Lake Pisochne

Pisochne covers 1.38 sq km, about a twentieth of Svitiaz, drops to more than 16 metres, and holds the clearest water of any lake in the Shatsk group. The name means ‘sandy’ and it holds true the whole way down: sand shores, sand bed, no silt, no stones, a gradient so gentle a four-year-old can walk a long way out before it reaches their waist. Of the four big lakes here, this is the one people bring small children to.

The basin is almost round, ringed by pine that comes down to the water, and its small volume means it heats fast — 24 to 26 degrees by high summer, warmer than Svitiaz will ever be. A narrow channel joins it to Lake Peremut, and the two work as one system.

Why the water stays this clear

Three things do it. Pisochne is a karst basin fed only by groundwater and rain, so nothing arrives carrying a river's load of sediment. Pine forest closes the whole circumference, leaving no ploughed field for runoff to come off. And there is no industry for a very long way in any direction.

Local reputation goes further, crediting the water with silver, glycerine and iodine and a healing effect on skin — take that as the region's own claim rather than a laboratory result. What you can verify with your own lungs is the air: the pine resin around a lake this enclosed is strong enough that the sanatorium built its respiratory programme on it.

The sanatorium, and the trail it built

Lisova Pisnya stands on the shore at Haivka and takes its name from Lesya Ukrainka's verse drama, set in the Polissian woods not far from here. Around 420 beds across a wooded estate, open all year, with five rehabilitation departments covering cardiac, neurological and musculoskeletal work, diabetes, and soldiers back from the front. It has kept working through the war.

Two things there are worth the walk even if you are not a patient. Its beach, which everyone calls Pitsunda, is the best on the lake: enormous pines standing at the waterline, so you get shade and sand in the same place, which no other Shatsk beach manages. And the park's Lisova Pisnya eco-trail, 1.6 km of marked path laid out in 1987 at the sanatorium's request as a walking cure, is still the gentlest way into this forest. For a longer day the marked route carries on to Lake Peremut over boardwalks, ending at an observation tower above the lily beds where swans and herons nest.

Melnyky, and where the beds are

Two settlements hold everything. Haivka is the sanatorium and its grounds. Melnyky, on the southwestern shore, is the village side, and the part of it locals call the Liapove tract has the official beach and a cluster of newer timber cottages. A room in a mini-guesthouse costs a fraction of a whole cottage; the cottages sleep six to eight and get taken by families travelling together.

Camping here is organised rather than wild — a fenced, guarded tent field about 150 metres from the water, with hot showers, drinking water, tables, grills and sockets throughout, children under twelve free. That is the sanctioned alternative to pitching in the forest, which is not permitted. Book by April or May for July or August.

Doughnuts, bilberries and forest tea

The Melnyky women have a reputation on these lakes for the best doughnuts — thin dough, heavy filling, and bilberry above all, which around here is simply called ‘berry’. Buy them hot at the beach or from a house in the village, in the morning, before the good ones go.

From late June through July the woods fill with bilberry, and by August the first ceps and chanterelles appear; a small market by the sanatorium and stalls in Melnyky sell what was picked that day. The crucian carp and tench out of Pisochne and Peremut carry a faintly sweet taste that people put down to the clean water, and the kolyba kitchens bake them in clay pots with sour cream and dill. To drink: Polissian herb tea of St John's wort, thyme and wild strawberry leaf, with a spoon of heather honey, or birch sap drawn in spring and served very cold.

Before you come

This is a protected area and enforcement is real: fires only at the park's designated recreation points, no driving into the forest, no rubbish left behind, fines for all three. Vehicles pay a small charge at the park entry post over the summer, and your host adds a nightly community levy.

The border is close. Carry your passport or ID card, and, if you are a man between 18 and 60, your military registration document; the villages, beaches and campsites need no permit, but walking the forest tracks beyond them does, applied for in writing from the border service in advance.

If you can choose your dates, take the first half of June or the first ten days of September: the water is still warm, the doughnut queue is short, and the lake looks the way people describe it.