Waterfall Gorodilov. Carpathian salamander.

Tract Gorodilov (alt: Gorodilovo), which is on the outskirts of the city Khust, contains only two places of interest, apart from a huge gas pipeline "Soyuz" (eng: Union), which goes to the surface in the territory of the tract. One of the sights is very well known monastery of the Holy Trinity, a mountain monastery for men with one hundred year history, where thirty monks live. The second sight is Gorodilov waterfall. It is far less popular, it is located at 3 to 4 kilometers from the monastery of upstream flow, which is called Var. It starts in the polonyna between the mountains Kytitsa (841 m) and Doschataya (761 m).

Actually, waterfall Gorodilov (Hydrological reminder of nature) is located at the foot of the mountains Ilina (758 m) and Rorond-Tete (554 m). By the way, the nearest town to the waterfall is not the city Khust but the village Iza (ukr: Іза). The height of the waterfall is 3-4 meters. The stone base of the waterfall is of the red rocks. The stones are covered with green moss, which gives an additional charm in visual perception. There is a small seating area on the road to the waterfall. Some beautiful meadows, gazebo on the banks of the stream, a spring are not far from it. The whole tract, where the stream is flowing, is very wet. As we walked from the car to the waterfall, we found about 20 salamanders, which was very surprising. The salamanders are in the Red Book, there are not so many of them in the forests of Transcarpathia, but there is also a business for the residents of some villages. They catch salamanders and sell them to the owners of the private terrariums, who then send salamanders to Europe or Russia. Once I heard the sum of money to pay for one. I did not remember it but it was enough to spend for a couple of days with your friends.

Some photos. There are now fantastic boulders covered with moss, from which grow trees, which occur on both sides of the road to the waterfall.



The representative of the local fauna is a snail. It slips on the wet leaves like a boat on an air cushion.



This is a Carpathian spotted salamander (lat: Salamandra). Analogues of the name: spotted/fired. As I have already said, it is in the Red Book. In the Germanic mythology salamander means the spirit of the fire. The old Greek people believed that salamander do not burn in the fire but when they move through it they extinguish the fire. And traditionally, Christians believed that salamanders were envoys from Hell.

There are only six species of salamanders. The amphibians (they swim badly), some species are viviparous. The habitat: Carpathian Mountains, West Asia, North America. They like moisture and shade. They eat worms. They live an average of 20-30 years but a record is 50 years. The salamanders are poisonous. The parotid glands emit potent toxin that affects the brain activity. If small animals like dogs or cats eat a salamander they will probably die. The toxic quality of the spotted salamanders is passive and it does not work through the skin. The salamanders do not spray poison and do not use it for hunting. Nevertheless, the poison can easily get to the mucous from the hands and then there will be problems.



While we were moving towards the main goal of our visit we found a couple of small waterfalls. The cascade waterfall, like this, is located on the outskirts of the recreation area. According to the scour at the bottom, while it is full of water it can surprise the travelers. As the residents of the village have told us the unlucky tourists often confuse this small waterfall with the real one “Gorodilov” and disappointed they go back.



You even could not count such "ledges" like these ones...



And this is the waterfall "Gorodilov" from the view of a small observation deck on the right bank of the stream. It really is not so spectacular, like from the riverbed below...



The water is cold even in hot weather in summer...



And lastly, one more view...

06.09.2010. 09:41

This article hasn't been commented yet.