On the clifftop above Bakota Bay there is a relief map you read with your fingers, and a purpose-built house for insects. Neither is what you expect at the end of a dirt road in Khmelnytskyi oblast, and both tell you how Bila Hora is actually run. From the water it looks like wild limestone. It is a managed viewpoint inside a national park, with a visitor centre, two platforms, a boardwalk laid to keep boots off the turf, a fixed binocular trained on the far bank, and audio guides that arrive by QR code.
The hill is Silurian limestone standing about 130m over the Dnister, the highest ground above the bay and set on the outside of the bend — which is the whole reason the view works. When Ukrainians say they are going to see Bakota, this is nearly always the spot they mean.
The bay runs about 1,590 hectares, is 1,700m across at its widest and drops to 34m in low water. The Dnister cut this gorge some 120m down into hard Silurian limestone, and a dam downstream then backed the river up into it, which is why the water sits so wide and so still. The village of Bakota is under it; that story belongs to the monastery below you, not to the hill.
Left and right the Tovtry ridge runs off into the distance. Directly below the platforms the cliff drops in stepped grey bands, with the rock called Kurnyk standing clear of it. Take the binocular seriously — what looks like scrub on the far bank resolves into ledges, springs and bare rock through the glass.
The slopes carry an odd mix, because forest, meadow, steppe and bare-rock plants all meet on one hillside. Around 474 plant species have been recorded in the bay area, a number of them on international protection lists. Pasqueflowers — both the great and the meadow kind — come up early, along with feather grass and spring pheasant's eye, and specialised lithophytes hold on to the limestone exposures where nothing can graze them. The park asks you not to leave the paths, and on a hill this steep that is also self-interest.
The water below has its own status: Bakota Bay was designated a wetland of international importance on 27 June 1996, in the same presidential decree that created the national park. Through the autumn and winter migrations large rafts of waterfowl gather on it — swans, goldeneye, grebes — and grey heron, white stork, white-tailed eagle and peregrine all turn up over this stretch. That makes the platform one of the better birding positions in Podillia, because you look down onto the birds rather than across at them. Late autumn and early spring are the productive weeks, and the ones when nobody else is here.
The best of them is not romantic. During a Turkish raid on Bakota one woman failed to get out in time, having just given birth. A raider forced her door; spotting a bowl of cucumbers on the table, the woman sent her towards the barrel they were kept in, and when she leaned over it, tipped her in and held her under. The raiders left, and the village saw her right for the rest of her life.
The other belongs to the crag called Kurnyk, where a laugh is said to come off the rock before dawn: a rich sorcerer who lived there is supposed to have handed his treasure to the dark spirits on his way to a war he did not survive, telling them to guard it seven hundred years and then give it to whoever came first. Nobody has volunteered. A third cliff is called the Rock of Love, after a bride who jumped from it — the same story is told at half the cliffs on this river.
Bila Hora sits above Bakota Bay in Kamianets-Podilskyi district of Khmelnytskyi oblast; the nearest living village is Horaivka and the city is about 40km off. Drive towards Stara Ushytsia and follow the Bakota signs; marshrutkas on that route drop you at the turning, leaving several kilometres on foot. The path to the platforms and the monastery starts at the park entrance.
Entry is ticketed — around 100 UAH when this was written — with extras charged separately: a guide, a gazebo, firewood, bringing a car in, pitching a tent, fishing in the designated spots. Note what the waymarked Davnia Bakota route actually is: about 24km and roughly eight hours, with a shorter loop of about 8km taking a couple. Neither is the two-minute stroll the phrase ‘eco-trail’ sometimes implies.
Wear something with grip; the paths are steep and the descent to the caves is slick after rain. The drops to the water are vertical and unfenced. Come early or late: the light is better, the platform is emptier, and the sun sets straight down the bay.
Скеля над Дністром справляє дуже гарне враження. Оглядовий майданчик зроблено у вигляді помосту з поручнями, поряд є кілька лавок для відпочинку та потужний бінокль. Нижче стежкою можна дійти до монастиря, який монахи видовбали в скелі.
Дуже гарний краєвид! Унизу також є скельний монастир, а далі можна спуститися до води.
Поки що це найкрасивіше місце, яке я бачила в Україні. Сюди варто їхати з наметом і просто набиратися сил від Дністровських водних просторів. Дорога виявилася не такою страшною, як пишуть: це не траса, але на швидкості 50-60 км їхати можна. На паркінгу є пункт контролю, де беруть 20 грн з дорослого за вхід, і це виглядає доволі кумедно, бо навколо відкрите поле і зайти можна з будь-якого боку. Перед спуском до монастиря теж стоїть перевіряючий, який інколи просить показати квиток. Уздовж країв усе обгороджено, щоб люди не заходили в небезпечні, хоча й дуже фотогенічні місця. Є лавочки та туалет, але від води дме сильний вітер. Перед візитом до монастиря краще не полінуватися і прочитати стенд з історією - там справді цікаві факти. Стежки вниз вузькі, а після дощу можуть бути слизькими. Є три джерела просто зі скелі, тож обов'язково наберіть води - вона тут чиста, смачна і, кажуть, лікувальна. До пляжу звідси не дістатися, треба їхати з іншого боку села. На огляд, монастир і джерела вистачить приблизно години, а далі можна просто насолоджуватися краєвидами.
