The Ilovlya River went to only 2 regions of Russia. Moreover, in the Volgograd region it crosses precisely the geographic center (the most typical landscapes of the region). The watercourse is known for its close connection with archaeological and ethnographic artifacts of the Volga Germans, Volga and Don Cossacks, as well as Indo-European peoples. And Peter the Great tried to make it part of the Volga-Don Canal. Yes, yes, such a structure could have appeared 250 years ago. Even Petrov Val remained - the accumulations. Finally, the last attractive feature of the stream is the chalk mountains with a cave temple. The hydronym is of particular interest. “Ilovlya” from the word “silt”. It's a bit unclear here.
Route and finances
The comrade in question is a Volgograd resident. That's why we started from). We set off at 7.00. The path was not very crowded with cars. Our “iron horse” was the 2016 Lada Kalina.
The round trip and the excursions themselves (including a stop in Ilovlya and a stop in Kachalino on the way back) took only 11 hours. This is what our route looked like point by point:
- 25.08 07.00 – 08.30 Volgograd - Ilovlya (turn to Olkhovka, 72nd km. M-6);
- 25.08 08.45 – 10.00 Ilovlya - Kamenno-Brodsky Monastery;
- 25.08 12.00 – 12.30 Kamenno-Brodsky Monastery – Gusevsky Monastery;
- 25.08 14.30 – 16.15 Gusevsky Monastery – Ilovlya (the same 72nd km of the M-6 highway);
- 25.08 16.20 – 16.50 village Kachalinskaya (exit from the 43rd km. M-6, through Kachalino);
- 25.08 17.00 – 18.10 Kachalinskaya village – “zero kilometer” of Volgograd.
Gasoline: in total (round trip, taking into account the “Kachalinsky” detour) 383 km were covered. Average consumption 6 l. per 100 km. 22 liters spent. Multiply by 40 rubles. Equal to 880 rub.
Meals (4 large pies for 45 rubles and lemonade for 30 rubles) – 210 rubles.
Excursion to the caves of the Kamenno-Brodsky Monastery for 2 people. – 190 rubles.
Excursion around the territory of the Gusevsky convent for 2 people. - 300 rubles.
Total: 1,580 rubles.
When we walked back to the Caspian highway (M-6) for 10 minutes. were driving in a traffic jam (site repair).
Road to the 72nd kilometer of M-6 (to Ilovlya, turn to Olkhovka)
As it should be, we moved through Zhukov Avenue (it is this that turns into the M-6 highway). On the way out of the hero city and on a fragment of the Gorodishchensky district, we enjoyed a section of the Moscow road that was repaired last year. Now there is a bump stop here.
I can’t believe that just a couple of years ago there was some asphalt patched up here.
On the right side there are endless fields with carrots, melons and potatoes. On the left are the fresh apple plantations of the super-enterprise “Gardens of Pridonya” (three million trees in total).
“Gardens of the Don region” also spread to the Gorodishchensky district. These are young apple trees
On the border of Gorodishchensky and Ilovlinsky districts there is a remnant of the Tsaritsyn Watch Line. Once upon a time (in Peter's time) the fortifications were the most grandiose in Europe. We walked from Tsaritsyn (the current center of Volgograd) to Panshino. Out of respect for the attraction, we even stopped.
This is the best fragment of the “half-erased” shafts of the Watch Line. Over a distance of about 60 kilometers you would see 4 fortresses and 23 Cossack fort posts
A little further away, the traveler will turn to Kachalino. And here is the 72nd kilometer of the highway! Turn to Ilovlinsky district center. After eating a substantial pie with potatoes and eggs (they are delicious here), we went to the toilet.
From this place you will go to the “capital” of the region (1 km) and to the Olkhovsky district
I will immediately note that the sides of all major roads at the junction of Ilovlinsky and Olkhovsky, as well as Ilovlinsky and Frolovsky districts, have long been planted with pine trees. Paradise in the steppe.
The pine forest plantation stretches all the way to Peschanka. But there won't be any more
A “lyrical digression” dedicated to the nature of the Olkhovsky region is just appropriate here. The fact is that the Ilovlinsko-Olkhovo “borderland” is the geographical center of the Volgograd region. Usually, such points are used to judge the “classical” landscape of a particular region. It turns out that the core of the native subject of the federation is not at all a bare steppe, the Volga banks or a semi-desert turning into a salt marsh. It is more like the southern fragment of central Russia. The Ilovlya River and its tributaries (this entire basin is sandwiched by chalk mountains on one side and a waterless plain on the other) give rise to numerous floodplain forests. Most of them contain alder. The main village of the area was once called Olkhovka. Catherine II gave these places to the Ataman of Persia.
