In Spain – the Basque country, in Belarus – Polesie. 130 thousand square kilometers. Almost the area of Greece. But you won’t find Polesie on Google maps. In Belarus, it is a part of the country, almost 30% of the territory, a place of endless forests, thousand–year-old swamps, rivers that spill for tens of kilometers every spring. For local Poleshuk residents, this is not a reason to worry, they have been living and working on water here for centuries.
The Belarusian Sea is called the sea of Herodotus. According to legend, the ancient Greek “father of history” traveled here during the flood of rivers. In those days, the depth was a kilometer, and ships sailed on the water. After the 1960s and 1970s of the last century, global land reclamation was carried out in these places. A lot of water has flowed since then.
Sergey Leshkevich is a real connoisseur of Polesie. He is a Poleshuk himself, was born in the south of the country and knows the most beautiful places on foot and by rowing. Sergey’s passion for tourism woke up at the age of 25, when he packed a backpack and went hitchhiking around the world in rubber flip-flops.
“I have hitchhiked approximately 40 thousand kilometers in the complex. That’s when I realized that this is our unique country. Even when I was traveling in Siberia, many guys said: “And where is this Belarus?” The associations are the Belarusian tractor and potatoes. In fact, we all, in fact, even have our own sea,” Sergey shared his experience.
Polesie is an ideal place for water tourism. This has happened historically. A boat is a mandatory local transport. It was used for fishing, transporting livestock, hay, and today guests and tourists have been added. And a boat for poleshuk is a means of communication and earning a living. In the XXI century, for Sergei, it’s a kayak and a sub. A new generation of poleshooks and a new look at wild places.
“This is an ordinary life for us. My grandfather told me that, in principle, you could safely take a motor boat into the same lake in Pinsk, in Stolin – it was an endless expanse. And roads were no longer needed then. In fact, the road was endless water, you could go anywhere,” says Sergey.
Not only settlements, but also pastures are turning into islands. Here are the bulls-islanders. Descendants of the great Tours. They lived here many centuries ago and disappeared. Modern chubby bison with huge horns are the work of European geneticists and a Polesie landmark. They were brought to their historical homeland from the national park of Latvia several years ago. Every day, 20-30 bags of hay are brought to the island by motorboats for the descendants of the tours.
Every spring, locals take boats to the store and to work. Children are taken to schools. Every spring, water has become not just a way of life for the locals, but a way of thinking.
The guide Sergey shows the most picturesque places of the Pripyat River. Oak forests, centuries-old willows, driftwood, like dragons from “Games of Thrones”. A forest in the water and a walk through it will become a kind of flight, in which, it seems, you can touch the tops of the trees. A dead place with swamps is an ideal place for new impressions of the hunted townspeople. In Sergey’s kayak there is the main attribute of his tours: a samovar on firewood and cones, with a pipe and smoke and a brew of fresh currant leaves. The Polessky tea ceremony looks like this.
In addition to sweets, wild Polesie honey is served with tea. It is collected here on the islands in boards and decks, as it was 100 years ago. The locals are still watching the wild bees. This tradition, however, is becoming a thing of the past. But there are still rare specimens in Polesie.
The house on the water has become popular thanks to social networks. Sergey, when he first saw him, understood: this is a tourist exclusive from Polesie. I met the owner of the house, Mikhail, and now they organize tours here together for everyone.
“It’s a cool place. There is no such thing anywhere else. It’s worth coming here, it’s worth bringing people here. It will be interesting, because, as I saw, the main contingent of people who come here are men, fishing, so harsh. And I wanted to show the young people that you can do yoga here, you can rest, relax,” Sergey shared.
In summer, this place will be covered with green grass. The Pripyat River will shrink again and become 50-70 meters wide, and the shore will become a beach for recreation near the house no longer on the water, but next to the water.
The land of the most hardworking farmers – the harshest, laconic people. Poleshukes are reputed not only to be greedy for work, but also demanding of the quality of food – they grow and make everything practically themselves. You haven’t heard about diets and protein smoothies here. Lard in a three–liter jar is a delicacy from Polesie. And also in the top: brisket, homemade sausage, ribs – each house has its own recipe. Everything is fried, smeared, smoked. With pancakes, potatoes, and sour cream. The main principle is that the simpler and fatter, the better. And also: the mouth rejoices at a large piece.
Everything is simple. Traveling through Polesie is not just about discovering a world with untouched nature. People live here with their own identity and values: simple and eternal, like raw bacon and bread. They were called poleshooks: people who joke about the field, which translates as looking for a field. They are no longer looking for him, they have found him, it’s just that their life flows in its own channel from coast to coast every year.
Источник
