Other underground karst wonders include the Stone Gate, Crest, Pearl, Chertizh, Princess, Dibs, Vyv, Hole Stone, Transparent Walls, Bear’s Fang, Milk Stone, Thermoxa Mala, and Sanatorium caves. The Transparent Walls Cave was included in the Ukrainian Book of Records because its walls are covered with milk-coloured calcite with green streaks, making it look like a giant aquarium. Unfortunately, the Transcarpathian caves are not open for tours. Their entrances are located at an altitude of 100-300 metres above sea level.
Archaeologists have found a campsite of Stone Age hunters (more than 20,000 years ago) in the Milk Stone Cave. You don’t have to go underground to see the karst wonders: the Ugolsky massif has an amazing “Karst Bridge”, a natural arch in the Chur tract, which was also mentioned in a letter to Tsar Ivan the Terrible by Moscow ambassadors in 1552. Legends say that there was once a pagan temple in the Chur tract, and also hint at the existence of a huge, still unexplored cave near the tract.
The Ugolsky massif boasts the tallest beech trees in Ukraine (up to 40 metres) and the largest natural population of yew trees (over 1500 trees). The massif’s kilometre-long limestone ridge (“Hrebin”) is home to many relict and endemic plant species, including the only place in Ukraine where beech juniper and Cossack juniper are found. The local forests are home to deer, roe deer, wild pigs, foxes, lynxes, bears, martens, weasels, badgers, muskrats, alpine and forest cats. The bird world is represented by the grey crow, owl, pigeon, black starling, woodpeckers and exotic black storks that nest only in wild forests. The clean mountain rivers are home to trout, grayling, chub, chub and chub. More than 500 species of plants grow in Uholka, 27 of which are rare.
Another cave system is located several tens of kilometres from Uholka, in the Cherlenyi Kamen tract near the village of Neresnytsia. There are four large multi-tiered caves ranging in length from 200 to 700 metres and 24-56 metres deep.
To visit the caves, you need to obtain a special permit from the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.
The members of the Uholka speleological club will help you to get to know the caves better. Remember that caves are balanced ecosystems, and for an unprepared tourist they can be very dangerous, so you need to be very careful when visiting them.
