Buzk's Gard
Bug Gard is a fairly young national park in Ukraine, created in 2009 on an area of 61 km2. The park was created to preserve unique natural objects, including numerous tract and geological monuments.
The national park is located in the valley of the South Bug River and its tributaries. The relief of the Bug Garda is represented mainly by the gentle slopes of the Ukrainian shield, which cut rivers, so there are many rapids, beams and rocky banks on the rivers. Due to its location, the territory of the national park abounds in picturesque corners, especially in this regard, attractively mutilated Gromovoe, Labyrinth, Protich and Aktovsky Canyon. During the voting, this area was included in the list of seven natural wonders of Ukraine.
Aktovsky canyon passes along the river Mnylovod near the village of Aktovo. The walls of the Aktovsky canyon rise to a height of 40-50 meters, and the total area occupied by it is 250 hectares. The canyon in its beauty of bizarre rocks, elegant figures and unusual boulders resembles the famous Grand Canyon in the USA in miniature. The complex terrain does not allow rafting but the river, but extreme and just tourists are attracted by a simple walk through the rocks. In the old days, the border of Turkey, Poland, Zaporozhye passed here, and each side, for its part, built a fortress, the remains of which can be found today. Many legends are associated with the places here, some of them are related to the origin of the name of the river Mnylovod. According to one of them, the name appeared after a bloody battle between the Cossacks and the Turks, after which numerous corpses hid the water. On the other hand, the tribes of the Scythians rafted down the river into the last journey of their rulers. The name of some natural monuments also testifies to the turbulent past: the rocks Turkish table, the Gaidamak beam, the island of the Cossack Mama, Zaporizhzhya broika.
The territory of the Bug Garda near the rivers is occupied mainly by floodplain meadows and forests. In total, more than a thousand plant species can be found here, 34 of them are under guard. Among them, Klokov cherry, granite thug, tar, Bug cloves, Transnistrian merringy, Bug tulip, smelly root and others stand out especially. Many animals live in the Bug Garda, of which 22 are in the Red Book.
