Up in the Carpathians of Transcarpathia lies the largest lake in the Ukrainian mountains, and a legend that explains it. Synevyr, set in a bowl of spruce forest at just under a thousand metres, is said to have been born from the tears of a count's daughter, Syn, who fell in love with a herdsman, Vyr, and was parted from him. Her father killed the young man, and she wept so much that the tears made the lake, which is why its name is Syn-Vyr. Whatever the truth, the lake is beautiful, dark and still, with a small island and a wooden pavilion on its shore, and the National Park around it is among the finest in the Carpathians.
The wildlife is a big part of the draw. The forests hold brown bears, lynx, wild boar and deer, and a rehabilitation centre for bears that were once kept in poor conditions lies close to the lake, a rare place where you can watch them in large enclosures in the woods. The mountains here belong to the Gorgany range, a rough, boulder-strewn group of peaks with dense, trackless forests and screes, among the wildest in Ukraine. The Kolochava valley, a few kilometres away, is a long village of wooden houses stretched along a river, with a small museum devoted to the narrow-gauge railway that once carried timber from these woods.
The road to the lake climbs from the Tereblya valley through steep spruce woods with a slow, winding surface that varies from decent to rough, and in wet weather it can be slippery with mud and gravel. Fog drifts through the trees and summer thunderstorms are sudden and fierce. The best weather comes from June to September, though the mountains can be cold at night even in July. Autumn has strong colours, and winter brings heavy snow.
Practical matters are difficult at present. Since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine has been a war zone, and travellers should check official advice before considering any visit. In normal times, Synevyr, with about four and a half thousand people, and Kolochava, with nearly the same, have basic shops and fuel, and the nearby town of Mizhhirya has more. Local cooking is hearty, with mushroom soups, potato dumplings and sheep's cheese, and a pot of herbal tea is a good ending to a cold evening.