Attractions of Otrokhy

The environmental and local history organization "Mizhrichynska Pushcha" is the main center for the development of ecotourism in the territory of the Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park with a center in the village of Otrokhy. It was created in 2013 by the famous ecologist Andriy Sahaydak, who headed the Mizhrichynsky Regional Landscape Park for a long time.

The central estate of the organization is located on the southern outskirts of the village, on the edge of the forest next to the Bondarivske Swamp. Here you can visit the Polissya Forestry Museum, which introduces the traditional life of the Polishchuk people and their occupations: bird breeding, wickerwork, hunting, fishing. The exposition also tells about the history of forest protection.

From the central estate "Mizhrichynska Pushcha" eco-trails begin, laid through the territory of the Mizhrichynsky Regional Landscape Park. One of them leads to the Holy Lake - a swampy reservoir, where a rare snow-white water lily blooms at the end of May. On the ecological trail "Zhuravlyna" you can meet a beaver hut, a partisan hideout, a pagan temple, see traces of wild animals, etc.

In addition to educational excursions, master classes on survival in natural conditions are offered, organization of recreation by the fire on the shore of a forest swamp, etc.

The Regional Landscape Park "Mizhrichynsky" is located in the Chernihiv region in the interfluve of the Dnieper and Desna rivers. It is the largest RLP in Ukraine - its area is over 102 thousand hectares.

The park protects various landscapes of Ukrainian Polissia: taiga forests, protected upland and lowland swamps, glacial sand dunes, the floodplain of the Desna River, etc. There are oaks that are about 500 years old. There are dozens of Red Book species of flora and fauna. Glacial relics deserve special attention - low birch, blueberry willow, various types of orchids. In the swamps you can find an interesting insectivorous plant - sundew.

The numerous inhabitants of the park are moose, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, hare, beaver, muskrat, raccoon dog. The pride and decoration of the park is the lynx, which has been living and breeding on the territory for a long time.

Ecological trails "Zhuravlyna", "Polissia", "Bondarivske Swamp", "Sokolynyi Meadow" and others have been laid through the park. They pass through pine-birch forests, wetlands, the Desna floodplain and introduce the local flora and fauna.

In the village of Otrokhy, which can be considered the informal capital of Mizhrichchia, there is the Mizhrichynska Pushcha Nature Center with the Polissya Forestry Museum, created by the famous ecologist Andriy Sahaidak. The center organizes excursions to the territory of the Mizhrichyn regional landscape park and provides other tourist services.

The private ecopark "Dereville" was created in 2009 on the basis of a former hunting farm near the territory of the Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park. It is 380 hectares of pine forest, meadows, lakes and swamps, where about 600 wild animals live. Among them are deer, fallow deer, Indian buffalo, Scottish cows, mouflons, llamas and Przhevalsky's horses.

Guests of the ecopark are offered safaris on off-road vehicles accompanied by a gamekeeper. Visitors are taken along a special route that allows you to see dozens and even hundreds of wild animals up close in just an hour. All of them are accustomed to local transport and the presence of people, so they are allowed to get quite close, and some can even be petted.

The ecopark has a comfortable recreation area with a hotel, separate cottages and a restaurant with a wine room and a hookah bar. There is also a bathhouse with spa treatments, a beach and fishing on the lake, a mini-zoo with domestic animals and camels.