Dog’s Life, Cyan Lake, and Blue Church
And a little bit of shame
Every trip means collected emotions, even if it remains for only a few hours. I got different impressions and emotions from all my travels: primarily positive and some negative, of course. But even between negatives, this feeling was rare for me. It was a deep shame.
This trip was typical for my bachelor’s past: a one-day visit to outland in my region. First, I got by bus to Illintsi, a district center of Vinnytsia region. I saw it previously, so the town wasn’t my main goal this time. Instead of this, I wanted to find a secret lake near Rayki village, not far from Illintsi.
There weren’t buses to the village, and I decided to reach it by foot, as the distance of 4 km wasn’t considerable. Near the town outskirts, a puppy started to follow me. I ensured she didn’t want to attack, so I just walked forward and forgot about it soon. Dogs followed me often on my trips, and nothing strange in it. But when I turned around in fields far outside the town, I was surprised she was still running after me.
Wildlife far from people goes on as usual. Yellow Wagtail, one of my favorite birds:
I saw even an undefined predator bird:
I couldn’t get rid of the puppy, even with sausage from my sandwiches (she stopped eating and overtook me when she saw that I was trying to disappear). So, we bypassed Rayki by its southern edge. This village has the biggest percentage of gypsies in the region (about 20%). But I considered nothing to see there and went directly to the lake. A stork circled above us: it was dissatisfied by the strangers’ appearance. My camera saw it as a black bird with a white beak.
A bit of information about this place is duplicated in a few local media. The kaolin quarry appeared more than a hundred years ago. A landowner sold extracted material to Germany (where porcelain was made of it). After the minerals dried up, all stopped. Underground springs filled up the quarry; thus, the lake was born.
I thought it would be like other flooded quarries with cyan water in my region, but this water was more green than blue.
Symmetry:
The lake shores are white and clayey. Probably, this clay is good for the skin and joints, but I didn’t test it.
Unfamiliar places aren’t scary with the personal guard.
One of the surrounding buildings is very beautifully composed of bricks and stones. Possibly, it remained from times when the quarry worked. Maybe it’s the only interesting house in the whole village.
The lake looks stunning from any side:
Meanwhile, my companion became exhausted because of the heat and fast walking. But she continued to follow me with manic fidelity from the last forces. I decided to accompany her to where we met, searching for ticks on her hair and sharing water.
So we went back, bypassing the village as well, away from their dogs.
We returned to the town outskirts together. There, I began to pretend to be something terrible and menacing to scare the puppy. With fatigue and incomprehension, she finally stopped following me. Feeling myself the biggest piece of shit, I shamefully ran away. The first time, I regretted that I couldn’t have such a banal thing as a dog in my home and that I had to alienate the soul, which was nice to me.
But we walked about 9 km together, and I guess she wouldn’t endure the second part because it was only half of my plans. I walked to another village, Borysivka, on the other side of Illintsi. The southern outskirt of the town:
Fortunately, no one else wanted to become my friend.
I bypassed a picturesque pond which blend in spring sky…
…that sky had to suit an architectural monument I wanted to see.
It was about the wooden church of St. Nicholaus. This is a typical temple of the Podillya region with three spires. It was built in 1751, and not many of these churches survived. A wedding ceremony was happening inside, so I didn’t come in but could look at the church from the yard.
With the following frame, I won the regional nomination in Wiki Loves Monuments — a very rare case when my photo takes something more than laudable comments.
Then I returned to Illintsi. It is an interesting town, but I saw almost all here on my first visit a few years ago. But then I skipped an old Jewish cemetery near the bus station, for example.
Also, I wanted to see a synagogue, the biggest in the Vinnytsia region. It burned down between my visits.
The synagogue has long ceased functioning as intended; now, it is a furniture plant. It wasn’t abandoned after the fire; the owners already made a new roof. Only soot above the windows reminded me of disaster.
A few photos of the provincial town.
The town center is still a pedestrian area decorated with the great brick cathedral. As my visit was not far from Easter, giant Easter Eggs were decorated with pictures of the local churches.
Sakura blossom confidently spreads across Ukraine, even in such small provincial settlements.
I found excellent coffee in the center, so I had nothing to do here except go to the bus station and back home. Ultimately, everything went according to my plan, but why with so shitty aftertaste?
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