Mezma
Mezmay, a seemingly unremarkable village in the Absheronsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the center of the Mezmaysky rural settlement.
What an amazing beauty and nature in this place! It is located 170 km from krasnodarIn the Kurjips Valley. On three sides, the village is surrounded by mountain ranges - Guam, Azish Tau and Lagonak. Waterfalls, canyons, rocks and clean air - not all components of the amazing miracle of nature - Mezmay.
Translated from Adyghe, “Mezmay” means “forest of apples” or “bear corner”. In the mountain pit, surrounded on all sides by sea winds, lived before the Adygs. From ancient times, there are beautiful ethnic names of rivers and mountains. And wild Circassian apple orchards, from which delicious ripe apples still fall in season.
Perhaps the gardens have survived to this day because getting to the mountain pit in which Mezmay is located has always been difficult, especially in the rainy season, when the blurred gravel single-lane road can only be driven by an SUV.
In Mezmay itself, it is difficult to buy products, since there are no known networks: “Magnet”, “Pyaterochka”, “Crossroads”. Agriculture is also difficult, the land in Mezmay is a mixture of stone and clay, only unpretentious grass, grapes and blackberries grow beautifully on it, it is impossible to break any garden here.
The young generation of Mezmayets removes, however, a good harvest of fruit from trees that have taken root in local soils. Breeding birds and domestic animals is also one of the usual activities of the Mezmayets. The water to the village comes from a mountain spring that flows from the Isichenko cave. The water is technical, purification does not pass, the locals say that it is “clean and tasty”. Heating is wood-burning, there is electricity, there are no other central communications.
Major administrative centre: Absheronsk It is located 50 kilometers from Mezmay. Previously, Mezmay was connected by a narrow-gauge road with the village of Guamka, from there you can get by bus to Absheronsk. However, the road is currently not functioning. And is one of the tourist routes "From Mezmay to Guamka" tour operator "EOS" Krasnodar.
The route runs through an almost wild forest, along a narrow gauge line destroyed by a landslide, along a river and a famous landmark: The eagle shelf, the rocks that were chosen for the nesting eagles. The local people are friendly, live long, though in the comfort of a hundred years ago, do not get sick.
With God’s help, the Cossack and artist Mikhail Skvortsov built a beautiful church in Mezmay, which is visible from afar immediately at the entrance. I went to Mezmay on a terrible road, in winter, a normal car could not pass, a local resident on a tractor regularly went on the road, pulled out poor people stuck in snowdrifts and dragged them to the village. It was a fun time...
And then on snowdrifts in snowdrops and wild garlic, I walked along the abandoned narrow-leak to Guamca, admiring the eagles flying past, guam balls (pests) droplets of which, by the way, are successfully used in the treatment of uterine fibroids by the well-known company Vervain manufacturer ... And a beautiful, untouched forest.
Text and photo: Madeleine Barr
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