Life in Khrebtovoye near Krasnodar
Only a few year-round residents remain in Khrebtovoye amid seasonal tourist traffic.
The village of Khrebtovoye lies in the Goryachy Klyuch district (Krasnodar Krai), an hour’s drive from Krasnodar, in a scenic spot not far from the Kaverzin waterfalls. Krasnodarstat has population figures for Khrebtovoye only for 2010. Fifteen years ago, 11 people lived here: 4 men and 7 women. The latest census lists only the overall population for Goryachy Klyuch.
We decided to go there to show what village life is like not far from a metropolis. But there is no village here in the usual sense.
«An “awesome guy” Vladimir and the guide Frosya»
If you type Khrebtovoye village into your navigator, it will take you to a gas station with a small shop, next to a roadside café, a toilet, and unfinished brick buildings. It feels less like a village than a small car stopover for tourists heading along the M-4 Don toward the sea. The woman at the gas-station checkout tells us we’ve already passed the turn into Khrebtovoye — we need to go back and turn at the unobtrusive gray obelisk to Soviet soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War (World War II).
We did as told, but saw no village. No adobe houses with stacks of firewood, no House of Culture, no post office, no little grocery. Dense forest is all around, the paths have long since overgrown, tourists’ trash is scattered nearby, and only one road leads across the shallow mountain river Kobza — it is also called Kaverze.
The mountain river runs shallow at this stretch beside the forest road.
After crossing the river, we see a clearing among the trees. Closer up, we notice a vineyard where a woman of about 50 is picking bunches of grapes. Svetlana has come to visit her uncle, Vladimir.
Vladimir’s vineyard produces table grapes used for homemade wine and treats.
Vladimir makes small batches of homemade wine from grapes grown on-site.
Tourists call him «an “awesome guy”» and «a “big-hearted person”». Vladimir runs his farmstead Orekhovaya Roshcha — «Nut Grove». He keeps a bee yard, owns horses, and makes wine. The only official footpath toward the Kaverzin waterfalls runs past his home, so Vladimir has plenty of guests. On his spacious seven-hectare grounds you can leave a car, pitch tents, swim in the river, take a steam bath, and spend the night in a cabin.
Visitors often taste honey from Vladimir’s beehives along the hiking route.
We find Vladimir on the house veranda. From his sleepy eyes it’s clear he has just woken up and, not to keep us waiting, he quickly threw on a shirt. He has lived here since 2000; despite the remoteness from the noisy life many are used to, as Vladimir says himself, «I never get bored here».
«I’ve got so much to do that by lunchtime I’ve already nodded off — I can’t keep up with everything… Right now we’re picking grapes. I’m taking it easy today, but usually there are people here, they swim, there’s noise around,» Vladimir says with a slight smile, rubbing his eyes.
Vladimir and Frosya guide visitors to the trailhead toward the Kaverzin waterfalls.
The man says that besides him just a couple of other people live in Khrebtovoye. It’s a two-hour walk from his house to the popular waterfalls.
«Frosya, will you take them?» the man calls to his dog — a mutt a little taller than a dachshund, with the proud muzzle of a Laika — and gestures toward the forest. Vladimir then briefly explains the route and tells us to watch where Frosya leads.
This exchange, clear only between the two of them, feels like a joke. But the dog really does guide us precisely, following blue markers and choosing the right turns at each fork. From Frosya’s eyes it’s clear she mastered this command long ago.
Ten minutes’ walk from Vladimir’s house, a military burial site remains in the forest, surrounded by a blue corrugated-metal fence. A Victory Banner hangs on a nearby pole, and a plaque on a tree reads: «Here lie soldiers of the 30th Irkutsk Division who fell in fierce battles with Hitler’s invaders for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Motherland».
A fenced wartime burial site from the Eastern Front stands deep in the forest.
A little farther from the gravesite we see a barrier, next to which a sign says the Goryacheklyuchevsky zakaznik (protected area) begins here. It was established in 1958 in the Kaverze River basin. Almost the entire area is covered by broadleaf forest, and among the inhabitants are Caucasian red deer, lynx, roe deer, wild boar, and others. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter them.
