Agro and eco-tourism in Belarus
Did you know that modern Belarus is not only medieval castles, ancient temples and Wargaming, but also agroecotourism, for example.
Yes, now here is very popular such a tourist phenomenon, as country agrarian. Throughout the country you can find offers for every taste, color and other characteristics. Many homesteads, in fact, are banal cottages that are rented out to the residents of the capital-city for going out for shish kebabs on a weekend, there are very touristic, where a dramatized show unfolds around the customers, and there are unique ones with a soul, as they say. In this I wandered last winter.
So, here, our Zalesse is on the border of the Brest and Grodna regions on the edge of the Dzikoe marsh, which in turn is a part of the national park "Belavezhskaya Pushcha". The village stands away from the road. Of the indigenous inhabitants, two old women live here, and Siarhei bought several houses, brought his family here and organized the agro-homestead.
We arrived here late at night, so the outside of the estate was considered only the next day, and at night plunged into the atmosphere of this village - a stove, candlelight dinner cooked in a cast iron in a stove, a toilet toilet type toilet, and at night the hostess cat Malanka from mice, and indeed for comfort.
So, about entertainment. I have already said that the estate is on the edge of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Usually tourists come to the forest in a specially equipped place, where cells are looked at by its inhabitants. I like to watch animals in their natural habitat, so we just go to the forest. Evening was late autumn, and in the morning a real New Year's fairy tale came. It was, of course, beautiful, but the animals hid from the snow.
Some time had to be ridden around the neighborhood, and, behold, the reward. Before us is a mobile stack of hay :)
If you look through binoculars, the owner of the forest is unmistakably recognized in the haystack - the bison!
Now you can go home - have breakfast. In Zalesse, there is no "civilization", so on the way we stop by the store in the neighboring village. Here, too, beauty.
And here is Zalesye itself. In summer, a couple of storks arrive here.
Unlike the majority of "cottage" agro-homestead, houses of Zalesse are the real village ones. Specifically, the house in which we stopped, put after the Second world war the parents of one of the oldwomens living in the village.
Siarhey tries not to promote his estate very much, because he has enough clients, and basically they are from Western Europe. After all, for most of us it's a hopeless wilderness, from which we either recently got out, or are still striving to get out into civilized cities, and for Europeans this is a real exotic.
Here, unrealistically cool.
There, our manor is seen.
In general, in winter there is not a season. The main profile of the agro tourism in Zalesse is ornithology, and most of the birds are now wintering in the warm regions. And, no matter what kind of unity with nature foreign tourists would not like, we are not ready to use our picturesque toilets :)
But we also liked the winter here. Immediately behind the house begins a fairytale forest, along which you can walk for hours and find traces of different animals.
If you decide to visit Zalesse, look for Siarhey's contacts and sign up in advance - soon, in case of winter, warm toilets may appear here, but the visa-free regime introduced for foreigners leaves no chance for a chance free place in this beautiful corner of Belarus.