oaks at the age of 200+ years grow almost at every step.

 

There are a lot of signs of lightning strikes. If you are there in a thunderstorm, do not hide under the oaks !!!!

Visited the memorial to the Great Patriotic War and partisans.

Near the way there are very nice dugouts with a stove and tables. Apparently here people hang up pretty well.

And then went through the boggy forest. How cool it was. An untouched, centuries-old forest in which there are almost no people. Animals live their own lives. The landscape is changing only by the influence of wind and water. Such authentic forests... It is much better then Belovezhskaya Pushcha without question. It is not so big, but it is more beautiful and diversed. We walked mainly in azimuth and never regretted it.

Many times we forced streams, grooves with water, rivulets. We climbed slides with a large slope. 

Our friends from the other part of our multi-ride were also not bored.

Wandered into the beaver Megapolis. There are probably hundreds of them. Beaver huts, gnawed trunks, fallen trees are everywhere.

And after the forest we continued our  journey  again near the river. Well, you can’t miss this, you can’t!

And here it is the merger of the Neman and Schara. And it truly is awesome.

Near the confluence the is the coolest oak grove with such oaks. And there are hundreds of them.

Well, of course, sunset and twilight.

And in the evening we sang songs. A lot of songs. Until 1 a.m.. 

And in the morning it snowed. It looks as we  moved to a new location. 

And finally, the photo of the cost of baggage. (the rate at the end of 2019 was 2.1 rubles per dollar).

The view from the tower.

What can I say in the end.
Cool places to visit. The track is not complicated and can be enjoyed by most fans. The only thing to mention is that in spring and early fall it can be boggy. Here is a link to our route.

Thanks to all the participants for the company, for the lack of conflicts, for the good mood and the desire to comprehend new interesting places of our native nature.

As for the plans, we definitely want to return here again. Probably in the spring of 2020 as a pawn and in the summer of 2020 with Rumaks in a bicycle ride.