Frosya, a clever mongrel, reliably leads groups along waymarked forest paths.
The Goryacheklyuchevsky protected area spans approximately 38,000 hectares of broadleaf forest.
For about an hour we follow Frosya, admiring the wild-forest scenery where yellow leaves are already starting to show on the trees and butterflies sit on the flowers. Suddenly, in the thicket, we see a two-story wooden house on a plot of about a hectare, guarded by three hunting dogs on chains at different sides. Our guide Frosya is not friendly with them and keeps her distance.
A spacious wooden dacha belongs to a local doctor, according to the caretaker.
Dacha of a former deputy and a “mercenary’s” holiday base
A man in long johns and a stretched-out T-shirt emerges from a gatehouse near the main house. This is Alexey, a jack-of-all-trades. He is from Krasnodar but lives here permanently. He says he built «the dacha itself, the chicken coop, and the outhouse».
«I’ve been here about seven or eight years. We pump water from the river, there’s electricity — I’m about to go watch TV — and gas in cylinders. And the only store is that one by the gas station. There are hardly any people here, only tourists. I’m used to it now, but jackals have their conversations right against my wall at night — it’s scary, of course! Especially when there are like ten of them. Though they’ve never attacked me.»
Guard dogs on chains watch the perimeter around the secluded forest house.
According to Alexey, the mountain river often rises so high that it washes away both the beeyard and chicken coops; once the bathhouse even floated downstream to Vladimir’s plot, so now they’ve set it on stilts.
«This summer it’s already come up that high three times — but it’s all those damned Americans,» the man says, laughing.
He has made it to the waterfalls only once; he says the path is no easy one — you have to cross the stream, and «guys and girls break arms and legs».
New riverside guest huts on stilts are being built for future visitors.
As we talk, we try to find out for whom Alexey built the dacha. He gives in and says it was for «the chief venereologist (STD specialist) of Goryachy Klyuch», and earlier «he was a deputy». But our interlocutor never gives a name, joking and changing the subject.
Alexey is now building guest tents on stilts on the riverbank. They plan to start welcoming tourists next year.
Tourism already thrives a little beyond the «venereologist’s dacha», a 20-minute walk along the forest road by a small pond. There’s an open clearing among the trees. On one side is a tourist base; on the other, an apiary. Alexey says it’s his buddy’s place.
«But he’s a “mercenary” — he was in Africa, and now he’s in Ukraine; he has two wounds, two Orders of Courage. Well, he’s gone there a second time now,» the man says.
A small recreation camp operates in a clearing beside a pond and apiary.
«You live here without stress»
Having heard Alexey’s stories about unprepared hikers, we decide to reach the waterfalls another time, when we bring rubber boots and mosquito repellent. We’re already happy with the walk we’ve had.
We tell Frosya we’re heading back, but for several kilometers on the way home she keeps stopping in puzzlement, as if asking why we’re walking not as her owner instructed. Despairing, she turns us around and leads us back.
Frosya pauses on the trail, checking whether the group is following correctly.
On our return Vladimir treats us to wine from his own grapes. But he won’t sell any, saying he’s just «not in the mood» right now. The base’s owner rides to the popular waterfalls on horseback. Asked how much a ride costs, he answers «free», adding: «Not everything in this life has rotted».
A poster by the front-door veranda shows views of his property, a phone number, and the inscription: «peasant farmstead, estate “Orekhovaya Roshcha”». Under it hang diplomas and certificates; in the center is a slightly faded photograph of Vladimir’s wife.
Vladimir’s homestead includes a veranda, guest cabins, a bathhouse, and riverside access.
«The fact that I ended up here is thanks to my wife. When we moved, there was no one here. We lived a very happy life… This is no backwater and no outlying edge — you live here without strain, without awkward encounters, without extra eyes and ears like you have in Krasnodar. I’m very happy here — come more often and you’ll understand what I mean.»