Alder, ash, “silver” poplar – at the bottom right there is a large emerald forest
On the other side of the view, first there was a feather grass steppe, and then - chalk foothills.
This is where the chalk ridge begins to rise. Moving northeast
Soon the road began to pass under fairly high dazzling white ridges.
Such a miracle can be seen in front of the village of Mikhailovka, and even beyond it
The day was sunny, so the floodplain greenery on the right was bright, and the chalk on the left contrasted impressively against the background of the sky, saturated with a “dense” blue color.
Source and mouth of the Ilovlya River
The source of the Ilovlya River is formed at the confluence of two short streams flowing from a hill, which is considered an element of the Volga Upland. The point of their connection is also localized at an elevation - at an insignificant elevation above sea level. It's right under the P-228 highway. The source of the Ilovlya River is an extremely shallow watercourse 2 meters wide, which after 175 meters falls into a log, connected to a man-made pond 200 meters wide (dam). The conversation turned to the eastern outskirts of the Pervomaiskoye settlement in the Saratov region. The right bank is elevated by almost 2-3 meters.
The mouth of the Ilovlya River enters the Don with a width of 40 m in the territory of the Ilovlinsky district of the Volgograd region. Floodplain thickets are present on both sides. One of them is a residential area and is very flooded (especially in spring). An intricate “pattern” of dirt roads runs along it (this area is popular with vacationers). The other, after a few hundred meters, turns into chalk rises, one of which looks like the head of a mythical ancient Egyptian creature. This is the Sphinx board. And on the opposite edge of the Don rises a steppe terrace above the floodplain. Also with “chalks”.
Ilovlya – Kamenno-Brodsky Monastery
From the last house of Mikhailovka to the turn to Goskonyushnya (this is how the administrative lands of the monastery are still indicated on the map in Soviet style) 1 km. The access road just passes under the Holy Mountain with the catacombs. More on them later.
This is what the hill looks like, on the slope of which there is a portal to the “pechery”
The passage stretches for 1300 m, ending at the gates of the men's monastery. Its full name is Trinity Belogorsky Kamenno-Brodsky Monastery. Entrance (including participation in a tour of the caves of the Holy Mountain and 3 candles) costs 95 rubles. The guide, of course, will not conduct a tour for 2 people. But on Saturday a lot of people show up - “bus riders” and people like us (car pilgrims). So it's a good day.
The complex itself stands on the edge of a densely overgrown ravine (a dried-up tributary of the Ilovlya), the ascent to the Holy Mountain is located from the opposite end of the ravine
The monk-guide meets guests at the gates of the existing religious institution. Then he leads people through the indicated beam equipped with signs and steps - to the mountain.
The dense forest resembles a Central Russian deciduous thicket, rare in the steppe
general description
The Ilovlya River spread 358 kilometers in length. Its maximum width is 60 meters (an artificial expansion under the railway bridge 1.5 km from the Ilovlya-1 station). The average figure does not exceed 40 meters. Area – 9,250 square kilometers. The depth of the flow reaches 3 meters. The water “artery” crosses the Krasnoarmeysky district of the Saratov region, as well as the Kamyshinsky, Olkhovsky and Ilovlinsky districts of the Volgograd region. Direction – south-southwest (flow around the chalk “step” almost along its entire length). The average water flow is 9.6 cubic meters per second. Food is snow and rain. Freeze-up from the first days of December to the last days of March. The peak of the flood occurs in April. The water rise is insignificant. There are about a hundred tributaries (including streams). The largest of them are Shiryai, Olkhovka, Bolshaya Kazanka, Gryaznukha, Berdich and Kamyshinka.
