Liubizhnia. Where a mountain river roars and the crystal Liubizhnianskyi Huk

Look, the little mountain stream runs down,

It flows, it leaps down from the heights.

To her, proud to the very edge,

A peaceful life is beyond price.

But once she bursts out onto the valley,

She grows gentle forevermore.

You can't tell her apart from the flow

Of ordinary, untroubled rivers.

She drifts past, unhurried, by

Houses, forests, fields and ponds,

Dreamily leafing through

Her girlhood years.

19.06.2023  Alex Vinokur

Do you know what the foothill village of Deliatyn looks like from a bird's-eye view – emerald peaks cut through by valleys, in whose lowlands the Prut and its tributaries swirl in winding ribbons. The mountain stream Liubizhnia, a left tributary of the Prut, rises and is fed on the slope of the Carpathian ridge, where the mountains Studena Klyva and Vavtorova stand side by side; it flows eastward toward the central part of Deliatyn and forms the valley in which the settlement of the same name arose. With its stony bed and swift current, this blue ribbon of the Carpathians lays out its 16-kilometre course in the north-eastern Gorgany and hurries to meet its rebellious elder brother in the eastern part of Deliatyn.

 

Deliatyn. The Liubizhnia River

Steep banks with cliffs and scree, rock outcrops and exposures alternating with gentle slopes, and the deeper spots with riffles.

 

The banks of the Liubizhnia River

The Liubizhnia is the cleanest river in the Prut basin.

 

The Liubizhnia River. The middle section

At the site of a tectonic fault, in the middle part of the riverbed, a cascading waterfall 5 metres high has formed. The wayward Liubizhnia sharply bends her knees and tumbles noisily onto the stones. 

 

The crystal streams of the Liubizhnianskyi Huk are not as wild as the rushing water of the Zhenetskyi near Tatariv, but the waterfall is a gem of the natural environment of the Nadvirna district. Here, 19th-century bank reinforcements have survived, and there are picturesque clearings for tourist campsites. So that you don't get lost while searching for this landscape water-gem, a signpost has been set up on the road through the Liubizhnia forestry, guiding travellers to this appealing spot.

 

The Liubizhnianskyi Huk Waterfall

Another wayward little watercourse is called the Lesser Liubizhnianskyi Huk, yet it forms its cascade of glistening streams not in the riverbed, but plunges down to the Liubizhnia from a high bank.

The Lesser Liubizhnianskyi Huk waterfall

On the left bank of the Liubizhnia, the Klyvskyi Reserve nature-protection zone has been established – a botanical natural monument of national importance.

 

Klyvskyi Reserve

Under Ukrainian law, a water-protection zone is established along the river's channel, safeguarding water resources from the direct inflow of surface runoff and pollution. Unfortunately, despite all the land and moral codes, the coastal protective strips are increasingly being built over, sanitary norms are violated, and the water arteries – the sources of drinking water – are disappearing.