Under the back side – mud, desolation, hopelessness, and much more are usually imagined. But in this case – the face of the city looks not so sad (but almost). Of course, piles of garbage do not lie right on the streets and crowds of beggars do not support the facades of shabby houses with their backs. And there are no such horrors there even behind the curtains. This is not Detroit. Just a fairly colorless and ordinary industrial city in stagnation. A huge provincial anthill, where everything goes along the usual laid paths. It’s about Krivoy Rog.
The city itself is very stretched along the mines with iron ore. Actually, this is how it was formed – a conglomerate of villages serving mines and processing plants.

Map of the Kryvyi Rih basin of the 18th century. ¹

Of course, now it’s not just villages under the same name, but a city in the full sense of the word, but still there is no city center as such – there are several))) For each district there is an own center (cultural, commercial, transport ..).
In this city I lived the first half of my life.
Ever since childhood, I know its other side, which remains unknown for most residents. Here I want to tell about that part.
On the outskirts of the city there is an area called Karachuny. If you go through private houses over a dirt road, you can go to the fork – if you will go to the right – you will come to the beach, if you will go along the rails to the left – you will get to the waterfall through the bridge. This time we turned left.
Walking along the rails, we find ourselves on this railway bridge:

Very high, at the bottom there is a fast river and solid stones, and the pedestrian part at the bridge is made of old wooden boards (not very well fitted))).

But the bridge offers a very beautiful view!

This is a dam that dammed the Ingulets River – the Karachunovskoe reservoir appears. The right water gateway (in the photo) is almost always open much more than the left. Near the left gateway, a very picturesque waterfall appeared, with a small lake below it. The lake is quite deep – up to 10 meters and the same in the diameter. In this place, local youth loves to relax (I always went there when I lived there), since it is very cool to jump from the rocks into this lake and stand under the jets of a waterfall)))

This is one of the two streams of the waterfall – about 5 meters in height. The second is wider and more powerful (people were swimming there and I did not embarrass them with the camera). Periodically, the lock opens more and the flows of the waterfall naturally increase. But the most of the water goes down through the right airlock, since people don’t swim there, and the speed and strength of the stream are similar to a mountain river.
After wandering around for a bit, we climbed back onto the bridge and descended from the other side – there is a beautiful valley and on the right bank (if you look from the bridge) there is a granite flooded quarry.

The approximate quarry depth is 120 m. Granite production was discontinued in 1999. Since then, it has been smoothly filled with spring and rainwater. Now this is a great place for swimming – the water is azure, clean, soft. There is where to swim – about 100 meters wide and about 700 in length. Where vacationers did not have time to mix the layers of water, the top 2 – 3 meters are very warm – about 30 degrees. And near the “beach” (the place where the road to the bottom of the quarry enters the water) is a very pleasant 24 degrees. there is no access to water except for a couple of places (steep walls of the quarry), and the available places are completely occupied by the local proletariat. Therefore, we left one “soldier” on the beach with things and bathed directly in shorts, after that – went further.

Photo from the Internet

The river valley is very beautiful – there is rarely where the depth reaches more than 1.5 meters, but the current is fast, there are a lot of large smooth stones protruding above the water up to a meter high, and the water is clean and fresh enough – it’s very nice to swim. And the kids love this place very much – there is where to swim, run, and in general – such a natural water park))) Though, those are water parks, that are made on the principle of such places))
We get along the coast to an old suspension bridge – otherwise we won’t get back – either walk a few kilometers back to the railway bridge, or in a few kilometers further along the coast there is an ordinary civil bridge.

Cottages have been built on the other side for about 20 years. And the street is called funny – “Veselaya Dacha (Fun Cottage)”. Over the past couple of years, this place was noticed, and many new and beautiful houses appeared at once.

The next day, we went for a walk to the MOPR Rocks.
It is not possible to drive directly to the rocks by car – there is only a footpath to the rocks and along them.
MOPR Rocks are a geological monument of national importance. Well, in addition – another great place to relax. True, the river here is not so clean and transparent – it has already carried its waters from the dam past a large number of residential areas .. But the rocks themselves are very beautiful!

These places have been chosen by local climbers for a long time already. Yes, the climbing wall turns out to be quite low, but natural))

If you walk along the coast with the stream, then after a few kilometers the Central City Park begins with an equipped beach, flower beds, alleys, soda water and other joys of civilization. Now the park looks well-groomed and pleasing to the eye)

Pontoon bridge before the park.

In the summer it is better to walk through all these places in a hat (cap / ..) and not in the center of the day, since there are few shadows and of course, stalls with cool water fortunately do not yet exist there)))