The Ilovlya River is a place where people have lived since ancient times. Traces of the relict population were erased by 3 “Aryan” streams. The last of them are the Scythians and Sauromatians. The upper area in the Middle Ages ended up in the Kingdom of the Burtases (they have 1/3 of Sauromatian blood). During the Iga period and until the end of the 17th century. the entire river is in the hands of Turkic-speaking hordes or fugitive peasants. Only later did the Don people (from the southwest) and the Old Believers (from the northwest) slowly penetrate here. The first Russian description of the Ilovlya River dates back to the end of 1698. It is associated with a military reconnaissance expedition that expelled the last Turks. During the same period, economic use of the Ilovlya River was noted. Also global transport. The small “artery” was connected to the Volga through the isthmus (before that it was used as a portage). Heaps of earth are still visible (they gave the name to the large village). Since the era of the construction of the Tsaritsyn Watch Line, the area has ceased to be borderland. Villages, farmsteads, communities, nunneries and monasteries, fields and watermelon melons appeared. Since then (from the upper reaches to the mouth) the Ilovlya River was part of one of the districts of the All-Great Don Army (after Peter its autonomy was restored), and at the top - the new Volga Cossacks. In some places, the Persian Ataman became the leader (a huge piece of the area between the Olkhovka and Ilovlya rivers was granted to him). The very upper reaches are inhabited by colonists from the German-speaking states of Europe (“Volga Germans”). The middle areas are being developed by Little Russians and peasants of the central provinces. The river valley belonged to the Astrakhan, and at the end - to the Saratov Province (Tsaritsyn in the 19th century headed only the district). During the Civil War, the population was divided into “red” and “white” in equal proportions. During the Second World War, the Ilovlinsky lower reaches found themselves in the theater of military operations. There are memorials everywhere.
Kamenno-Brod "pechers"
A porch leading to cave chapels with cells. Previously, they were part of the women's monastery (they began to belong to men after reconstruction - in the 90s)
During the ascent, the entire floodplain “arboretum” was filmed with a view of the monastery premises.
A typical panorama of the very center of the Volgograd region - floodplain in the steppe
Inside, all the walls are scratched with inscriptions. These are women's names. After all, nuns lived here most of the time. Although the first catacombs (IX century) were for everyone
As I mentioned, the passages have iconostases, inscriptions and niche cells along their length...
This is what one of the many altars looks like.
A separate recreation area on the first floor (the lower 2 are closed to visitors, people from the villages disappeared there) leads to the chapel of St. Nicholas. A monk guide tells a brief history of this saving Orthodox tract, in which the Slavs lived continuously from the 9th century to 1918 (the Bolsheviks drove out the believers from here, and turned the above-ground buildings into stables). The total length of the branches is 200 m. And the temperature is no hotter than 12°C.
After visiting the passages in the Holy Mountain, the 2nd part of the tour began - a hike to 3 consecrated springs (lying right next to a grove of 100-year-old oak trees). Here you can drink and swim... Which our couple took advantage of with pleasure, filling a lemonade bottle.
Springs with silver, radon and hydrogen sulfide (at the last bath)
The “grove” consisted of only 8 oak trees. But they were colossal in size. And everyone is signed.
The most gigantic oak tree. He is not 100, but about 150 years old. I also saw Alexander III
Fishing and hunting on the Ilovlya River
What kind of fish does the Ilovlya River lure tourists with? Fishing will introduce visitors to pike, crucian carp, perch, and ide. White bream, ram, pike perch, catfish, ruff and gudgeon. And sometimes the hook turns out to be carp, bream and topwater bleak (which is what the river predator likes to eat). Fishing from a boat is common. On the fairway you can catch both a chub and a large predator. Fishing is good everywhere on the Ilovlya River. Just avoid getting caught with gear in the buffer water protection zones of the Donskoy Natural Park (there are spawning pits in some creeks here). Do not forget that fishing on the Ilovlya River will lead to the capture of ichthyofauna from the Red Book of Russia - sculpin, Ukrainian lamprey and representatives of sturgeon species. They must be released back immediately. And further. In snags (and the river “body” is famous for it) only a short cast is possible. The river basin in several places predisposes to the riot of voracious perch...
Having talked about the bounty of the Ilovlya River, let’s leave fishing alone. Guests will also be attracted to the Ilovlinsky shores by hunting. First of all, otter and beaver (their presence is indicated by rubble inside the riverbed). The river is famous for its hare, wild boar, steppe polecat and jerboa. There is a wolf (free) and a fox - typical inhabitants of the steppe. They say that a marten has appeared in the local copses more than once. Sometimes a wolverine comes across. There are no larger mammals due to the absence of “indigenous” forests, groves or oak forests. Meadow and swamp-lake hunting makes much more sense. Autumn fishing is especially successful. There are no forbidden areas. In fact, everything that does not belong to the residential sector is a hunting ground. Duck, woodcock and goose are waiting for you. And in the floodplain and in the steppe there are “classic” partridge and quail. Do not forget that all owls, cranes, herons, swans and storks are recorded in the Red Book (they live in especially overgrown creeks and in oxbow lakes near the riverbed). Predators - all of them - are recognized as endangered birds. The local open tracts and chalk peaks are inhabited by burial mounds (buzzards) and white-tailed eagles. No “red books” appeared among the land animals of Ilovlya.
