Recreation near water in ‘a blue-eyed country’

The Republic of Belarus was nicknamed ‘a blue-eyed country’ for a placer of picturesque lakes and purest springs flowing among forests and fields. However, the country is also famous for its fast-flowing rivers: there are more than 20,000 of them here!

Lake Svityaz
Photo: www.shkolazhizni.ru

Lake Naroch

Russians have Lake Baikal, Belarusians have Lake Naroch. The largest lake in the country is impressive in scale: the second shore cannot be seen from the first. Almost eighty square kilometres of water surface give a complete immersion in the atmosphere of comfort and relaxation. Along the coastline there are sanatoriums, camp sites and children’s camps. With walking alleys and pump rooms with mineral water.

Lake Naroch
Photo by Aleksandr Gorbash


There are also dozens of farmsteads, tourist sites and campsites. In a word, a real resort! Lake Naroch impresses with its transparency and purity: in sunny weather, one can see everything at a depth of five to seven metres. Advice from the local residents: it is better to swim on equipped beaches away from reeds and bird nests (birds can be carriers of various infections). If you want to relax away from the crowds, go to the National Landscape Reserve ‘Blue Lakes’. It is smaller, but also included in the Narochansky National Park. There is a secret location — a small forest water source Rudakovo four kilometres northwest of Myadel. The water here is healing and contains impurities of silver.

Braslav

The small town of Braslav lurks near the northwestern border of Belarus. In winter, it is anything but ordinary, but in summer the whole country comes here for a beach holiday on numerous lakes. They appeared as a result of the melting of the glacier 15,000 years ago. Small and large, shallow and deep, surprisingly regular in shape and with numerous islets. Houses, estates, hostels are already booked in March-April. Dilatory tourists should better take a tent with them.

Viva Braslav open-air is held annually on the shores of Lake Driviaty
Photo: www.vitvesti.by

By the way, Viva Braslav, one of the most incendiary open-airs, takes place annually on the shores of Lake Driviaty. Sandy beaches turn into a huge dance floor with a tent city.

Blue Spring

There is the largest spring in Eastern Europe in the vicinity of Slavgorod District, Mogilev Region. People call it Blue Spring, or Blue Well. How so? Regardless of the weather, the water temperature here is constant — 8 degrees Celsius.

Blue Spring
Photo by Andrei Sazonov

In the 8th-10th centuries, there was a pagan temple of the Radimichs, and after the adoption of Christianity, the locals built a chapel near the spring. It was for a purpose. Scientists from the Institute of Geochemistry and Geophysics of the NAS of Belarus proved that the water from this spring is the cleanest in the entire country. In addition, it has medicinal properties. People always go to the spring to quench their thirst and take a dip. Locals say that if the source is forded three times, the body is filled with life-giving energy, and diseases recede.

Minsk Sea

Just ten kilometres northwest of Minsk — and here it is, the sea. It appeared more recently — in 1956 after the construction of a dam on the Svisloch River. Let not salty and modest in size, but you can be sure that you will get the first-class rest. As many as ten beaches have been equipped with modern infrastructure and coffee shops.
Yacht club on the Minsk Sea
PHOTO: WWW.BAZAOTDYKHA.RU

Want to go sailing? There is a yacht club on the Minsk Sea. Rent a motor boat and sail into the sunset away from the coast? You’re welcome. Dreamed of flying on a kite over the vast expanse of water? Indeed, they arrange it here too. Oh, what incendiary parties await you on the Island of Love! Ibiza is no match for this place.

Lake Svityaz

This is one of the most mysterious lakes in Belarus. According to legend, a city of extraordinary beauty once stood in its place, which went underwater during a siege by enemies. Amazingly, scientists say that the lake really appeared as a result of the failure of Quaternary deposits into underground voids. The poet Adam Mickiewicz devoted a whole cycle of heartfelt ballads to Lake Svityaz — they definitely worth reading before the trip.
Lake flora and fauna are covered with secrets. The shores are framed by an emerald necklace of a kilometre-wide forest. And in the water itself, a bunch of relict plants blooms: Dortmann’s cardinalflower, nodding waternymph, lake quillwort and shoreweed. A mollusc lives in the lake — planorbis stelmachticus, which is known only in the fresh waters of France, Belgium and Germany.
Note: Svityaz is located within the boundaries of the landscape reserve, therefore it is prohibited to spend the night with tents on the shore. Tourists farmsteads and accommodation in the private sector of the nearest villages are at visitors’ disposal.

By Sofia Arsenyeva