Road to Gusevsky Monastery
Nothing else delayed us in the cult space of the village of Kamenny Brod. We drove onto the Olkhovka-Kamyshin highway. On the road we passed a few residential and commercial buildings of the above-mentioned village and the wooded Olkhovka River.
On the way there were several intersections with the Ilovlya-Petrov Val railway line
The turn to the village of Gusevka is both a railway platform and a bus stop.
From here train or intercity bus passengers get to Gusevka
The entrance to the village is marked by crossing the next bridge over Ilovlya and a stand.
There is a road sign. Water lilies also live in this section of the river bed.
Tourism and recreation on the Ilovlya River
The Ilovlya River is located in the arid zone of temperate climate. Completely in the steppe zone. Although in some places it has dense (but still narrow) areas of floodplain. The Ilovlinsky voyage is typically steppe. Horseback riding, autumn-spring jeeping or winter snowmobile racing, summer and winter fishing, rafting, kayaking or kayaking, search activities and pilgrimages. This is all the leisure time typical of the “Ilovlinsky” corners of the Russian Federation, open to all winds. It remains to add that the following routes lead to the river riviera: Volgograd-Samara (passes through the source), Kalininsk-Zhirnovsk-Kotovo-Kamyshin, Ilovlya-Kamyshin and M-6 “Caspian” (at the turn to the city of Ilovlya). A dozen intra-district (including dirt) roads approach the water's edge. Therefore, the banks of the presented water stream are a paradise for cyclists and trekkers. The railway track crosses the reservoir near the stations Rossosha, Petrov Val, Gusevka, Zenzevatka and Ilovlya.
Most of all, the Ilovlya River will delight fans of horse riding. There is an equestrian club in the town of the same name. Just like in Petrov Val. Air extreme sports are also available (in the last of these agglomerations you can skydive and paraglide). There is a rope park in the administrative center of the Ilovlinsky district.
Beach pastime is relevant everywhere. Even where the “baths” are herbal. Of course, the best spots have long been occupied by parking lots and recreation centers - “Our Turbaza”, “3 Pines” and the tourist stop “Zeleny Gai”. There is more sand at the bottom.
It’s not difficult to arrange an eventful and pilgrimage holiday on the Ilovlya River yourself. On the way you will come across many temples (including the remains of Old Believers). As for festivals, in the town of Ilovlya the main event is considered to be the equestrian festival “Donskaya Zluchina” (all riders must be dressed in Cossack clothes from different times). And in Petrov Val, Stille Nacht (“Silent Night”) is recognized as a long-awaited show...
Full rafting on the Ilovlya River is an excellent example of a 2-week leisure activity that will not cause you any inconvenience. Although extreme sports enthusiasts and lovers of deeper water will not choose the “sleepy” and shallow reservoir described. So, the trip begins at the mouth of Kamyshin (you can really get on the water right in Kamyshin - people come here from Volgograd, Saratov or Samara). According to the recently ennobled episode R-228. At the entrance there is a backwater, 1 riffle, many loops, rubble and beaver dams. The hydrological object is “lazy”. Even in shallow constrictions, the speed barely reaches 8 kilometers per hour. The stretches are generally 4 kilometers long. The water flow is considered wide and “streamless” on most sections of the route. The problem is caused by strong winds, infrequent water intake pipes, concrete spillway sluices and low-lying bridges in large rural municipalities. Another “symbol” of a water trip is a sufficient amount of dry wood (let us repeat that the floodplain is narrow and intermittent, but quite dense; there is enough brushwood for a campfire). But during fire months, video drones can fly. Carefully.
Land of Gusevsky Monastery
A visit to the temple and other beauties of the monastery of the Akhtyrskaya Icon of the Mother of God costs 150 rubles. Behind the fence there is an impressive landscape design and unforgettable views of the facades. You cannot photograph the interior of the temple.
It’s immediately obvious that the monastery is for women – look how many flowers there are
On the opposite side of the territory we found a nice vegetable garden, a pear orchard
Vegetables are watered regularly, and the pears will soon be ripe
And even further we discovered a source with clean underground water (a well and an irrigation hut).
This is what the washing and drinking facilities look like. A well and a building where you can undress to douse yourself with blessed water. And then rub yourself. As soon as we showered ourselves and replenished our supply of useful water, we decided to head back.
